Battlestar Galactica - The Making Of The President
Virtual Season 6-Episode #4
By Eric Paddon

From The Adama Journals

     It is now more than two sectans since we completed our navigation
through Harkaelian space that resulted in the good news that Commander
Cedric Allen's Harkaelian wife Kalysha was at last able to clear herself
of the charges that had made her a fugitve to begin with.  But despite
their safe return, I have found myself forced to deal with some
repercussions that stemmed from the decision to slow the Fleet done and
give the Allens time to resolve this matter, which took a number of days
to accomplish as they traversed back to a region of space that was far in
our wake.  In addition to the delays it presented to us in resuming our
journey safely to Earth, we also learned from Academician Sarah's
gathering of data from Harkaelian diplomatic exchanges, that the
Harkaelians have had some levels of interaction with the Risik in the
past yahren.  Apparently, the two races fought a minor military skirmish
in the region of space between their respective frontiers that ended in a
marginal Risik victory and resulted in the establishment of a Risik
consulate in the Harkaelain system.  While Captain Byrne and Commander
Allen are insistent they never saw any Risik during their time there, the
publicity surrounding Kalysha's trial and eventual vindication, will
undoubtedly get the attention of the Risik Consulate who inevitably will
pass that information along to their Supreme Leader.  
     This news has had the unfortunate effect of exacerbating the
tensions with Sire Pelias and the Earth natives from Ne'Chak I've been
experiencing these last few sectars.  They were not happy with how events
played out in the efforts to bring Ila home since it brought us back into
known proximity of the Risik once again while we were trailing the
so-called Entity, and this recent experience only seems to reinforce in
their minds a belief that we have not sufficiently put the Risik danger
behind us.  I view it as a misplaced belief.  One that stems from the
nightmares these sixty poor souls feel regarding their past imprisonment,
and the knowledge that from the Risik standpoint, they are escaped
criminals subject to being taken back again in the event they were to
catch up to us and engage us successfully in combat.  Notwithstanding our
past triumphs against them, there is a general acknowledgment that our
military victories were the result of superior firepower against a
limited number of Risik spacecraft, technically inferior to our own.  A
mass concentration of Risik ships against us would present a more
formidable challenge and the Risik dissident Melnea has confirmed that
the Risik population is more than capable of being mobilized into a crash
building program that could let them produce mass quantities of military
ships in a matter of a few yahrens. 
     The renewal of these political squabbles has me on the verge of
finally accepting Ila's long-standing offer that I step aside from the
Council and Presidency so that she can take my place and seek the
Presidency for herself.  I admire so much her desire to do this for my
sake, and I recognize that it's the perfect opportunity for her to
establish herself in a meaningful position here in the Fleet.  Ila
invested so much of herself in the hard and difficult tasks of being part
of the Resistance movement on Caprica, and then as Commander Cain's
political advisor.  She's not ready for a life of retirement rooted
solely in playing with our grandchildren.  My reluctance is based only on
my fear that if she does replace me on the Council and seeks the
Presidency, she may not prevail in the latter effort.  I can already
envision the potential backlash that might erupt, even on a Council that
is free from the likes of Antipas and Lydia.  And if she failed to
succeed, the Presidency might end up in the hands of someone who might
prove to be more difficult for me to handle as Fleet Commander.  Still, I
don't see how I can hold back much longer because Ila, after nearly two
sectars of acclimating herself to life in the Fleet, is ready for the
challenge.  If her restless spirit isn't satisfied, it could produce our
very first issue of marital conflict since our reunion!
     On a brighter note, we may be close to seeing direct communication
between ourselves and the Colonies established at long last.  We know
through Lieutenant Hunley's telepathic contacts with her cousin Anders on
Gemon that Cain is still in the Colonies with his wife Captain Kylie, the
chief Cylon from the Pegasus, Commander Cobre, and several Theta
technicians from Dr. Ravashol's community to try and get a new
communications system in place.  Because things are secure for the
Pegasus at Arcta, with their XO, Colonel Tolen in acting command, Cain
has extended his visit and is determined to remain until the
communications link is in place. Because this represents a fundamentally
new system being built, and because it is being built in proximity to an
existing long-range communication system on Libra that lets Governor
Malus communicate with the Cylon Home System, special care must be taken
to make sure that any communications from the Colonies to the Pegasus and
to us are not intercepted by the Cylon receivers in the Home System.  If
Cain is to have any hope of using the Pegasus to take the fight at long
last to the Cylon Home System, surprise must be maintained until the last
possible micron.  The Imperious Leader must not have the slightest
inkling the Pegasus lives, just as he must not know that ten of the
Colonies are now in Human hands once again, while the other two are now
under the control of Enlightened Cylons who have renounced all allegiance
to the High Command, even as Governor Malus maintains the fiction of
loyalty to keep any of the remaining baseships from being sent out. 

Chapter One

Caprica
     It had been over seven yahrens since Cain had last handled the
controls of a hovermobile. And yet, it all came back to him with relative
ease the instant he got it moving.  The only thing that concerned him was
whether this ancient device would still function since it had been idle
since the night of the Destruction.  Left abandoned like many other
hovermobiles along the highway arteries throughout Caprica when frantic
survivors of the Cylon attack realized that traffic patterns made them an
impediment to reaching an aerodrome facility and the prospect of getting
off the planet safely.  But Cain found this model, that looked to have
been relatively new at the time it was abandoned, in good working order. 
It still had a full tank of tylium and that meant it would get him and
Kylie to where he wanted to go.  To the site of his house, situated on an
isolated bluff on the continent's eastern shore.  Even though it was over
a thousand kilometrones away from Caprica City, which was closer to the
continent's western shore, hovermobiles and skybuses had always made the
distance an irrelevance.  It was only the absence of such craft that
brought the distances back into sharp relief once again and why this part
of Caprica had remained an unknown factor to Ila and the member of the
Resistance during their period underground.
     Now though, things were changing.  Peace had come to Caprica and the
other nine colonies still fit for human living.  The Resistance movements
had come out of their bunkers and hiding places and were slowly beginning
the process of planetary reclamation.  Cylon occupational forces had
withdrawn completely to the two planets ceded to them, Libra and
Aquarius, under the terms of the Peace Treaty with the Enlightened
faction.  The only exceptions were those who manned the central aerodrome
facilities for each planet.  In these early sectars following the peace
treaty, the primary goals for each planet was to make a full assessment
of which areas were more ripe for redevelopment, and to also try and make
contact with the other pockets of survivors throughout their respective
planets who were unaware of the Resistance, or the fact that peace had
now come.  The more pockets of survivors that could be found, the better
the long-term chances for each planet to make further process in
recovery.  
     During the two centar ride from the Caprica City environs to the
eastern continent's shoreline, Cain and Kylie had seen many signs of the
Destruction that Cylon occupation forces had not bothered to attend to. 
Collapsed buildings and many more burnt-out shells.  Unattended roads
with weeds and other plants now growing through cracks in the surface. 
Other areas that were undamaged showed the effects of over four yahrens
abandonment.  Once or twice they spotted signs of the human tragedy in
the form of skeletal remains on the side of a road, but no signs of the
living ever revealed themself.
     The back road that led to Cain's house, which was located on a high
bluff overlooking the ocean was still intact, but he found himself forced
to stop the hovermobile just short of the driveway because two trees had
fallen and blocked the entrance.  He turned off the engine and looked up
the sloping hillside.  
     To his amazement, the house was still there.  Superficially it
looked undamaged and exactly the way he'd last seen it seven yahrens ago,
during his last furlon.
     "That's it," he broke the silence.  "It's still there."
     Kylie slowly opened the door and climbed out of the hovermobile. 
The breeze off the ocean whipped through the thick mullet of her hair and
she found herself putting a hand above her eyes to shield the glare.  The
house was more impressive than she'd expected it to be.
     "In a way, it was really more Bethany's house than mine," Cain said
as he came up alongside his second wife.  "The money she made as an
actress paid for it more than my salary as a warrior did.  But she knew
how much privacy I wanted on a furlon so I could spend the time with her
and Sheba and not have any other outside distractions.  That's why this
place was perfect.  I didn't have to worry about inquisitive neighbors
bothering me when I just wanted to be with the people I loved. 
And.....thank the Lords for fast hovermobile travel, so we could keep in
touch with friends like Adama and Ila."
     "It looks impressive," she acknowledged.  For Kylie, who'd grown up
in a Taurean orphanage, the idea of living in a big house was something
that existed only in her dreams.
     Stepping over the downed trees, they made their way up the incline. 
The closer they got to the house, the more they could see signs of
neglect and damage that distance had concealed.  Overgrown bushes in
front of the house that now crept up past the bottom sections of the
front windows.  Peeling paint that would have ordinarily been treated and
touched up by a professional service every couple yahrens.  An outdoor
food grill, now corroded from yahrens of neglect and exposure to the salt
air.  When they reached the front door, Cain took a breath and tested it
to see if it was unlocked.  He had brought a key to his house with him
that he'd kept all these yahrens on the Pegasus just in case he might
ever need it again.  Not so this time, as the door opened, though it
noisily creaked from clearly corroding hinges.
     They stepped into a wide foyer.  Immediately, Cain realized that the
decor was totally unfamiliar to him.  Familiar wall coverings were gone
and where there should have been a carpet, there was only a bare floor. 
When he made a hard left turn into what had been the main living room, he
saw unfamiliar furniture, some of it faded from direct exposure to
sunlight coming through the windows and all of it covered in a layer of
dust.
     "They sold it," he finally added things up.
     "Sold it?" Kylie frowned.
     "I should have realized it," he chuckled without mirth, "After the
Battle of Molocay, when everyone thought we were dead.....that meant the
house was officially vacant.  The firm that was handling the legal
affairs of my estate would have arranged for the house to be sold.  All
this furniture belonged to.....whoever moved in afterwards."
     Kylie walked over towards a compact sized spinet.  Several
holopictures were resting on the top, each one coated in a layer of dust. 
She picked one up and studied it.  It showed a young couple probably just
under thirty and with them were three children, one boy, two girls,
ranging in age from probably two to seven yahrens old with the youngest
of them seated on the mother's lap.  She held it up for Cain to look at.
     "I don't know them," he shook his head, "It was clearly an open sale
to whoever wanted to buy the place."
     "I wonder what happened to them," his wife sighed as she put the
picture back on top of the spinnet.  "Did they survive?  Did they make it
to the Galactica?  Or are they......?"
     "Somewhere among the slave laborers spirited away to the Cylon Home
System to dig for Neutrino?" he finished with a grim air.  "We may never
know.  So many people, so many lives with stories disrupted forever the
night the attack happened.  Something I don't think any of us can ever
really comprehend since.....we weren't here when it happened."
     "I know," Kylie sighed, "It took me quite a long time to get over
the guilt about that."
     "I don't think it ever left me completely," Cain come up alongside
her and looked about the living room and tried to connect it with the
home he'd once known.  But the changed decor was suddenly making it hard
to do so.  "That was why I could never contemplate joining Adama on the
quest for Earth.  I always felt like there was some.....unfinished
business I had to take care of to make up for the fact that I wasn't here
when all this happened."
     "And you were right," Kylie touched his arm.  "There was unfinished
business.  If you'd stayed with Adama.....Ila's shuttle never would have
reached us and we never would have learned about Enlightenment in the
rest of the Cylon Empire.  It was the best decision you could have made. 
Even with......the costs that came with it."
     "Just like there is for any command decision," Cain looked around. 
"I wanted you to see this place because......in the back of my mind, I
was thinking of telling you that maybe one day, after we've finally
finished off what's left of the Empire, this could be the place where you
and I could......" he broke off and shook his head wistfully.
     "Spend our golden years together?" she smiled thinly and looked
about the room, "I'm flattered, Cain.  I really am.  But.....this house
is a little too big for just.....you and me.  I've made peace with the
fact that I can never have children.  But keeping that peace I think is
going to mean finding more suitable quarters for us when the time comes
and the Pegasus isn't our primary home any longer."
     "I understand," he sighed, "I guess it was just a silly dream of
mine.  To try and recapture something from the past.  I didn't get to use
this house enough with Bethany and Sheba because I was away from home so
much.  I figured that....maybe with you it could be different. 
But.....you're right, this is the kind of home that requires a family." 
His eyes then locked on the holopictures on the spinet, "Like them. 
Whoever they were.  And now that I've seen that they made this place
their own home.....it makes me feel like an intruder now."
     "At least now you know," Kylie said.  "It's good you came here if
this gives you....closure of some kind."
     Before he could say anything, the beeping sound of the comline
inside his jacket pocket sounded.  As he moved off to answer it, Kylie
found herself looking about the spacious living room once again with a
sense of.....unease.  Even though she'd never been here before, she
suddenly realized there was something familiar about the place to her.
     Of course.  That vision Iblis's female minion made me see
about.....the future she said I could have had.  When I saw myself ten
yahrens from now holding the children I could have had.  It was here.  In
this place.  I know it was.  I had a little boy who looked just like
Cain, and a little girl.......
     She shook her head and pushed the memory of that horrible experience
back.  She had made her peace with the fact that her decision to give up
having children so she could free Ensign Wynn from the bondage of the
demon figure Count Iblis was the right one.  A decision that had to be
made or else the cost would have been beyond anything Kylie could have
asked for.  Ever since her memory of that experience had been restored ,
she no longer had lonely moments asking the Lords why the chance to have
children with Cain had been taken from her.  Now she knew it had come as
a result of a test that required her to make the ultimate command
decision.  And she knew she had made the right one.  She never let
herself ask why she'd been put in that position.  She only thanked the
Lords she'd been able to get Wynn back from a fate too horrible for
anyone to comprehend.  A fate that Wynn thankfully still had no memory
of, and which he'd stopped trying to remember.  Especially now that he'd
finally returned to duty as a Viper pilot.
     But there was still one thing about that experience that puzzled
Kylie.  Her memory of the event was now clear and vivid in every respect
except for one thing.  Try as she could, she couldn't recall the name of
Iblis's female minion.  Or what she'd looked like.  As if that part of
her memory had been selectively edited to leave out those two critical
details when the rest of her memory had been restored.  The only thing
she remembered was a haughty-sounding demeanor and attitude, constantly
mocking her.  And she remembered how that attitude had disappeared when
Kylie found a way to defeat her master by ensuring that once Wynn was
freed, he would remain freed from all time with no hidden claim to go
back into effect at a future date. But the face and the name was gone
completely.
     Strange.  As if there was a reason for that, just like there seems
to be a reason why Cain doesn't remember what he saw when he was down in
that cave watching me go through that experience.  He knows he had to be
there, but he can't remember a thing and he's had no dreams of
recollection like I got with mine.
     She knew her husband didn't dwell on the subject, and for that she
was grateful.  The two of them, as husband and wife, had managed to put
the trauma of that experience behind them and it allowed them to
concentrate first on the tasks that faced them as commander and captain
without any needless distractions.  Even so, Kylie was sure that somehow,
someday the missing gaps were going to be filled in.  But that, she
reasoned, was all in the hands of the Lords.
     "Well, we've got to get going," Cain said as he came back to her and
put his com-line back in his pocket.  "Commander Deval says they want to
run the first test of the communications link to the Pegasus this
afternoon, and then we'll be relayed to the Galactica.  They'll stand-by
and wait for us to get back so if we leave now we'll be there in two
centars."
     "Their timing is perfect," Kylie said, "I think I've seen enough of
the place."
     "So have I," Cain looked about it one last time.  "I.....don't think
I'll be coming back."
     His wife took a final look and let out a rueful sigh.  This would
have been a great place to raise a family.  And then, she followed him
out.

The Pegasus
     For over a sectar since Cain had left for Caprica aboard the fast
shuttle, Colonel Tolen had been 'holding the fort' aboard the Pegasus,
which remained in orbit above the ice planet Arcta.  In that time, there
had been constant shuttling of tech personnel from Dr. Ravashol's colony
of Theta-class life forms to and from the battlestar to take readings on
how to adapt her for new weapons systems.  In particular, an adaptation
of the pulsar weapon at the top of Mt. Hekla to be installed in the
battlestar's long-empty missile tubes.  There was general agreement that
without a weapon of such firepower, the Pegasus had little hope of one
day taking on the four baseships that were known to be guarding the Cylon
Home System.  
     It was also a time to do some long overdue basic maintenance and
retrofits for a ship that had last been overhauled nearly seven yahrens
ago before the Battle of Molocay.  Once again, the infusion of personnel
from Dr. Ravashol's colony of human clones had proved invaluable.  And
additional support was coming from the Enlightened Cylons at the base as
well.  Even though Commander Vulpa had left them and was now in the
Galactica fleet, his legacy remained in the devotion the base personnel
had to the cause of Enlightenment.
     That was also true of the over 500 surviving Cylons from the
renegade BaseShip that had been commanded by the late IL Cylon, Commander
Dagora.  After murdering their commander, those centurions led by Command
Centurion Echis had agreed to integrate themselves to the Enlightened
authority on Arcta.  Their damaged BaseShip lay permanently berthed on
the planet surface where its components were being slowly dismantled and
salvaged for use in the Mt. Hekla base, as well as for potential use
aboard the Pegasus, to aid in her much-needed refit.  
     As Tolen looked across the Bridge, he could see one example of that
newfound Enlightenment from the BaseShip crew sitting at the Bridge
station for the helm and scanners.  That had once been the position held
by Kylie for over six yahrens until her promotion to Senior Bridge
Officer (following Major Ham's decision to stay behind on Cannes Two)
resulted in the Night Shift officer, Jacks, moving to her position on the
Main Watch.  But Jacks had been the lone casualty of the recent
engagement with the Baseship creating a void that no one else aboard the
Pegasus was capable of filling.  So they had turned to the Cylon crew
from the BaseShip and now, one of the Centurions who had been responsible
for helm and scanner operations there was serving on the Pegasus.  He had
been renamed Achillas and he had also been the first centurion from the
BaseShip to be reprogrammed with a human voice by the Pegasus Chief
Electronics Scientist, Dr. Arnoff.  Although the Pegasus was already used
to Enlightened Cylons working in the Lab, and flying with them in combat,
this was the first time a Cylon had been assigned to the Bridge and it
had taken some adjusting on the part of the Bridge Crew.  But they had
kept their instinctive uneasiness to themselves (as Tolen had firmly
ordered them to) and after a full sectar, the centurion named Achillas
had come to be accepted as part of the team.
     The last sectar had also been a time for Tolen to build his
confidence as a commander, capable of handling things during Cain's
extended absence.  In all the yahrens he'd served on the battlestar, he'd
never had this kind of opportunity before, and for too long he'd never
thought he'd be capable of rising to this kind of challenge and
responsibility.  The last yahren, starting with the operation on Delta
Aquinas and then the arrival of Professor Ila had changed things for him
in that he'd gained more confidence as the Executive Officer, and found
himself unafraid to speak his mind to Cain any longer.  He had also come
through in an acting command situation at Terra when he devised the plan
that had rescued Cain and Ila from the Eastern Alliance leader,
Commandant Leiter.  But sustained command responsibility for an extended
period was something else entirely.  That meant being on top of all the
bureaucratic functions that went with command and not just being combat
ready.  As an XO he had the ability to study such things and advise Cain,
but now he had to act on all that himself.  Overall, he'd found it less
difficult than he'd expected and now, he was totally at ease with
handling the mundane aspects of command.
     In addition to the mundane aspects of command, it was up to Tolen to
handle all negotiations with Dr. Ravashol and the titular head of the
Cylon forces, the former Cyon Ambassador to Starlos, Orcus.  The DG Class
Cylon represented something quite different from the Cylons Tolen had
dealt with before, not just from a class standpoint, but because Orcus
was something of a reluctant convert to the Enlightened side.  Initially,
he had been part of the scheme with the late IL Cylon Dagora to use their
BaseShip to overthrow the Imperious Leader for his ineffectiveness in
halting the decline of Cylon losses, but when Dagora's ambitions grew too
large for Orcus's taste, he had backed off somewhat, and then during the
course of the battle between Dagora's BaseShip and the Pegasus, he had
tried to escape to Arcta, only to be taken hostage by a group of escaped
human prisoners from Starlos as they made their escape from the BaseShip. 
Brought before Cain and Commander Vulpa, Orcus had accepted the situation
and had openly repudiated his allegiance to the High Command.  Then, when
contact had been made with the Imperious Leader to give him a false
account of events (and preserve the illusion that the Arcta garrison was
still loyal to the High Command), Orcus had been able to sell a false
version of events that resulted in the Cylon ruler permanently assigning
him to the garrison.  Then, following the elaborately staged deception on
Caprica to convince the Imperious Leader that Vulpa had been assassinated
by Caprican Resistance Leader Ila, the Cylon Ruler had made Orcus the new
commander of the facility.  But the only real authority Orcus had was to
handle any communications that came from the Cylon Home System and to
continue giving the Cylon Ruler false reports that would keep him
satisfied.  And because not every centurion was convinced that Orcus had
committed himself to the cause, any time Orcus spoke with the High
Command, two centurions outside camera range would always have their
lasers pointed at the DG Cylon's head. Just to make sure the former
ambassador to Starlos never said something he wasn't supposed to say that
might tip the Imperious Leader off that Arcta had already gone the way of
Gomorrah and Cannes as permanent losses for the Empire.
     The question of whether Orcus would stay in line was the one thing
that had made Tolen slightly apprehensive about Cain leaving for what was
likely going to be upwards of a full sectar or more.  He knew Cain's
reputation carried weight among all Cylons and the Juggernaut had a way
with words that would undoubtedly make Orcus think twice about ever
pulling a double-cross, even in an act of martyrdom.  Tolen though,
didn't carry that kind of reputation as the unknown XO of the Pegasus. 
Would Orcus take a chance on martyrdom if it meant that Tolen, and not
Cain would have to deal with the consequences of a possible strike on
Arcta from the remaining BaseShips in the Cylon Home System? 
     One sectar later, that slight area of apprehension had dissipated. 
There was no question in Tolen's mind that Orcus saw his decision to cast
lots with the cause of Enlightenment as irrevocable.  Apparently the
discrimination DG class Cylons had been subjected to over the last few
centuries had much to do with that, as they'd been frozen out of the top
leadership positions entirely.  The only lingering concern was whether
over time, Orcus would be able to sustain that commitment and not crack
under pressure.  The danger of a conscious betrayal had passed, but it
was always possible that Orcus would be more prone to a slip-up that
could give away the truth to the Imperious Leader.  In that respect, the
concern would never go away completely.  But Tolern had learned to accept
that minuscule danger, and as a result, he felt he'd chased away any
doubt within himself that he could handle every aspect of commanding the
Pegasus if the burden ever fell on his shoulders.  
     Not that I think it's going to fall on my shoulders, he thought idly
as he made his rounds on the Bridge.  Cain's come this far that I can't
believe the Lords don't intend for him to see how this all plays out.  He
has to be the one who leads the final strike on the Home System.  It's
his destiny. 
     "Colonel Tolen?" the voice of Bridge Officer Altair from the
Communications station called out.
     The Acting Commander went over to the upper level railing so he
could look down at him.  "Yes, Altair?"
     "The Galactica is calling."
     "Thank you, Altair.  Put it through to my terminal."
     Tolen went back to the command chair and without any
self-consciousness sat down in it so he could talk to the faraway
Battlestar.  The instant linkage from so far away never ceased to amaze
Tolen even though it had been in place for more than a yahren now. 
Without this miraculous gift drawn from the lost technology of their
Kobollian forebears, everything in the lives of the Galactica, the
Pegasus and the Colonies would be dramatically different in ways that
Tolen didn't want to comprehend.
     "Good afternoon, Colonel Tolen," Adama said pleasantly as his face
filled the screen.  "Lieutenant Hunley has a new message from the
Colonies.  They're going to be performing a test of the new
communications system within the next few centons."
     "Thank you, Commander," Tolen acknowledged.  "We'll stand by.  We've
split our com-lines so that we can handle dual messages from multiple
long-range sources.  That means we should be able to relay anything from
them to you if you can't pick them up yourselves."
     "We appreciate that.  At this point, we're not sure the receiver
system on our BaseShip can handle the load of dual source messages
simultaneously without causing critical power drain issues.  Our
Electronics specialist Dr. Wilker would prefer to know how you're
handling that kind of load before we explore our next option on how to
handle multiple transmission."
     "I realize your primary receiver is on the BaseShip and it just
relays the transmission directly to the Galactica," Tolen said.  "Haven't
you considered constructing an independent receiver on the Galactica?"
     "We have," Adama admitted.  "But the problem is that we don't have
the technical specifications on how the receivers aboard the BaseShip
were constructed.  We'd have to dismantle it in order to duplicate their
model, whereas constructing relay links from there to the Galactica was a
simple procedure by contrast.  That's why we're anxious to find out if
this system Dr. Ravashol's constructed for the Colonies will work,
because then we can go by his blueprints you've sent us previously for
building a backup receiver here on the Galactica."
     "I understand."
     "I'm going to turn things over to my wife now, since if you do pick
up their signal and can tie us in, she should be the one they hear
first."
     Adama moved out of the way and microns later, Ila had taken his
place in the chair behind his desk.
     "Hello, Professor!" Tolen smiled and waved at her.
     "Hello, Colonel!" Ila waved back.  "And how is everything aboard the
Pegasus?"
     "Well, we're coming along fine with our retrofit.  Thanks to that
BaseShip we downed, we've been able to upgrade some of our more neglected
components from the last few yahrens.  It's hard work but Chief Abednego
and Master Chief Livia are getting the job done." he then added, "Livia
and Bremer send their regards to you."
     "Tell them thanks, and I'm glad they're doing fine," Ila said,
feeling grateful that the troubled man named Bremer, whom Ila had been
able to talk out of a suicidal act of self-destruction, had found
happiness with the woman who had loved him from a distance for some time. 
"I miss all my friends on the Pegasus."
     "We miss you too, Professor, but we're glad you're where you should
be now."
     "Colonel!" Altair called over.
     "All right, I think this is it!" Tolen's voice rose in anticipation. 
"I'm activating our com-line tie-in so let me know if you're able to hear
what we'll be able to see and hear." 
     The Executive Officer activated the adjoining monitor on his station
and saw the bending image of an initial signal that quickly gave way to a
clear image.  The resolution wasn't as sharp as how the image aboard the
Galactica looked but it was quite distinct.  He could see seated in
chairs the unmistakable forms of Cain, Kylie and one other man.
     "Colonel?" Cain spoke, his voice distinct, "We see you.  Can you see
and hear us?"
     "We copy you perfect, Commander!" Tolen felt a wave of relief that
this hurdle had been cleared.  "Professor, can you hear?"
     "I hear everything!" Ila said with bubbling exuberance, "Cain, do
you hear me?  We can't see you but Tolen's got us tied in on audio."
     "I hear you perfect, Ila!" Cain grinned, "I'll let an old friend of
yours say hello!" he motioned to the man on the right.
     "Ila, this is Deval.  It's so good to hear your voice!" the
Commander of the Caprican Resistance was overjoyed.
     "Oh, Deval, this is wonderful," Ila had to hold the emotion back in
her lest she break down.  She was used to talking to her old friends on
the Pegasus after more than two sectars since leaving, but now that the
ability to talk to old friends in the Colonies had been restored, it
meant something even more special.  "I've hoped and prayed for this
moment ever since I left."
     "So have we," Deval said, "Grateful as we are to Anders and
Lieutenant Hunley for keeping us informed, it means a lot to be able to
talk to you direct from now on.  This is going to help our morale even
more when it comes to our rebuilding efforts."
     "We're so glad that's coming along, Deval." Ila felt her composure
coming back.  "How's everyone else doing?"
     "We're doing fine, Ila.  A lot of us have started to move back to
the surface and live in some undamaged buildings that have been
reconnected to the power grid.  You'll be interested to know that Zakiya
is teaching instructional classes to over fifty children who come from
three different groups of people in hiding we were completely unaware of
all this time."
     "Give Zakiya my love.  There haven't been any complications as far
as the Treaty is concerned?"
     "None whatsoever," the Caprican leader said, "I'll let Commander
Cain take over on that point.  He and Commander Cobre have had several
meetings with Governor Malus, and they've been very productive."
     "Yes, well I think the fact that Governor Malus is aware of how
closely I worked with you, Ila, has been the key to our ability to get
along," Cain said with an air of modesty that hadn't existed in the
yahrens before Ila's arrival on the Peagsus.  "Our high regard for your
way with diplomacy gave us something to bond together on.  Of course, it
also helps that Commander Cobre has vouched for how well the Enlightened
Cylons on the Pegasus have been treated.  All of our conversations on
setting up an integrated military command structure once the Pegasus
comes to the Colonies have gone as well as you could have expected."
     "Have you reached any formal agreements?" Ila inquired.
     "I wouldn't say we have a formal agreement in place yet, because we
think that should wait until the Pegasus is here, and that may still be
quite a few sectars off, if not a whole yahren.  I know Colonel Tolen's
kept you and Adama up-to-date on the retrofits that have been taking
place at Arcta, but ideally I think the Pegasus should remain there until
there's no question that every loose end involving retrofit and the
installation of new weaponry is finished.  The only thing that could
change those plans is if, God forbid, the High Command decided to
dispatch one of their remaining BaseShips to the Colonies.  But Malus has
kept things under control with the Imperious Leader.  That fake
assassination you staged of Vulpa, and your fake capture and execution
really went a long ways in boosting Malus's stock with the Leader.  He
trusts him completely now."
     "And Ambassador Orcus has kept his word and is playing his role with
the Imperious Leader here," Tolen chimed in.  "I think there's no
question the High Command's been neutralized into thinking their control
over Arcta and the Colonies is still stable."
     "I guess the only thing that could change that, is if, God forbid,
they overcame their problem with Neutrino mining," Ila said.
     "Yes," Cain acknowledged, "That is the one unknown variable we have
to be concerned with.  If they were able to resume construction on new
BaseShips, the results would be catastrophic.  But here again is where
Imperious Leader's newfound trust in Malus has paid a dividend.  He think
Malus is on top of the situation, so there's no need to contemplate
weakening his defensive perimeter in the Home System, which he's clearly
more obsessed with.  Even if he's able to resume building BaseShips, he
still won't see the need to send one out."
     "Well I'm glad the situation on your end is stable, along with that
of the Pegasus," Ila said.  "That really helps keep my mind at ease.  I
think the only other thing I'd like to know at this point, Deval, is if
you have any new lists of other survivors who have emerged from hiding
since the Peace Treaty was implemented?"
     "I'm afraid I can't pass along any reports just yet, Ila," Deval
spoke up.  "We're not ready to test this device's ability to transmit
text, video or audio files.  We'll probably need another sectan or two
before we're ready to do that.  I'm assuming Anders has told you that we
have found collectively on all ten worlds, over five thousand additional
survivors.  At first, most of them were individual people or small
families living in the basement shelters of their own homes.  We're only
now starting to see larger colonies that we were unaware of, that number
in the low hundreds, emerging too."
     "And we can't lose sight of the fact that over four hundred thousand
survivors from all twelve worlds were taken to the Cylon Home System to
work in the Neutrino mines," Cain added.  "That's the biggest reason why
we have to take the war to their backyard eventually.  Even if we have to
condemn them to another yahren or two of suffering before the time is
right."
     Adama, who was listening to all of this, found himself amazed at how
accepting Cain was of the need for caution and prudence before initiating
a strike on the Cylon Home System, especially with so many human lives
hanging in the balance.  The old Cain would have impulsively zeroed in on
the human imperative of freeing prisoners from horrible suffering as
quickly as possible.  The new Cain, the one who had learned so much from
Ila's influence, was willing to wait if that was what it took to
guarantee success.
     "Well, I guess that summarizes the big picture on all fronts," Tolen
re-entered the conversation.  "How's the power level on your end?"
     "Just a micron," Deval said as he looked off to one side where his
deputy, Colonel Antony was studying a computer monitor.  He waited to
hear an answer from the Colonel and then looked back into the camera. 
"So far, we're showing a ten percent drain on power.  We should probably
wrap this up in the next couple centons."
     "What about the power on your end, Tolen?" Cain asked, "Any
complications from operating two links at once?"
     "We're showing an additional drainage rate by eight percent above
the normal level," the Pegasus XO said.  "Clearly we can't make a habit
of this.  It's great to know the system is in place, but overuse would
force us to recharge at a more dangerous rate."
     "All right, then for now let's confine direct contact messaging to
no more than fifteen centons at the maximum, and ten centons for linked
contact with the Galactica," the Juggernaut said.  "Hopefully when we
think the system can handle message file transmission, that will smooth
things further."
     "What about your timetable for returning, sir?" Tolen asked.  
     "Well.....I'd say maybe in under a sectan.  If the message file
system isn't in place, then I may have the Theta technicians remain
behind until the next fast shuttle comes here.  They're prepared to do
that if necessary, but I think now that Commander Cobre has served his
role of helping Governor Malus understand what the situation is with the
Cylons in our ranks on the Pegasus, he should get back to Arcta as soon
as possible, along with Kylie and me.  Our next direct transmission to
you will be to let you know that we're preparing to return."
     "Yes, sir.  Professor, is there anything else you want to ask before
we end this transmission?"
     "Well, just a couple personal things," the blonde Academician said. 
"First, my best wishes to Kylie and I hope this trip to the Colonies has
been productive for her as well."
     "It has!" Kylie chimed in.  She knew that because of her lower rank,
she wouldn't get much of a chance to say anything in this conversation,
but she was glad she could get in just a couple words with the woman she
had come to love like a sister, and who had helped play the role of
matchmaker between her and Cain.  "When I get back to the Pegasus Ila,
I'll send you a full video text on everything I've done here."
     "I'll look forward to that," Ila smiled warmly. "And Deval.....my
love and best to you, and to Zakiya, Antony and Lords.....so many others
I wish I had time to name and I wish I could talk to, but.....maybe in
time this system will become more advanced that it can make longer
conversations easier."
     "Lords willing, Ila," Deval said.  "We all miss you.  But I speak
for every Resistance movement on every planet that we're glad you're back
with your family.  I think the only other thing we're anxious to know is
how your other passengers are doing?"
     "I'm glad you asked.  When message file relay is possible, Mattoon
and Abby have a special video for you.  I'll keep the details a surprise
for when that time comes, but.....you can be sure it's everything you'd
expect it to be."
     "I'm so happy for them.  I miss Abby but I know she's where she
belongs with her father. What about.....the mystery man from Sagittaria,
Aurelius?"
     "Well, things have worked out better for him than we could have
anticipated!" Ila explained, "His facial surgery was a success, and he's
found work helping with the viper launch crews.  He's also become good
friends with my entire family, especially my grandson, Boxey.  The two of
them spent time next to each other in the Life Station recently and they
really hit it off and now my son Apollo and his wife Sheba try to have
dinner with him once a sectan.  I think the change in scenery was exactly
what he needed.  The Colonies clearly have too many painful memories for
him."
     "Yes, Melchior told me Aurelius and Dr. Lyra were bonding with each
other before she got killed in that Cylon suicide attack that disfigured
him," he paused, "Has he opened up more about his background?"
     "Not about why he was in suspended animation," Ila admitted.  "If he
committed a crime though, it's not relevant at this point.  We've already
approved full amnesty for all pre-Destruction crimes.  If he wants to
tell us someday, we can wait on that." 

The Galactica
     After the connection was broken, Ila let out a slow exhale.  Adama
could tell she'd been overwhelmed by the experience of being able to talk
to Deval again.
     "It does make it easier to put your leaving in perspective, doesn't
it?" 
     "It does," his wife nodded, "It really does.  And it also helps to
know that they're getting along just fine without me."
     "You always knew they could.....after you set things up for them,"
Adama gently squeezed her hand. "Just like I know that.....you're ready
to take on your next challenge in life."
     Ila looked at him, "You mean.....?"
     "Yes," Adama nodded firmly, "I'm calling a Council meeting for
tomorrow.  And.....we'll set that whole process in motion."
     Slowly, she nodded her head.
     "I'm ready." Ila said simply.

Chapter Two

     As Siress Tinia made her way into the empty Council Chamber, she had
an inkling that this was not going to be an ordinary meeting.  Typically,
when Adama sent out word to the members that there would be an
unscheduled meeting, he usually as a courtesy explained the primary
reason for having it.  And to those who were Adama's allies, as Tinia
was, there was usually a great deal of additional information that would
be passed along in advance to help them prepare for the likely objections
that would arise.
     Not so this time.  This time Adama's announcement had been terse and
offered no details.  Only that a special meeting would be convened at
1000 and that all members, without exception, needed to be present.
     I miss the breakfasts I used to have with him, she sighed as she
took her seat.  Those were times when they could bounce things off each
other as friends with total candor and openness.  The memory of their
clash during the Eastern Alliance affair long forgotten as they now had
an underlying bond of trust that served them well when it came to Council
matters.  But all of that had come to an abrupt end with the first
contact with the Pegasus and the revelation that Adama's wife Ila was
alive and well.  At that moment, Tinia knew she could never have another
private breakfast with Adama again because with Ila alive, it would only
generate gossip of a kind she knew Adama didn't need..  That was
something they both knew and understood, even though they never brought
the subject up.  Nor would Tinia ever bring it up since she was from that
point on determined to bury every feeling she'd once carried in her heart
for Adama that she'd hoped might one day be reciprocated.
     Looking back, Tinia knew they were both fortunate that Adama had
never responded to her subtle advances at the breakfasts.  As if somehow,
there had always been a sixth sense inside him that he needed to remain
true and faithful to his wife.  If any kind of relationship between them
had developed, and then Adama had to confront the reality of Ila still
being alive......the results would have been devastating.  Not just for
Adama and Tinia personally, as well as Adama's children, but it could
have also had an impact on Adama's ability to lead effectively.
     Lydia would have loved it if that had happened, she thought with
disdain.  That would have been the perfect opportunity for her to seize
power legitimately.  Thank the Lords she never got that chance.  And
thank the Lords she's gone from us forever.
     With perfect timing, the door opened and the woman who had replaced
Siress Lydia on the Council as the delegate from Aries entered.  This was
Siress Blassie, a still attractive blonde woman of nearly sixty who had
born to high social standing as the daughter of a one-time Aerian First
Prime Minister, and who had twice married well to men of great wealth. 
In both cases, Blassie had outlived them and inherited their respective
fortunes, establishing her estimated wealth at the time of the
Destruction as the highest among any Aerian.  Unlike Lydia, who had
clawed and schemed her way to success in the business realm, Blassie had
benefitted from good luck and good fortune to come her way.  That lack of
drive and personal ambition had made it surprising to those who knew her
that she'd chosen to run for the vacant seat on the Council following
Lydia's disappearance.  Rumor had it that Blassie had found out about
some of Lydia's less than savory activities that had never been made
public, and it had compelled her as a proud Aerian to then seek the
Council as a way of restoring honor to her Colony.  The prestige of her
name had carried the day among her fellow Aerians and she had won the
special election.  But now that she was on the Council, Blassie had
largely reverted to form, saying little during the meetings and seemingly
content to enjoy the status of membership.  While Tinia recognized that
Blassie was a definite improvement over Lydia, she wished the Aerians
could have chosen someone more committed to actual public service.
     Of course being overly committed to public service does have its
price, Tinia thought ruefully after she and Blassie exchanged greetings. 
That's why Blassie's had two marriages and I've had none.  Indeed, Tinia
had not had a serious relationship of any kind since her first term in
the Virgonese Senate.  One of her colleagues, Count Axson had recently
lost his wife and Tinia, sensing the man's loneliness had reached out to
him.  It had become an intense love affair that ended when Count Axson,
his term in the Senate about to expire, had asked her to marry him.  But
Tinia realized the proposal was also tied to a request that she live with
him permanently in his retirement villa and end any thought of continuing
her own political career.  For Tinia, that was a non-negotiable point. 
She had hopes and aspirations of rising to a high level position in the
Virgonese government and she wasn't about to put them on hold for any
man.  But Count Axson, over twenty yahrens her senior, had no desire to
be married to a woman with ambitions greater than the ones he had
achieved in his career.  The idea of being married to someone who might
eclipse his record was something he couldn't allow.  And so, the
relationship had ended on an unpleasant note.  In time, Tinia soon
realized that other men, even younger ones, shied away from her because
they found her driving personality something that would put them in a
secondary place in the marriage.  If it were a case of equal ambition
only, that would be acceptable, but not a case where Tinia's fame and
responsibilities overshadowed that of her prospective husband.
     That was why she had thought for a time that Adama would be
different simply because he was the Fleet Commander.  He would always be
in the superior position to Tinia no matter what.  The ego considerations
that had doomed Tinia's past relationships wouldn't have been a factor
because Adama was at the very top of the pyramid.  That was why she saw a
basis for something with him that she had hoped he might be receptive to. 
But in the end, Adama's sixth sense instinct for staying true to his
wife, even when he'd thought her to be dead, had won out.  For that,
Tinia was grateful.  Even though it now put her back where she'd been
before.  Uncertain that her time would ever come for love given her
position.
     As more members of the Council arrived, her private thoughts faded. 
Next to arrive was Sire Hanlon, one of the more combative members of the
Council.  He tended to see the negative side in Adama's proposals more
instinctively, and sometimes he was prone to shoot from the hip in his
declarations.  But despite that loose-cannon quality, no one questioned
Hanlon's integrity.  He was an upstanding family man, devoted to his wife
of thirty yahrens, and the proud parents of two children who had
important jobs on the Foundry Ship.  Some might question his intellect,
but no one could question his sincerity.
     Sires Darcy and Kort arrived next.  Darcy, distinguished more for
his red hair than his actual contributions, had replaced Antipas on the
Council as the delegate from Libra.  Kort, the least talkative member of
them all had officially replaced Baltar on the Council as Piscera's
delegate following the Destruction.  They were followed by the two
members who but for Blassie, were the most junior ones, Sires Shanbour
and Clement.  Like Darcy and Kort, they had replaced disgraced members as
they had taken the seats that once belonged to the renegade Il Fadim
collaborators, Sires Galerius and Elegabalus.  And like Darcy and Kort,
they had been more noted for providing stability than exceptionalism in
their service.
     Sire Chan was next followed by Siress Eudoxia, who like Tinia,
Hanlon and Kort had been part of the original replacement Council
following the Destruction.  Eudoxia was the only woman on the Council
besides Tinia who had actual political experience before her appointment,
having been Vice-President of the Leonian civil government for one term
before she'd been voted out of office.  Ironically, the woman who'd
beaten her for re-election, Siress Sabina, was alive on Leo as the head
of their Resistance faction and was now beginning the rebuilding efforts
on her Colony following the successful conclusion of the Peace Treaty
with the Enlightened Cylons.
     Sire Xaviar, the Council Vice-President then entered.  The man who
had championed the "Turn Back" proposal had taken his popular repudiation
in good stride and had not used the recent Peace Treaty as an occasion
for reviving the "Turn Back" movement.  He knew that for the majority of
the Fleet's population too much time had elapsed for them to contemplate
a return to the Colonies.  The promise and hope of a fresh beginning on
Earth was for the majority, far more enticing then journeying back
through hostile regions of space to planets that, even at peace, carried
too many scars of destruction and painful memories.
     Only now did Sire Pelias finally show up.  The closeness Tinia had
felt with the late Sire Feo's nephew had faded in the last two sectars
because of the repercussions over Adama's successful rescue of Ila and
the effort that had gone into it.  From Tinia's standpoint, Pelias had
shown poor judgment in revealing to his fiancee Jena Byrne that the
pursuit of the Entity had brought them in close proximity to an old Risik
minefield, and with it, the possibility that the Risik Empire had picked
up an awareness of their heading once again.  That in turn had led Jena
to tell her Earth friends, which led some of them to openly express their
displeasure in a public petition read aloud on the IFB.  In the process,
not only was Pelias's standing with Adama and Tinia harmed by this breach
of protocol, but the uproar had also caused a strain in relations between
Jena and her father, Captain Kevin Byrne of the Constellation.
     I wonder why Pelias isn't big enough to just admit he was wrong,
Tinia thought as she looked across at the young Councilor.  Things would
be back to normal in an instant if he just did that.  Maybe he just has
too much pride.  Perhaps he is more like his uncle after all.
     Everyone was now in their seats except for Adama.  Finally, the door
slid open and Adama entered......with Ila right behind him.  The
Commander and President of the Council sat at the head of the table while
Ila sat down in an observer's chair just off to his left.  Her close
presence already told the rest of the Council that they'd be hearing her
speak at some point.
     "This special meeting of the Council of Twelve is now in session,"
Adama rapped his gavel.  "All members are present.  The Chair will open
with a word of formal prayer."
     All heads bowed as Adama solemnly intoned, "We ask thee, Almighty
God and thy servants, the Lords of Kobol, to place their solemn blessing
on these proceedings and lift up our members to act wisely on behalf of
our people.  Amen."
     "Amen," murmurs went up from several members and then all eyes
focused on Adama.
     "Brother members of the Council," he began, "I have called for this
special meeting for what personally, will be the most significant
decision of my entire tenure as a member of this body.  As you know,
since the beginning of the Thousand Yahren war, it has been traditional
for this body to have representation from a member of the military so as
to give voice to a military perspective.  With the stipulation that no
more than two members of the body as a whole be from the military.  I
consider it a privilege to have served that role ever since the Caprican
Presidium saw fit to confirm my election to the Council over fifteen
yahrens ago.  I have since served with many fine people over the yahrens
since, many sadly who are no longer with us.  And most recently, I have
served with all of you as not just a brother member but as your
President.  I took on those added duties because in the immediacy of our
flight from the Cylons it was deemed essential for the role of Fleet
Commander and Presdient of the Council to act with one voice, as
permitted under the Emergency Powers clause of the Colonial Charter of
Governance    And so, I willingly took on that burden, and I consider it
a privilege to have done so."
     Then came the careful pause and immediately, most of the members
knew that if the next word he spoke was 'however' it would confirm their
instincts regarding Adama's future plans.
     "However," he spoke the word and several members let out an audible
gasp, "I believe that owing to changed circumstances, it is no longer
practical for me to consider continuing on the Council as
President.....or as a member."
     This time the other members to one degree or another were letting
out audible protests.  Adama immediately rapped his gavel firmly and then
held up his hand to demand silence.
     "Hear me out.  We are now entering the final phase of our journey to
Earth.  There is no question that in the next two to three yahrens, our
arrival is imminent.  All of this is confirmed by the chart data from the
Risik files and correlated to our existing data and to our course heading
that has remained constant for the last three and a half yahrens. 
Because we are drawing closer and closer, I believe that the awesome
responsibilities of maintaining order and discipline in our ranks as
Fleet Commander must come first and foremost, and that the constant
distraction of purely political matters will be personally detrimental to
myself, and by extension to the well-being of the Fleet.  It is because
of that......that I hereby tender my resignation as the Council's
delegate from Caprica."
     "NO!" several voices shouted in protest.  Tinia wasn't one of them. 
Already she knew what this was leading up to and she realized right away
that it was by far the most sensible decision possible.
     Adama brought down his gavel hard once again.  The loudness of the
rap had an intimidating effect.
     "In submitting my resignation as a member of this body," he
continued, "I am also invoking my special privilege as a military
representative of the Council to announce my designated replacement to
the body as a whole for immediate ratification, and without the need for
any special election by the Caprican citizenry.  For this, I have
chosen......my wife, the esteemed Professor Ila of Caprica."
     Ila rose from her chair without saying anything.  The members were
all trading glances with each other as if they weren't sure what to make
of what had just happened.  Finally, Sire Xaviar raised his hand and
Adama motioned to him.
     "Mr. President, before we proceed with anything, I must ask for
clarification on what this action means as far as----,"
     "The office of President of the Council would immediately become
vacant," Adama cut him off.  "That means, Sire Xaviar, as Council
Vice-President, you would automatically assume the duties of Acting
President until such time as a formal ratification of a new President
takes place.  That matter I propose be postponed until our new member is
formally seated."
     "Mr. President, I protest!" Sire Hanlon interjected and immediately
Tinia found herself trying not to roll her eyes since Hanlon could
usually be counted on to take an impulsively contrarian position.  "This
is far too serious a matter to dispense with too quickly.  I can only
speak for myself, but I don't see how your resignation from this body
would improve efficiency.  If anything, your presence has been the key to
efficiency all this time.  To remove yourself from direct participation
in Council affairs at this stage of our journey would not be good for
Fleet morale."
     "Sire Hanlon, I do not believe my continued presence on the Council
has a direct bearing on Fleet morale.  Especially since it is my
intention to remain fully informed on all Council matters.  I am not
removing myself to the same degree I would if I were appointing
someone.....less close to me personally."
     "Granted, Mr. President," Hanlon conceded, "Even so....I am deeply
concerned by the suddenness of this.  For such a momentous decision as
this is, surely you would have sounded us out privately beforehand!"
     "This decision is strictly personal, Sire Hanlon, and the only
opinion that counts is my own and that of my wife, Professor Ila."  Adama
held his ground.  "I cannot be persuaded to remain on this body.  And any
motion to reject my resignation request will be ruled out of order. 
There is nothing in the bylaws to prevent a member from resigning for
personal reasons.  Lords know we have plenty of precedent on that point
as it is these last few yahrens.  The only question before you is to
ratify my chosen replacement, Professor Ila.  Are there any objections?"
     An uneasy silence came over the body.  For just a brief instant,
Pelias's body language indicated he was going to say something but then
he leaned back in his chair as if he'd decided against it.
     "The question before you is the ratification of Professor Ila as the
new Council delegate from Caprica and the acceptance of my resignation
from this body and as President of the Quorum.  All those in favor, will
say aye."
     "Aye," the voices went up, but Adama could tell not everyone had
joined in.
     "Those opposed, say no."
     No one said anything at first.  Pelias though raised his hand and
leaned forward.
     "Mr. President, I am not voting no.  I want the record to note that
I choose to abstain."
     "I also wish the record to note my abstention," Hanlon joined in.
     "So noted," Adama tried not to glare at Pelias, "Does anyone else
wish to register a formal abstention?"
     Sire Darcy raised his hand along with Siress Eudoxia.  At the far
end of the table, Siress Blassie seemed ready to lift her hand but at the
last micron kept it planted on the desk.
     "Very well.  By a vote of eight to zero with four abstentions, the
motion is carried.  The office of President is now officially vacant, and
Professor Ila will take her place as the new delegate from Caprica."
     Adama then rose from the front of the table, and handed the gavel to
Sire Xaviar, "Sire Xaviar, as Vice President, you will now assume the
responsibilities of chair for the rest of this meeting.  I will remain
present for the duration solely in an advisory capacity."
     Xaviar, his expression one of bewilderment over this rapid turn of
events took the gavel from Adama but didn't move toward the President's
chair at the head of the table.  But when Adama motioned his arm to
indicate he wanted Xaviar to sit there, the Vice-President reluctantly
changed his seat.  As soon as he was in the President's chair, Ila rose
and took Xaviar's vacant seat to the right while Adama moved back to the
observer's chair Ila had been in.
     "The um....the um.....chair at this time extends welcome to our new
member, Professor Ila," Xaviar tried collect himself.  Immediately Tinia
pounded the table in approval which got the rest of the members to join
in.  Pelias though, kept his reaction limited to a gentle tapping against
the table.
     "Professor, would you like to say anything?" Xaviar motioned toward
her.
     "Thank you.....Mr. President," Ila said respectfully and rose, "My
brothers and....sisters of the Council," and this brought an intake of
breath from some because she had just broken the protocol rule of many
centuries that said only the masculine term would be used during
parliamentary proceedings, "I am honored to take my place among you.  It
is true that I have only been part of the Fleet for two sectars and it
has required me to learn a great deal about the totality of our
situation.  But I have spent the last two sectars visiting the key ships
of the Fleet and getting to know many of the people.  I understand the
challenges that remain before us during the remainder of our journey to
Earth.  And I am ready to do my part, just as I did my part as a member
of the Caprican Resistance Executive Committee for nearly three yahrens,
and then as Commander Cain's political advisor on the Pegasus for well
over a yahren.  I see my membership on this body as a new challenge in a
new phase of my life.  One that I have no intention of running from."
     As she resumed her seat, it was Tinia who again initiated a
spontaneous round of applause and approval.  This time, the reaction was
stronger since Ila had not invoked her status as Adama's wife, but had
stressed only her own resume of accomplishments.  Accomplishments that
every member of the Council knew dwarfed their own.
     "Thank you, Professor Ila," Xaviar said, having had time to collect
himself.  "We must now I think deal with the matter of the office of the
Presidency and how we are to proceed in choosing a replacement."
     "Mr. President!" Ila wasted no time asserting herself.  And
immediately, the whole logic behind Adama's actions was suddenly clear to
everyone else.  
     "Yes.....Professor Ila."  Xaviar braced himself.
     "Mr. President, I move that for the duration, you be formally
recognized as Acting President pending a Fleetwide Election to select our
next President of the Quorum."
     "Second!" Tinia spoke up.
     "Moved and seconded," Xaviar said.  "The chair now will open
proceedings for....debate on this proposal."
     "Mr. President," Pelias leaned forward and by now he was no longer
bothering to conceal the irritation on his face, "I would like to ask our
new member a blunt question.  Is it her intention to seek the office of
President for herself?"
     Ila deliberately leaned forward as if she were trying to mimic his
gesture, "Since you ask me a blunt question, Sire Pelias, I will give you
a blunt answer.  Yes."
     Pelias wasn't quite prepared to hear her express herself so
pointedly.  "I see," he leaned back, "I am certain our new delegate has
had time to read the existing statute on the election of a new President
of the Quorum?"
     "The existing statute, Sire Pelias says that a new President may be
elected by a two-thirds vote of the body during a vacancy.  I am
proposing we vote on an alternate course of action in which like the
recent issue of staying the course, the people will exercise their
judgment on who is best handled to lead them on political matters." She
deliberately stressed the word political as if to silently convey how
Adama's overall role of total command would not be impacted.
     "And you believe you are the one who should lead us in these
matters?" Pelias didn't hide the skepticism in his voice.
     "I am ready to make my case to the people and let them decide, Sire
Pelias.  Just as I am sure that anyone else who wishes to seek the
Presidency would honor the opportunity to do so as well."
     "And when would this election take place, Professor Ila?" Hanlon
found himself irritated more by the sudden speed with which events had
unfolded.
     "That is a point for us to work out after we have agreed on the
present question before us, which is to affirm that an election will take
place, Sire Hanlon," the blonde Academician didn't miss a beat.  "I
suggest we confine ourselves to that point exclusively for now."
     "Very well, Professor," Pelias said.  "I must say in all honesty,
that if this is a course of action you and our esteemed former President
have discussed for some time, it disappoints me that none of us were
appraised of your intentions prior to this meeting.  With all due respect
to you and your husband.....I have the distinct sense that we are
being.....steamrollered, as my friend Captain Byrne might say."
     Tinia finally reached her breaking point.  "Sire Pelias, I would ask
that you speak for yourself and not presume to speak for the entire
Quorum.  I for one have no qualms with the idea of a popular referendum
on who should fill this position.  We are not facing a crisis situation
at this time that would disrupt the ability to mobilize the population to
take part.  And we have the precedent of the Fleetwide referendum on
staying the course that proves we can handle the logistics of this
without any difficulties."
     "I concur," Sire Chan spoke up.  "And since I would trust that
Commander Adama would recuse himself from any active forms of campaigning
on behalf of any candidate in such a referendum, we will not see any
interference in the normal maintenance of Fleet Operations before such a
referendum were to take place."
     Adama smiled thinly without rising from the observer seat, "To the
members of the Council, I give you my solemn word.  In the event the
distinguished delegate from Caprica chooses to run for higher office
before the people, I will be a silent supporter.....and a neutral public
observer as befitting my primary duty as Fleet Commander."
     "We trust you to behave honorably.....Commander," Tinia added,
already finding it awkward to not address him as 'Mr. President' in this
kind of meeting.  "I move to end debate and call the question on
Professor Ila's motion."
     "Is there an objection?" Xaviar looked about the table.  Slowly, he
was acclimating himself to this unexpected new role.
     "Yes!" Pelias blurted.  "I have plenty of objections!  This is far
too sudden an action for my taste, and again I think the courtesy of
individual consultation in advance of this session should have been
called for."
     "And if that had happened, how soon would it have been before rumors
of the Commander's decision to resign started airing on the IFB?" Tinia
sourly retorted.  She couldn't believe how far off the reservation Pelias
had gone in recent sectars.  There was once a time when Pelias was the
only member of the Council outside Adama she felt she could instinctively
trust.  Now all of that was gone.
     "I hope that is not an accusation, Siress Tinia," Pelias stared back
at her.
     "I am talking about our behavior in general," Tinia held her ground. 
"At any rate, I think this is wasting time over matters that are over and
done with.  The Commander's decision to resign from the Council must be
seen as a personal decision, and we have all accepted that.  Now, the
only question before us is, are we willing to let the people decide the
matter of who our next permanent President will be, or do we take that
option from them and insist that we're capable of doing it ourselves?"
     "The people should decide," a quiet voice from the back of the table
said aloud, "This is really arguing over trivialities."
     Every Council member was surprised to hear Siress Blassie speak for
the first time in a substantive Council debate.  She took a breath and
leaned forward.
     "I sincerely hope that any objections or rumblings we are hearing
from certain quarters aren't rooted in any misgivings over the idea of a
woman like Professor Ila succeeding to the Presidency.  It is my
understanding that no woman has ever been elected President of the Quorum
at any time in the annals of Colonial history."
     "That's true, Siress Blassie," Ila spoke up.  "But....I am quite
certain that the concerns that are being expressed are not rooted in
anything so.....short-sighted.  I know from my experience in the
Resistance that the role of women leaders has played an important part. 
For instance among the Leonians, where the esteemed Siress Sabina has led
the survivors of her planet the last few yahrens."
     "And to think I said the Leonians were making a big mistake voting
for her," Siress Eudoxia said dryly.  And immediately, every member of
the Council burst into laughter at this bit of self-deprecation on
Eudoxia's part since Siress Sabina had defeated her in the last election
held on Leo before the Destruction.  The fact that it was so
uncharacteristic of Eudoxia also helped to lighten the mood.
     "Mr. President," the Leonian Siress came forward, "I too call the
question.  Let's get this preliminary matter done with."
     Everyone else glanced over at Pelias who was waving his hand to
indicate his surrender on this point.
     "All those in favor will say aye," Xaviar said.
     "AYE!" the voices were much louder this time.
     "Those opposed?" there was only silence, "Motion carried
unanimously.  The Chair accepts the position of Acting President until an
election by the people takes place.  The next item on the agenda would be
the matter of scheduling a specific date followed by the formal
submission of candidates."
     "Mr. President," Ila said, "I move to postpone the matter of formal
submission of candidates until our next meeting and confine ourselves
only to the establishment of a date."
     "Any objection?"
     "Only a point of clarification," Pelias said, his tone calmer than
hit had been.  "You've already in effect declared your candidacy,
Professor Ila.  It seems the issue of formal submission has already been
taken care of."
     "I have not received formal sanction from this body for my
candidacy, Sire Pelias," Ila injected just the faintest level of
irritation in her tone, "You asked me about my intentions and I was
candid with you.  I don't think it becomes you to try to play both sides
of an issue."
     The devastating edge of the new Councilor's remark had its effect. 
Tinia found herself amazed at how much Pelias was starting to act like
those he'd been so critical of in the past.  Dear Lords, I hope he's not
going to turn into another version of his uncle!
     "I think a full sectan will give others time to consider whether
they wish to seek the Presidency themselves," Ila said.  "I ask no one to
take my declaration as an attempt to intimidate others from doing what
they think would be in the best interests of the Colonial nation."
     Watching, Adama couldn't help but smile.  Already, his wife was
effectively playing the political game because even though she said she
didn't want her announced candidacy to intimidate others from running, it
was clearly already having that very effect.  Which suited him just fine
since the more Council members who recognized her determination to seek
the office, and how that had been the only reason why he'd agreed to
resign, the better.
     I suppose Xaviar is the wildcard in all this, he thought.  How much
is he going to want the Presidency for himself?  Of course Xaviar is an
honest man, which means it wouldn't be a disaster if he decided to run,
but still.....if he got behind Ila that would be the biggest victory
imaginable.
     "On the subject of when this referendum will take place, the Chair
will entertain suggestions at this time."
     "Mr. President," Ila said, "I move that the date of a referendum
take place no less than four sectans and no more than six sectans after
formal ratification of nominees at the next Council meeting.  These are
within the parameters agreed to when the Fleet held its last referendum."
     "Is there an objection?" Xaviar looked about and tensed himself. 
But this time, Pelias shook his head no.  Looking further down the table,
the Acting President sensed that Sire Hanlon, whom he'd worked with in
the past, was waiting to see if he was going to offer some objections and
only then speak out.  But, Xaviar had no interest in acting in a
contrarian fashion.  Not when this responsibility of being Acting
President had just fallen in his lap.
     "Hearing no objection, the Chair considers the motion approved and
carried by acclimation.  Before we consider adjournment, I'd like to ask
the Commander if he has any additional news to share with us regarding
yesterday's successful communications contact with the Colonies?"
     "Thank you, Mr. President," Adama said, thinking how the last time
he had ever used that title with anyone else had been during his last
desperate attempt to get Adar's attention on the Atlantia just before the
venerable battlestar's destruction.  "I can only reiterate that this test
yesterday is only a first step.  It will be some time before
communication can be on a more sustained basis.  The fact that the
Colonies cannot as of now send file messages to us or the Pegasus, means
the overall level of information we receive will be only marginally
higher than it has been with Lieutenant Hunley's successful telepathic
communications with her cousin Anders on Gemon.  We must remain patient
for them to refine their breakthrough further."
     "Indeed we must," Xaviar nodded, "Thank you, Commander.  And.....I
know I speak for us all in thanking you for your many yahrens of service
in the political realm as a member of this body.  We understand the need
for you to concentrate in the more vital areas of responsibility you hold
as Fleet Commander as our journey to Earth draws closer to its final
phase.  But what will never change,  is our unyielding support and
admiration of all that you have done."
     "Hear, hear!" Sire Clement offered as everyone thumped the table
approvingly.  Even Pelias, despite his still overly sour expression.
     "And with nothing further on the itinerary, the Chair rules that we
now stand adjourned."
     He brought the gavel down and slowly, the members began to file out.


     "Congratulations, Ila," Tinia said as she came up to Ila, who hadn't
moved from her seat. "And welcome to the snake pit."
     The blonde Academician let out a laugh, "Believe me, Tinia, after
all the squabbles I had to deal with back on Caprica, I think this is
going to be relaxing by comparison."
     "I imagine so," she cast a glance over at Adama who was conversing
with Xaviar.  Then she leaned down so she could keep what she wanted to
say out of his earshot.  "Was this your idea or his?"
     Ila looked up at the woman who might have replaced her in Adama's
heart if she had truly died the night of the Destruction.  Even though
Adama had never let her rise to that level, he had always valued their
friendship, and it was because of that, Ila decided she could always be
candid with Tinia as well.
     "It was my idea, Tinia," she acknowledged.  "I think he needs a
respite from what goes on here, whereas......this is the sort of thing
I've been thriving on the last four yahrens."
     "And that's why you have my vote already for the Presidency," the
Virgonese siress promised, "Honestly, Ila, I think with your force of
will, you would have gotten all the votes you needed from us before the
day was out.  Do you really want to risk all that by going to the
people?"
     "I have to, Tinia," Ila said with total conviction.  "I'm still an
outsider to most of them.  If I want to prove I'm worthy of aiming for
this job......I need to make the case directly to them."
     "Good luck," Tinia patted her on the shoulder, "You're probably
going to draw at least one opponent.  Hopefully not two, but.....we'll
know by next sectan."
     "Indeed," Adama's wife nodded, "The Lords bless you, Tinia."
     "And you too."
     When she was alone in the corridor, Tinia let out a sigh of relief.
     Thank the Lords she came back into his life.


     The other members had all departed, leaving Adama and Ila alone in
the Council chamber.  He came up to her and settled back into the
President's chair he had earlier vacated since it was right next to Ila's
chair.
     "An auspicious beginning......Councillor," he smiled at her.
     "I guess so," his wife sighed, "What did Xaviar say?  Is he going to
run for the Presidency himself?"
     "He said he'll make a decision on that in advance of the next
meeting," Adama answered.  "What he wanted to know was if this was
something you and I planned together as a way of relieving my workload. 
I couldn't lie to him.  I told him that you want the job in part to take
the burdens of politics off my shoulders.  He asked if that meant you and
I would be in a state of constant communication on matter of importance
to the Fleet, and when I said that there would be no secrets between you
and me whatsoever on anything, he seemed to like that.  I think if he
sees your becoming President as a case where you're acting as a proxy for
me, he wouldn't be inclined to challenge you."
     "I'm flattered, but I don't want him or anyone else to see me as a
mere proxy for what you think, Adama," his wife was firm.  "There may be
times when I'll disagree with you, and if that happens I won't hold back,
just like I never held back with Cain."
     "And I wouldn't want you to," he reached out and touched her hand,
"This is as much for yourself as it is for me, Ila.  And I know when you
make your case to the people.....the fact that you're my wife isn't what
they're going to think of first."
     "But it'll always be what I think of first," she smiled back at him
and then they leaned forward so they could share a kiss.


     At dinner that evening, when they revealed the news to their
children and their spouses (along with Starbuck and Cassiopeia), the
reaction was decidedly mixed.
     "Mother, don't you think you've earned the right to some respite at
long last?" Apollo asked, finding it incredulous that she would want to
assume this kind of a burden for herself after all she'd been through in
the Colonies and on the Pegasus.
     "I have enough respite just being here with all of you," she said,
"But I can't spend the rest of my days just playing with the
grandchildren, Apollo.  I need to find my own niche in the Fleet. 
Especially when we still have two or three more yahrens of journey ahead
of us."
     "I understand that, but.....running for the Presidency."
     "It's the best thing I can do for myself and your father, son," Ila
was firm.  "I hope all of you can understand that this is just as much
for him as it is for me."
     "We do, Mother," Athena said.  "It's just that.....politics can be
such a trying game."
     "That's true, but your mother is benefitting from the fact that the
worst troublemakers we had on the Council are long gone," Adama said. 
"The fact that she'll never have to deal with the likes of Domra, Geller,
Antipas, Lydia, Elegabalus or Galerius is enough cause to rejoice."
     "What about Pelias?" Starbuck asked, "Hasn't he become more of a
pain in the astrum of late?"
     "I have a theory about Pelias," Adama said.  "Because he's the
official representative of all the freed Earth prisoners, he's taken on
more and more of their.....fears if you will that the Risik still pose a
near-term danger to us.  And the fact we've had more than one reminder of
late that the Risik aren't as far behind us as we like to think they are
has fueled a good deal of fear inside the people Pelias feels responsible
for."
     "A thirty-yahren old minefield, and the fact there's a Risik
Consulate on Harkaelis?" Boomer snorted, "That's hardly proof they're on
our doorstep, Adama.  Hades, instead of worrying about the Consulate,
they should be grateful we got all that tylium the Harkaelians have no
use for.  Because of that, we won't have to worry about fuel shortages
for probably the next yahren.  And our fusion reactors are now in top
shape thanks to the deuterium surplus they had on Velazik."
     Adama nodded, glad that his son-in-law had finally learned to stop
addressing him as 'Commander' during a family dinner.  The stop at the
Harkaelian outpost world Velazik  had proved to be a major boon to the
Fleet.  To the Harkaelians, tylium was a nuisance waste product of many
mining operations.  As a result, with Saradan Yulodesh's blessing, the
Fleet got all the tylium it could hold load into their tankers.  In
return, Adama was more than happy to give them the technology for the
tylium-fueled Marron Drive that powered the Fleet's FTL engines.
Hopefully, they could make good use of it. 
     "True, Boomer.  But those little things like the minefield and the
Consulate, give them just enough of a reminder of how much the Risik
remain a threat to Earth some day.  The Risik still believe it's their
destiny to reclaim Earth for themselves and we of course know from the
captured files they still have their unsuspecting moles somewhere on
Earth.  For all we know, they could easily be steering Earth in an
unproductive direction right now."
     "Reclaim Earth?" Sheba let out a disdainful snort of her own, "Isn't
a lot of what they wrote about in their own history turning out to be a
load of felgercarb?"
     "If we trust in the reliability of our own history, Sheba, then yes,
the Risik claims about being the first outside race on Earth are a load
of felgercarb," her mother-in-law said.  "What we're lacking right now is
the corroborating proof that if properly presented, could convince
open-minded Risik of the need to overthrow their entire political and
religious order which is based on the idea that their dogmas about Earth
are the absolute truth."
     "Are there really any open-minded Risik left other than the ones
who've already joined us, like Melnea?" Starbuck took the unlit fumarello
out of his mouth.  
     "One must always hope, Starbuck," Ila smiled, "After all, did you
ever think there were more Enlightened Cylons beyond the ones who
defected with Baltar?"
     "Got me there," he grinned.  "Funny thing is, long before Baltar
defected, I actually had the craziest dream once about making friends
with a Cylon."
     "Did you now?" Athena looked over at her one-time boyfriend with
amusement, "I had no idea the Starbuck charm went that far!" which
brought laughter from everyone else at the table, including Cassiopeia. 
The fact that all of them were happily married to someone present made it
easy for this kind of banter among friends.
     "Hey, it wasn't quite like that," Starbuck said, chuckling and
holding up his hands in mock surrender.  "I don't remember a lot of the
details.  I sometimes felt like I wasn't really there, but that I was
looking at another version of myself from another place in time
altogether."
     "I often get the idea that you're not really there," Boomer ribbed
him.
     "Ah yes, but admittedly sometimes it's the company I keep," Starbuck
rejoined. 
     Boomer smirked, resting his hand over his heart as though he'd been
shot.  "Another place in time how, Bucko?"
     "Oh, I don't know.  Maybe some kind of......alternate universe
where......things happen differently from the way they happen here."
     "Oh, the old 'alternate universe' theory," Apollo rolled his eyes,
"In which somehow there are likely an infinite number of counterparts to
ourselves undergoing different experiences from us based on different
outcomes chosen at one time in the past.  I get a headache just trying to
think of the idea there's an infinite number of......you out there,
Starbuck."
     "Hey, maybe there's another version of yourself out there that can't
stand the idea of ever growing a beard," his friend parried, which
brought more laughter at the table and a grin from Sheba.  "Anyway....the
one thing I remember is that I was stranded on this planet with a damaged
Cylon who'd crashed his fighter and was the only one left worth salvaging
in the crew."
     "And you rebuilt him?" Cassie mused.
     "What can I say, I had time on my hands," Starbuck replied, topping
up her glass.
     "And when you fired him up, he declared his undying allegiance and
asked you if you would teach him how to play pyramid?" Sheba asked,
motioning for a top up.
     "Sheba, if I could rewrite my dream, that's exactly how it would
have turned out," Starbuck replied, standing and pouring for the table. 
"But unfortunately, no.  At first, he tried to kill me."
     "Shocking," Ila offered, much to everyone's amusement. 
     "Isn't it?' Starbuck replied, wide-eyed.  "But eventually he came to
realize that the only way he could survive would be to forget all about
his programmed beliefs about humans and that he and I needed to be
friends and work together.  And.....Lords I wish I could remember more
but I do know at some point, he actually learned to call me friend."
     "You know what I find funny about that?" Apollo's tone grew serious,
"I remember just after Baltar's defection and when the whole Detente
began, that was when you and a lot of the warriors were having a hard
time adjusting to the idea of working long-term with Cylons.  If you had
that dream before the Detente, it didn't make much of an impression on
you then."
     "You're right about that," Starbuck acknowledged.  "Back then,
Mattoon's crackup had more to do with why most of us started to change
our tune.  It was only after that, that I remembered the dream, and when
I did.....that made the idea of working with the Cylons on the BaseShip
as the liaison officer a lot easier."
     Of course, the funny thing is, that wasn't the only weird dream I
started to remember back then, Starbuck thought to himself.  I also had
that crazy dream about people I'd never met before, and that turned out
to be Ama and her goddaughters!  That's why I made my first ever trip to
the Malocchio where she'd been all that time since she first joined the
Fleet.  Not only did she seem to be expecting me.....but she seemed to
indicate that she knew me too......and there was something about her that
felt so familiar.....which was what made me start remembering the dream
about being stranded with the Cylon on a deserted planet. 
     "Think back, Son Starbuck, to other dreams or realities you have
experienced.  Is the idea of working with Cylons and seeing them as
potential allies, really beyond your comprehension?"
     Yes, that's what she'd said to him that first night he'd come to see
her without having ever given the Malocchio and the Empyreans any thought
whatsoever since the time they had unobtrusively joined the Fleet during
the initial yahren of the Exodus.  And it had helped him overcome the
idea of working closely with Cylons (though it had not at that point
helped him overcome the lingering bitterness inside him about Baltar's
wife Ayesha, and her abandonment of his father, Chameleon, when she'd
been known as Claudia.  That had only come much later when Ayesha finally
had a heart-to-heart talk with him that made him finally understand her
decision).  And when Starbuck had another crazy dream that he remembered
too vividly about being on Earth during its second World War and saving
the grandfather of Captain Kevin Byrne.....Ama had been there too to
guide him.  When he had asked her about it, she'd offered her trademark
esoteric reply, which left him with more questions than answers.  Yet
Starbuck turned to Ama again for advice just before he finally proposed
to Cassiopeia.
     "Well, I think when it comes to the Risik, it's going to take more
than dreams to get them to change their ways," Ila decided to steer the
conversation back.  "The data tapes I sent you from the Pegasus that the
Terrans had kept about the Black Knight satellite, and what it recorded
from Earth orbit during its first few millenniums should have the whole
story on when the Risik actually arrived.  But I understand most of those
early sections of data are corrupted."
     "Unfortunately yes," her husband said.  "The period that would tell
us exactly what happened when the first scout ships from Kobol arrived,
and where the Risik factor into the early history of Earth, and what the
circumstances of their departure were......it's all inaccessible. 
Professor Pliny and Professor Herodotus don't think the data is
irretrievably lost, but they say it could take yahrens just to recover 5%
of it for that period."
     "That's too bad," Apollo said, "That period would also help
reconcile the early history of Earth to how it's recorded in their Holy
Book, the Bible.  I know Father Fisher is deeply interested in
determining what early stories might correspond to our own accounts."
     "That he is," Adama acknowledged.  "The wonderful thing about Father
Fisher is that he  hasn't let his exposure to alien life forms or a
brother human race across the stars impact the certainty of his own faith
as he learned it on Earth.  He's convinced that how the Almighty revealed
His presence to the people of Earth had to be different from how He was
revealed to our Kobollian forebears."
     "Because Earth lost the knowledge of Kobol at some point," Sheba
said. 
     "Yes.  As if..... Earth wasn't meant to develop with any
understanding of her true origins. As if....there was a different plan
and purpose in mind as a result of.....what happened in the period we
still can't decipher, as far as the Black Knight data is concerned."
     "I certainly hope the answers become clear before we reach Earth,"
Athena said after she'd set down her water chalice.  "It'll be a lot
easier to integrate ourselves if we can give them all the answers about
her past."
     "That's in the hands of the Lords, just like everything else that
still lies before us, Sunshine," Ila said.  "Including, I might add, the
matter of whether or not I'm successful in becoming President of the
Quorum."
     "To Hades hole with the referendum," Starbuck raised his ambrosia
chalice, "I move that Ila get the job by acclimation!"
     "And all of us I know will drink to that!" Adama raised his, "To the
next President of the Quorum!"
     The chalices all came together.  Symbolizing the family's unity
behind Ila's decision to run.  Each of them certain that in a matter of
sectans, they'd be toasting her yet again as the new President.
     Lords willing.

Chapter Three

     The yacht's name was the Jada.  That had not been its original name
when it had been launched over twenty yahrens ago and presented to its
original owner, Sire Feo.  He had named it the Gemonese Queen not in
honor of any past monarch of his home planet, but as a secret tribute to
his mistress at the time.  Even after the relationship had ended, Feo had
kept the name out of sentiment and it had been the only one of his four
yachts that he'd been able to rescue in the haste of the Exodus.  But
following Feo's death at the hands of the Ziklagi shapeshifter Korax, the
yacht, along his title and money, had passed into the hands of his
nephew, Pelias.  And one of the first things Pelias had done was to
change the name since he wanted it to honor someone who had meant
something to him, if only for a brief time.  A dead female warrior cadet
named Jada, who had also lost her life at the hands of the vile Korax.
     A dead cadet.....whom Pelias had felt responsible for.  In so many
ways.  So much that even now, more than two yahrens later, it was still
too painful for him to talk about her to anyone.  Not even to Jena Byrne,
the woman he was unofficially engaged to.  The fact that Jena and her
father had arrived in the Fleet after Jada's death explained her
ignorance about why Pelias's yacht was called the Jada.  And much to
Pelias's relief, Jena had never bothered to ask. She only knew that
Pelias had once had a traumatic experience as an aspiring warrior cadet
and it had made him resign from the Service before receiving his
commission.  She was already used to her father not opening up about
painful memories from his own past, like his first marriage and her older
half-brother back on Earth whom she'd never met.  If Pelias didn't want
to talk about why the yacht was named for someone named Jada, that was
okay with her.
     Lords bless her, Pelias thought as he opened the drawer of the desk
inside his private suite.  This room was his personal sanctum sanctorum
that no one else, not even Jena could enter.  Here, he kept all the
things of his late uncle's that he hadn't discarded out of family duty
and honor.  And here, he kept those things that had meaning to himself
and which he didn't want to share with others.  Especially the sketch he
kept in the drawer of Jada.  A sketch he had done from memory because
there wasn't a decent holopic of her on file, and he didn't want his last
impression of Jada to be of how she'd looked when she'd died.
     He looked at the image he'd managed to recreate with his artistic
skills.  Long ago, before the Destruction, his dream had been to attend
the Caprican Fine Arts Institute and further develop his talent.  The
Destruction had ended that dream, and from that point on he only sketched
as a means of therapeutic exercise.  And never more so than in this
instance.  The time he'd spent channeling his emotions to remember
exactly how Jada had looked had done more to heal the pain than even
renaming the yacht had.  And he could look at the result and say with
some level of pride that he'd done her justice.  The black hair.  The
dark brown eyes.  The beautifully slender figure.  Exactly the way he
remembered her.  Seeing her again this way meant the nightmares of her
death wouldn't haunt him any longer.  And indeed they'd never come back. 
Which was why he'd never felt any great compulsion to break out the
drawing that he'd done just for himself, in the two yahrens since.
     Until now.
     He thought back to how he and Jada had sniped at each other all
throughout cadet training.  How he'd resented the fact that Sire Feo,
then serving on the Council had all but forced him to enter into it and
then assured him it would only be a formality when it had been anything
but.  Finding himself surrounded by female warriors in training which
didn't sit well with him.  And then being forced to undergo special
training classes aimed at cadets deemed to have attitude problems, which
Pelias had been cited more than once for.  That had led to him and Jada
being paired in a training exercise in which they'd be demonstrating
survival techniques on an isolated planet after theoretically crashing
their vipers.  The first training exercise had taken place in the
agro-desert dome of Agro Ship #1 and it had ended with him taking a swing
at her after she'd surprised him with a prank that had left him flat on
his back in the sand.  Yet despite the humiliation he'd been subjected to
by her.....deep inside there was something about her attitude that he
couldn't help but find attractive, especially when combined with her
understated beauty.  The idea of seeing Jada as a long-term challenge
worth pursuing was beginning to form in Cadet Pelias's mind in the wake
of that Agro-Dome training exercise.
     And then came the next training exercise.  Starbuck, who was
co-commanding with Deitra had decided to make the four cadets in their
charge perform the more challenging task of mining extraction work on an
isolated asteroid the Fleet was passing nearby.  Unlike the Agro-Dome
this would be a test of working in difficult conditions that required
wearing an EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) survival suit, and riding a
surface vehicle called a Mining Stabilization Unit (MSU) out to a
predesignated location to set up mining rigs.  But Starbuck, ever the
cagey instructor, had decided to test the cadets ability to spot a
deliberate built-in flaw.  He had removed the master control unit from
their respective MSU's to see if the teams would remember to go through
their designated supply checklist and see if everything was there. 
Failure to go through the checklist, which a slacker cadet was prone to
do, would mean not discovering the problem in the MSU until much later
and force them to return to base with a loss in time setting up the rigs.
     The other team of female cadets Kyna and Kefira had remembered to do
the checklist early and discovered the pre-determined problem in short
order.  But Jada and Pelias had driven off and neglected to go through
the supply checklist.  The reason being.....the two of them suddenly
found they were clicking together as a team after all the sniping they'd
gone through before.  Suddenly, they were finding it easier to converse
with each other.  Especially when Jada opened up to him about how her
experience as an orphan who'd lost her parents in a hovermobile accident
when she was only six had instilled a lifelong determination to improve
her lot in life.  It had so impressed Pelias that by the time they
reached the designated spot after a centar to begin the process of
setting up the mining rig, everything was going well between them.
     Until.....Jada discovered the master control unit was missing.  And
Pelias, wanting to save time, had suggested Jada walk back to base camp
to retrieve the missing unit and also take the second of their scheduled
three MSU's out to the site.  Jada though, had resisted at first,
reminding Pelias that they were supposed to stick together at all times. 
But Pelias, more out of resentment at Starbuck for putting them through
this and not wanting to lose valuable time overall, had finally convinced
Jada to head back solo by promising to pull strings with his uncle Sire
Feo to get her a special all-access pass to the Rising Star.  That had
finally been enough for Jada to say yes, and head back.  Which pleased
Pelias since it offered a further indication of just how much of a free
spirit Jada was, and how maybe.....if he was able to come through and get
that pass for her, she might even be grateful enough to consider the
possibility of spending her time aboard the luxury ship with him.  At the
very least, the last twenty-four centars had made Pelias interested in
the possibility of getting to know Jada better.  Especially the idea of
getting to know her off-duty and out-of-uniform.
     So Jada had set off on her own......and to her death as it turned
out.  For lying in wait along the path back to base camp was the vile
Ziklagi shapeshifter named Korax.  Who had stowed away aboard their
shuttle waiting for a chance to abduct a Human Warrior to bring back to
his superiors in the Ziklagi Empire.  But he had applied too much force
to Jada and killed her rather than subduing her for capture.  She had
only had time to get off one shot.....and then been left to die a
horrible death that had left her beautiful face in a hideous state of
advanced decomposition.
     Jada's death had been shattering to both Starbuck and Pelias.  For
Starbuck, it was guilt stemming from the fact that a cadet under his
command had needlessly died.  For Pelias, it was guilt over the fact that
he had cajoled her to agree to violate orders that they stay together at
all times, by bribing her with a promise of a Rising Star pass that, in
retrospect, he had hoped might be an incentive for her to get to know him
better off-duty.  The trauma remained with them both until Korax was
finally destroyed during their time at Brylon Station.  But not before
Korax had left more victims in his wake, including Pelias's uncle, Sire
Feo.  That had brought Pelias into possession of Feo's title and
possessions, including the yacht that he had renamed in Jada's honor.  It
had also brought him his uncle's seat on the Council as the delegate from
Gemon.  
     By that point, Pelias had already left the military.  Even though he
performed heroically right after Jada's death when Korax had taken him
and Starbuck prisoner, and he'd managed to help overcome the Ziklagi
monster and get them back to the Galactica, there was too much guilt in
Pelias over how his lackadaisical performance as a cadet had been
directly responsible for Jada's death.  That if he'd been a truly
disciplined warrior-in-training he would have stayed with her at all
times as he'd been ordered to, and that might have discouraged Korax from
attacking at that particular point.  When Jada had needed him, he'd let
her down.  As far as Pelias was concerned that disqualified him from
being worthy of accepting a commission.
     Ultimately, he'd found no reason to regret his choice.  Politics had
provided him with a more productive calling in life, even though his
youth meant he often had to defer to voices he regarded as more
intelligent and capable than himself like Tinia and Adama.  The real
advantages had begun with the discovery of Captain Kevin Byrne and his
daughter Jena on an isolated planet had brought the first contact with an
actual native of Earth.  And it had marked the beginning of a special
relationship between Pelias and Jena that had quickly turned into love. 
That bond with Byrne's daughter had also led Pelias to use the Jada to
help Byrne rescue his friend Cedric Allen, who had been missing for over
ten yahrens since his abduction from the planet he and his fellow
astronaut had been marooned on.
     With this bond established with the first natives from Earth the
Fleet had encountered, it put Pelias in position to emerge as the
Council's foremost champion of the sixty plus Earth natives freed from
the Risik prison at Ne'Chak.  It was Pelias who'd introduced the
resolutions that had granted full Colonial citizenship to them while
helping them preserve their own sense of identity as Earth natives by
letting the two converted Zykonian pirate ships, the Constellation and
Adelaide serve as their primary residences.  Because of Jena's closeness
to many of the Earth natives like USAF Sergeant Lauren Wagner, USN Chief
Petty Officer Jessica Clemens, and Jessica's civilian friend Denise
Hayden, it made Pelias even more determined to look after their interests
and not let anything impede their sense of security and safety.  After
all the yahrens they had spent in Risik captivity since being wrenched
away from their homes on Earth, the need to feel secure and safe rated
first and foremost with them.
     That was the reason why Pelias had done his part to help squelch the
"Turn Back" movement of Sire Xaviar following the revelation of the
Resistance movements in the Colonies and the news that the Pegasus was
going home to assist them.  For Pelias, the idea of turning back was
abhorrent for the simple fact that it meant forcing the Earth natives to
go with them and never see their homes again, or to cut them loose from
the Fleet and force them to make the rest of the journey home on their
own without adequate provisions or protection.  In the end, he was
relieved that most of the Fleet didn't think turning back was viable and
had chosen by popular referendum to reject the idea by a margin of nearly
four-to-one.
     Now though, that same concern for the well-being of the Earth
natives was at the root of the strained relations he'd developed with
Adama in the last two sectars.  From Pelias's standpoint, Adama had taken
a potentially dangerous risk by having the Fleet tail the mysterious
'Entity' for an extended period just so they could wait for the right
moment when his wife Ila would be ready to take advantage of the Entity
to bring her across the stars and back to her loved ones at last.  It
wasn't that Pelias had anything against Adama finding a way to get his
wife back.  It was the fact that the long waiting game, caused by Ila's
determination to finish hammering out a Peace Treaty between the
Resistance and the Enlightened Cylon Governor of the Occupation Forces,
Malus, meant bringing the Fleet into close proximity with an old Risik
minefied.  And that fact alone had badly shaken morale among the Earth
natives, especially civilians like Denise Hayden.  They had become
conditioned to the idea that the Risik danger was something they didn't
have to think about any longer.  At least not as far as the remainder of
the journey back to their homes on Earth was concerned.  The Risik might
continue to boast about fulfilling their destiny by conquering the planet
they saw as rightfully theirs, but more than a full yahren since escaping
had convinced them that any future threat from the Risik was more than a
generation off, and would come only long after they'd returned home and
had time to reclaim their lives.  To come close to a reminder that the
Risik presence wasn't as far behind them as they liked to think, and only
because Adama had taken the Fleet far off course for the sake of pursuing
hte Entity, had been upsetting for a number of Earth natives who
eventually expressed their grievances openly on the IFB.
     The fact that the Earth natives had learned about the old Risik
minefield because Pelias had implied its existence to Jena at one point,
and Jena had in turn revealed her concerns to her friends Denise, Jessica
and Lauren, had negatively impacted Pelias's friendship with Adama. 
Adama felt that not only had Pelias acted improperly by talking out of
turn to Jena, he had also exaggerated the nature of the danger.  The
Risik minefield had been an old one laid down more than thirty yahrens
ago during the haste of their expulsion from their home system by their
enemy the Ke'Zar.  It did not indicate any immediate danger of the Risik
reappearing as a threat.  But those arguments had failed to convince
Pelias that Adama hadn't acted improperly during the whole affair.  From
his standpoint, Adama was taking risks for the sake of getting his wife
back that he would never have taken for anyone else, and to Pelias that
represented a failure in leadership.  The subsequent revelation that the
Risik had a Consulate on the planet Harkaelis, which Byrne and Cedric
Allen had learned during their recent trip there to clear Kalysha's name,
only reinforced Pelias's belief that the Risik danger was a more active
threat than Adama seemed to realize.
     And so, here he was now, suddenly on the outs with one-time friends
like Adama and Tinia and also with Kevin Byrne for that matter.  Loyal to
the chain of command to a fault, Jena's father had taken Adama's side on
the issue, and he also held Pelias responsible for creating an air of
paranoia and tension among the Earth natives aboard the Constellation. 
That rupture with Byrne had also had the unfortunate effect of straining
relations between Jena and her father.  The two of them hadn't spoken to
each other ever since one of the Earth natives, Josh Ryan, had gone on
the IFB to air their concerns.  And since then, both of them had too much
pride to make the first move and mend their relationship.  That had
continued even after Byrne's return from Harkaelis.  However grateful
Pelias was that Kalysha Allen had been cleared, he found it unfortunate
that it had required a dangerous trip to her home planet in order to
bring that about.  Which had also meant forcing the Fleet to slow to a
crawl in order to wait for their return, and keeping the Risik threat too
close from Pelias's standpoint.
     Now, as Pelias sat in his private suite aboard his yacht, he found
himself staring at the drawing of Jada.  Thinking back to her brash
attitude that might have stolen his heart if she'd only lived long enough
for him to get to know her better.  
     "Still loafing, Cadet?  Typical for a son of a councilman!"
     He found himself smiling.  He was convinced in that final moment
when Korax had at last been destroyed forever that he'd seen her. 
Smiling that crooked smile at him, encouraging him to get up and fight. 
And he had.  He'd found a pipe and was ready to deliver the final blow,
but he had slipped and that had given the shapeshifter one last chance to
destroy him.  But it had ultimately been the sudden blow of some
well-timed stones from a slingshot courtesy of the Kian woman, Pili, that
had finally caused Korax to fall and land on top of a series of spikes,
ending his life once and for all.  His uncle had been avenged, and so too
had Jada.  But even with Jada's ghostly appearance to him, to give him
support, he still hadn't been able to do the job all by himself and had
needed help from other quarters.  That was the one regret he had about
the whole thing.  That it couldn't have been his blow from the pipe that
had sent Korax plummeting to his final doom. 
     I guess that's because Jada was right.  I am a loafer by nature. 
Conflict averse.  I've always been more comfortable letting things come
to me than being pro-active.  I like to make sure I have friends and
allies surrounding me to make me feel comfortable that I can act.  The
idea of putting myself front and center......it's never been my nature.
     Until now though.  As he stared at Jada's picture, he was convinced
he had to do something to make a statement and prove once and for all
that he could take some bold initiative of his own.  The events at the
last Council meeting had caught him off-guard with Adama's resignation
and Ila's bold declaration that she intended to seek the Presidency
through a popular referendum.  And that simply did not sit well with
Pelias.  As much as he admired Ila's courage and her legacy of
accomplishments in the Colonies and on the Pegasus, the idea of her
becoming President simply did not sit well with him.
     He had sounded out other members of the Council to ask if they had
any intention of running and to a man (and woman in the case of Siress
Eudoxia), they had all said they didn't see the point in running.  The
real surprise was Sire Xaviar, the Council Vice-President.  Pelias was
convinced that simple ego would dictate his running, especially since he
was the Acting President for now.  But Xaviar had told him that he wasn't
keen on seeking the office after the recent repudiation he'd received
from the people on the Turn Back question.  And he'd also indicated that
letting Ila take the office would keep things stable and provide
continuity of leadership that no other person could provide while letting
Adama concentrate exclusively on military matters and be free from the
day-to-day burdens of politics.  A rational excuse, but one that made
Pelias feel like Ila was being given a free pass to the Presidency.
     With Xaviar out of the running, and with no one else he'd talked to
willing to step forward, there seemed only one solution from Pelias's
standpoint.  It wasn't something he wanted to do, but.....if he really
wanted to put the ghosts of his past behind him once and for all, it was
exactly what he needed to do.  And he intended to do it when the Council
convened at precisely 1200 tomorrow.
     "For you, Jada," he said softly, and then added with a smile, "Are
you sure you're not laughing at me now?  Just a little?"
     He put the picture back in his drawer and closed it. And then, with
confidence in his step, he left his suite and decided it was time to keep
his planned dinner date with Jena on the Rising Star.  If he was going to
go ahead with this, he had to let her know ahead of time.  But whereas a
centar ago, he would have been open to the idea of letting her talk him
out of it, that wasn't the case now.  He was going to make sure she
accepted the decision as something he absolutely had to do.


     "Good evening, and welcome to this special edition of the IFB
Evening Report," Zara's face filled the screen of every civilian
broadcast monitor in the Fleet.  "One sectan after the startling
resignation of Commander Adama from the Council of Twelve as both
delegate and President, it was announced today that a Fleetwide election
for the office of President will take place in exactly five sectans. 
When the people make their decision on a civilian political leader for
the first time since the Exodus, they will have two candidates to choose
from, both of whom received formal nomination sanction from the Council. 
The choices are.....Commander Adama's wife, Professor Ila of Caprica, who
replaced him on the Council just last sectan......and the delegate from
Gemon, Sire Pelias, nephew of the late Sire Feo, who preceded him on the
Council."
     Zara turned to her right as the camera pulled back to reveal Pelias
seated next to her.
     "I am joined now in our IFB Studio here on the Electronics Ship by
Sire Pelias, who will explain his reasons for seeking this important
office.  I might add that in the interests of equal time, Professor Ila
will be interviewed by us tomorrow."
     The Canceran woman turned to Pelias and asked her first question,
"Sire Pelias.....exactly why have you chosen to run for the Presidency?"
     Pelias, his hands resting on his knees looked directly at her with
perfect poise and polish, "Well Zara, I've chosen to run first off,
because I believe I have something to offer to the people of the Fleet. 
I have shared in their journey from the outset over four yahrens ago and
I have experienced with them the totality of what we have gone through in
this flight that will lead us to Earth sometime in the next two to three
yahrens.  And as the official representative of not just my fellow
Gemonese, but of the natives of Earth who have joined our ranks, I
believe I can offer the valuable perspective of understanding exactly how
the people of Earth think, and what kind of planet Earth is.  This I know
will be important when we reach Earth and have to go through the
difficult process of integration and assimilation that will be necessary
for our people, especially in a society where the common bond of our
Kobollian ancestry has been sadly forgotten by them.  I believe that my
insight into the Earth mindset that I have learned in my interactions
with the Earth natives for the last yahren and a half can help us in that
process of assimilation when we arrive."
     "Well that's all well and good, Sire Pelias, but isn't it a fact
that you are running because no one else on the Council was willing to
challenge Professor Ila's candidacy?"
     The Gemonese Councilor let out a disarming laugh, "I admit that if
we had a crowded field of candidates, it would have made the decision to
run very difficult, Zara.  But ultimately, my decision to run is not
based on opposition to any particular individual, but solely on my belief
that I have something to offer to the people."


     Inside the Officers Club on the Galactica, Starbuck removed his lit
fumarello and vigorously shook his head from side-to-side.
     "What a load of felgercarb!"  He blew out a breath of disgust.  "I
swear Pelias is reverting back to the entitled nobleman that I met when
he was first a cadet.  And after his latest break in decorum with the
Council, he now thinks he should be president!  Naturally!"  He laughed
derisively.  "Ila will wipe the deck with him." 
     Sitting next to him, Boomer raised his glass, "I'll drink to that."


     "Well in that case Sire Pelias, what do you think Professor Ila
can't offer to the people that only you can?  Surely if you thought she
was up to the task of becoming President of the Council, you would have
chosen not to run, as the rest of your colleagues decided."
     "I don't think this is a question of whether or not Professor Ila is
up to the task of leading or not, Zara," he emphasized, "Certainly no one
would dispute her outstanding credentials in the areas of diplomacy and
political counsel that she demonstrated in both the Colonies with the
Resistance Movement, and with Commander Cain aboard the Pegasus.  And
Professor Ila deserves thanks for her role in bringing peace to our
friends and loved ones left behind in the Colonies with the agreement she
negotiated with Cylon Governor Malus.  The fact that none of us will ever
be haunted again by the thought of what happened to all those poor souls
who were left behind is something that proves how much the Lords have
blessed Professor Ila in her life."
     "Then why challenge her for the position?" Zara pressed.  "Are you
suggesting your resume is more impressive than hers in terms of
qualification for the office?"
     "Zara, I think you're starting from a fundamental misperception of
what this is all about.  It's not a question of who has a deeper resume
of accomplishments in the past, though as this campaign progresses, I
certainly intend to highlight my own successes as a member of the
Council.  This is a question of who can provide most for our people from
this time forward up to our arrival on Earth.  I believe that my deeper
experience with the people of Earth in our ranks, and my deeper
understanding of Earth history as they have taught it to me, can put me
best in a position to facilitate our eventual integration.  Professor Ila
by contrast, is a newcomer to the Fleet, who has only had two sectars to
acclimate herself to a total understanding of how we function as a Fleet
and the struggles we've undergone in the last four yahrens.  Now I grant
you, she has not operated from a total information vacuum prior to her
arrival because the miracle of our communication link with the Pegasus
helped bring her up to speed on our general plight.  Nonetheless, her
active hands-on knowledge of what we have gone through and what we face
going forward is limited to just the last sectars since her arrival. 
While I think Professor Ila has certainly earned her place as a member of
the Council and can serve as an effective stand-in for her husband's
perspective, the Presidency I think requires something more."
     "So ultimately, you see yourself as the more experienced candidate
based on the fact that Professor Ila has not been part of our journey
from the beginning."
     "Well, that is the basic difference between us that the people of
the Fleet will see as they make their choice five sectans from today,
Zara.  It will be entirely up to them to decide if that will be the
defining issue in making their choice."
     "But it is going to be the theme of your campaign?"
     Pelias smiled again, "I think the campaign will be centered on not
just a single theme, Zara, but a good deal more."
     "Thank you for joining us, Sire Pelias.  We wish you luck in this
campaign, just as we also wish Professor Ila luck.  And we will get our
chance to hear from her directly at this same time tomorrow.  And now,
for the rest of today's important news......here's Zed."


     On the Constellation, Captain Kevin Byrne had watched the interview
with grim-faced silence.  For the Earth native, this represented the
culmination of a series of events that had been set in motion by
unprofessional behavior on Pelias's part that had then resulted in his
daughter spreading unfounded rumors among her friends from Ne'Chak.  He
wasn't happy in the least bit to see his prospective son-in-law make this
decision that from his standpoint, represented a colossal ego trip of the
first order.
     He looked at the telecom unit on his desk and debated whether or not
to use it to break the two sectars of silence that had erupted between
himself and Jena.  Ever since their blowup over the matter of Josh Ryan's
IFB interview, in which the Earth native had presented a signed petition
by other Ne'Chak survivors expressing their concerns over Adama's
decision making, the two of them had not spoken directly to each other. 
Not even after his return from Harkaelis. She'd left a note on his desk
with a simple 'glad you made it back safe' message but that was it. As if
she had decided that he had to make the first move when it came to actual
conversation.  Her refusal to give ground reminded him so much of her
late mother, his fellow astronaut Dr. Genesis Kling.  Many was the time
when he could remember Genesis expressing her anger with him about
something with a firm, "I don't have to take that kind of crap from you,
Kevin Byrne!" attitude that he had to admit only added to the reasons why
he had loved her so much.
     God I miss her, he thought with a heavy heart.  The recent
settlement of matters for his friend Cedric Allen's wife Kalysha, offered
him a reminder of how alone he was when it came to companionship of the
kind that mattered most.  But ever since his disastrous relationship with
Siress Lydia ended, Byrne had found himself unwilling to re-enter the
dating world.  Officially, he could offer his commitment to duty as the
reason for that, but the simple truth was that after Lydia, he didn't
want to run the risk of getting burned again.
     He decided that maybe it was time he make the first move.  If only
because he knew he had to get some answers from her regarding Pelias's
decision to run.  He picked up the telecom and keyed in the number to her
billet, which she shared with her friends Lauren Wagner, Jessica Clemens
and Denise Hayden.  To his relief, Jena picked it up and when he asked
her if she could come by his quarters to discuss "an important matter",
his daughter didn't object and said she'd be over right away.
     I guess that's what she was waiting for.  For me to break the ice,
he thought as he leaned back in his chair and waited for her.  By his
calculation it would take her four centons to walk from her billet to his
quarters and he didn't expect her to run.  He turned out to be right on
the money.
     "You wanted to see me, Pop?" she asked with a cautious, but friendly
air once she arrived and seated herself.  She still wasn't ready for a
father-daughter embrace at this point.
     "Yes," he kept his voice calm.  "Now that it's out in the
open.....when did Pelias tell you that he was going to run for the
Presidency?"
     "Last night at dinner," Jena answered him quickly.
     "And you're okay with it?"
     "It's his decision, Pop.  He's doing what he thinks he has to do. 
Even if I tried to talk him out of it, he wouldn't listen anyway."
     "But did you want to talk him out of it?" he gently persisted, not
wanting to make it sound like a hostile demand. 
     She stared at him, "I don't think I have to tell you that, Pop. 
That's private between Pelias and me."
     He sighed and leaned back in his chair, "Jen.....I wouldn't tell
anyone else.  You know you can trust me."
     "I know that, Pop," Jena's voice was respectful but firm,
"But....there are some things between Pelias and myself that must always
stay private, and that's one of them.  He's made his decision to run, and
I'm going to support him."
     "Are your friends going to support him?" 
     "You'll have to ask them, Pop," again, she was respectful but firm. 
"They like Pelias.  They know he's been looking out for them since the
beginning.  They know they can trust him.  If they decide to vote for him
it won't be a slight against the Commander's wife."
     He realized that while Jena was willing to be polite and respectful
to him, she wasn't going to betray any confidences regarding the man she
was in love with.  As someone who didn't consider Pelias qualified to
seek the Presidency, that frustrated him.  But as a father....he couldn't
help but admire and respect her thinking on that point.
     "All right," he said as if in quiet surrender, "That's your choice. 
Your decision.  But I'll be candid with you, Jen.  I think Pelias is
setting himself up for a pratfall that could damage him long-term.  A big
repudiation from the people could mean he won't be taken seriously as a
Council member again."
     "Don't underestimate him, Pop," an edge of defensiveness in her
voice.  "You know him better than that."
     "Yes, I do," Byrne said with deep sincerity, "Pelias has a lot of
integrity and a lot of courage too.  Without him and his yacht, we
couldn't have rescued Ced and Kalysha.  I think he's been good for you. 
And you and he probably have a great future ahead.  I just wouldn't want
to see anything jeopardize that."
     "I appreciate that, Pop," again his daughter was polite and
respectful, but there wasn't much emotion in her voice.  "Is there
anything else?"
     He got to his feet and summoned all the paternal feeling he could
for his daughter.
     "Are we okay, Jen?"
     It took several microns, but a smile finally formed on her face. 
Which perfectly captured how her mother had looked during moments of
tenderness with him.
     "Of course we are, Pop," she said.  "I think we just needed a
breather from each other."
     "I'm glad," the Navy Captain felt a wave of relief go through him. 
"You know how much I love you."
     "I know," her smile grew more tender, "I love you too, Pop.  It's
just.....this is really a private thing between me and Pelias."
     He felt an urge to get up and hug his daughter, but decided it
wouldn't be appropriate.
     "Okay, that's all.  We'll talk later?"
     "Sure Pop," Jena kept smiling as she stepped toward the door, "Bye."
     After she'd gone, Byrne's relief that they'd conversed civilly
slowly gave way to the realization that his daughter was increasingly her
own woman now.  Something he knew he had to live with, despite his deeply
embedded feelings as a father. 
     He sighed loudly, as he sat back down, and since he was now
officially off-duty, he slowly poured himself a drink.  He took a long
slow sip, and looked at the way the light moved through the liquid.
     "Our baby's all grown up," he said, to the faded photo of Jen's
mother on his desk. "How did I manage to miss that?"
     
     
     "Were you surprised Pelias chose to run?" Adama asked as he and Ila
shared a private dinner that night in their quarters.
     "Not really," his wife shook her head as she ate.  "Once he knew
Xaviar wasn't going to run, I think that made him realize it would be
just a two person race if he got into it."
     "It sounds like he's hit upon a strategy for trying to beat you," he
noted.  "Use the fact that you're a 'newcomer' to the Fleet as a
liability."
     "I'd probably do the same thing if I were in his position," Ila
admitted.  "It is my greatest weakness.  That's why I took my time
waiting to do this because I needed to study up on everything the Fleet's
gone through since the Exodus.  And it also means I've got to make as
many direct appearances to the people on the different ships that I can
to let them know how much I understand their plight.  And that's
especially true with the Ne'Chak prisoners.  Pelias is probably going to
rely on them a lot to push the idea that only he can look after their
interests."
     "They're not exactly an overwhelming voting block," her husband
pointed out, "Barely 70 people out of a population of 70,000."
     "True, but I believe in addressing Pelias's biggest objection
head-on.  I think after I'm done doing my duty to Zara tomorrow on the
IFB, I should pay a visit to the Constellation."
     "Probably a good idea.  I'll leave your campaign decisions to you,"
he shook his head, "Thank the Lords I never had to go through anything
like that.  It was so much simpler when the Presidium just nominated me
to the Quorum and it was only a question of appearing before a hearing of
them once and politely answering their questions, and then they made it
official."
     "Simpler yes, but I think this is the right move even though I have
no doubt if we left things to the Council, they would have approved me,"
Ila stressed.  "I need to have the people's validation if I feel I'm
going to succeed in this job."
     "You are going to succeed, Ila," he smiled reassuringly, "I know
it."
     "I intend to," she returned the smile.


     "So what's your take on this election?" Jessica Clemens asked that
night in the Constellation Ward Room.
     Lauren Wagner smirked, "Kind of an awkward dilemma.  On the one
hand, the idea of a woman President would be great.  On the other hand,
Pelias has been a good friend and supporter to us and the Commander's
wife.....she's not exactly on top of the situation as we've experienced
it."
     "Exactly," Jessica nodded.  "That's why I don't see how we can't
support Pelias.  I'd feel like I was letting Jena down, and the rest of
us too."
     "Remember, we're just talking about who we'd vote for," Lauren
cautioned.  "We can't do anything that smacks of campaigning.  We
couldn't do that in a regular Presidential election back home because
we're active military, and I'm sure the Colonials have those kind of
regulations too."
     "Probably," Jessica looked over at Denise Hayden, "You're a
civilian, Denise.  Maybe you and Marta, Natalie and Josh could put
together another petition."
     "I suppose," Jessica's friend who had been abducted by the Risik the
same night shrugged, "To be honest, I don't have the appetite for another
open petition after the uproar our last one generated.  Besides.....I'm
not sure I'm 100% committed to voting for Pelias.  At the very least, I'd
like to give Ila a chance to prove herself."
     "I understand," Lauren nodded, "I mean, you have to respect what she
accomplished.  Castor's told me how much it means to know the people they
left behind in their old home worlds aren't going to live in fear any
longer.  Still.....I think my peace of mind would prefer having Adama
balanced by someone who really knows how to watch out for our interests. 
Whether it's been citizenship, the uniform issue, squelching that whole
'Turn Back' movement.......Pelias has delivered.  I'd feel like I was
letting him and Jena down if I voted against him."
     "Likewise," Jessica said.  "Not that I think Ila would be bad for
the Fleet, but if Pelias were to lose, it might result in our perspective
becoming marginalized."
     "Exactly," Lauren nodded, "That's my concern.  I really get a sense
that Adama and a lot of others take for granted the idea the Risik will
never bother us again for a generation.  But something tells me that's
just not so.  Maybe that minefield wasn't a big danger, and maybe it
doesn't mean much they have a consulate on a planet that wasn't too far
away for Captain Byrne to fly to.  But it sure brings back just how
determined those bastards are to do what they can to get even, and that
includes hauling all of us back to one of their prisons if they could do
it."
     "I know," Jessica shuddered, "Lords, the nightmares I still have of
that place.  Even though it was a resort compared to what I went through
afterwards with Lemeshik, I still remember poor Ron's face after all the
horrors he got subjected to."
     "While that lowlife piece of scum who got abducted with him
originally sold out and joined all the other traitors they've recruited,"
Denise added bitterly.
     "David Marshall," the name rolled off Jessica's lips with the
deepest contempt.  "If only he could have been put on trial with the
others, that would have been perfect closure.  But I guess he's still
living the good life in the Risik Capital with his fellow sewer rats."
     "You told me what a flaming Communist he was, which means he was a
nice reminder of what hypocrites those people are to begin with," Lauren
noted. "Marxism for thee, but never for me.  They're all shameless
materialists at heart when it comes to themselves."
     "That wasn't the worst thing about him," Jessica said.  "Ron told me
once that he found a private chest of David's that had the Risik
equivalent of cigarettes and candy bars that the Chief Guard was giving
him just so he'd read their propaganda shit and try to distribute it to
us.  No wonder Scarface took a liking to him."
     "Always knew he had a price," Denise wrinkled her nose, "Just like
that Baltar guy did."
     "Ah, ah," Lauren held up a finger, "Remember, we're not supposed to
say nasty things about Baltar any longer.  Captain Byrne's order."
     "Right," Jessica rolled her eyes, "Of course there's a political
reason for that.  Baltar's been a good boy since his defection back to
the Colonial side.  You have to respect that but I don't think anyone
I've run into thinks the man is truly reformed.  He's probably still
going to rot in Hell when he dies."
     "Like David Marshall," Denise said his name with disdainful disgust
once again.

Interlude-The Risik Capital

     David Marshall stared at the slip of paper that had been handed to
him again during his walk across the University green only a tenar ago. 
Like the one time before, a Risik man in a high coat and their equivalent
of sunglasses had walked by him and without making eye contact had given
it to him.  Like before, the message was in English and it told him to
come to Iakir Park in three tenars.  That was two tenars from now and he
was debating whether or not to keep the appointment.
     In the three months since Sub-Commander Morovik had told him of the
existence of documents given to him by Commander Adama that totally
undermined the Risik claim to have been the first outside race on Earth
(or "Te'rea" as they called it), David Marshall's life had been one of
endless inner turmoil.  Not at all like the blissful certainty he had
felt when he had chosen to embrace the Risik cause after being abducted
from Earth in the summer of 1991 while on a retreat at Lake Champlain
upstate New York.  For him, the Risik promise of bringing order to Earth
one day offered a new cause and a new dream for the young man whose
idealism had been shattered by the collapse of global communism in 1989
and 1990, rendering worthless the platitudes his radical parents and
grandparents had believed so strongly in.  And so, he had been removed
from the prison camp at Ne'Chak and been brought to the Risik capital,
where he'd been given a privileged place among "Enlightened Te'reans"
under Professor Tsu-Lan's staff.  Tasked with writing a special "True
History of Earth" tome that would be presented to his people on the day
the Risk returned, he had immersed himself in the ancient religious texts
of the Risik in an effort to harmonize their accounts with ancient
historical accounts from Earth.  All so that the people of Earth could
recognize the logic that the Risik, when they returned, would not be
arriving as conquerors, but as their parents come to take care of their
children once again.
     But that one meeting with Sub-Commander Morovik had changed all
that.  The Star Force officer who had been held prisoner aboard the
so-called Battlestar Galactica, which had liberated the prisoners from
Ne'Chak, had been given a computer disc by Commander Adama that contained
the religious texts of the so-called "Colonial" civilization that was
traveling across the galaxy in search of Earth, which it regarded as the
"lost 13th tribe" of an ancient human civilization.  Officially, the
Risik Sacred Scrolls supposedly referred to the arrival of this
civilization as taking place just after their departure from Earth many
thousands of years in the past.  That the Colonials, when they had
arrived had found Earth and its population as it had been shaped by the
Risik after their two thousand year rule in which their interbreeding
with the indigenous population had created the modern variant of homo
sapiens.  And from there, lay the Risik claim to being the forefather of
modern humanity.
     The documents though that had been withheld from wide distribution
(in contrast to the video record of the Colonial trial of the disgraced
Risik officials, Lemeshik, Raduztak and Tsernavia) amongst the top
members of the government, told a different story.  The Colonial Holy
Book, known as the Book of the Word and a supplemental text, the
Testament of Arkada, depicted an Earth that was totally uninhabited at
the time the first settlers arrived from a distant planet called Kobol. 
That the reason the planet Earth had been chosen in the first place by
the Kobollians as a target for settlement, despite being so far across
the galaxy, was because an advanced satellite called the "Black Knight"
had mapped Earth's solar system and found the third planet from the sun
to be more bountiful in natural resources than any planet in any other
star system the Kobollians had scouted.  And that was why the 13th Tribe
had set out from Kobol with the intent to settle it.
     Morovik had provided David with the coordinates on where he could
read these documents for himself without arousing suspicion from the
watchful eyes of the Risik Intelligence community.  And David had read
them, but.....his mind could not accept that these documents discredited
traditional Risik accounts the way Morovik had implied.  Could it not  be
possible that Earth was uninhabited with this distant planet Kobol had
scouted it with their "Black Knight" satellite, but that before their
arrival on Earth, the Risik had established themselves exactly as the
Sacred Scrolls had described?  He knew Morovik had discounted that idea
because his experience with the Colonials and with Commander Adama
specifically had revealed a people that he found to be honorable and not
guided by blind racial prejudice.  The foundation of their society did
not depend on the question of whether or not they had arrived first on
Earth.  But the Risik though, to justify everything that defined their
society on a religious and political level, depended on the idea that
Earth had been theirs first. The Colonials had nothing to gain by lying
about that part of their history. The Risik by contrast,  had everything
to gain.
     David could sense the passion and sincerity in Morovik's beliefs. 
And he had to acknowledge that it had taken considerable courage for the
Sub-Commander to approach him, since he had everything to lose.  Even
so.....David found himself not wanting to believe the Sub-Commander and
not wanting to believe his interpretation of what these Colonial
documents meant.  Which was why he was strongly leaning toward not
keeping this appointment in Iakir Park, just under two tenars from now.
     He went to his refrigerator and took out a bottle of what in Risik
culture came as close to beer as anything else.  He opened it and took a
swig, and then, after turning around to head back to his living room, the
bottle fell out of his hands and crashed to the floor where it broke and
shattered into many pieces, spilling its remaining contents which now
spread around the sides of his shoes.
     The reason for his reaction was because of the white-garbed figure
standing before him.  A man the same age as him with blonde hair.  A man
he recognized immediately, because he had been taken by the Risik the
same night as him from the shores of Lake Champlain.  Like David, it had
been a mistake because the Risik spacecraft was supposed to abduct
military personnel from the nearby Plattsburgh Air Force Base.  Instead,
they had grabbed two civilians.  David Marshall, frustrated American
Communist and student radical.......and Ron Mathews, an apolitical man
who worked on the lake helping his father rent fishing boats.
     "Hello, David," he said simply.  His expression neither friendly nor
unfriendly.
     "How could you----," David Marshall whispered.  "Where did you come
from?"
     A smile creased Ron Mathews face, "I came in the usual way, as they
say.  But that's not relevant.  I'm here to tell you something that you
have to know for your own good before you decide, of your own free will,
to take your next step.  It will not be a fair test of your character if
you are forced to make a decision as a result of incomplete information."
     "Wait a minute," David slowly began to compose himself, "Are
you.....dead?"
     "Yes.  I never made it off Ne'Chak when the Colonials liberated us. 
Your old friend, the Chief Guard, who used to bribe you with the
equivalent of cigarettes and chocolates, gunned me down when the
Colonials were evacuating us.  I died some time later in the medical
facilities aboard their ship, the Galactica."
     "This isn't possible," David shook his head.  "You can't exist."
     "Because I prove all your cherished beliefs rooted in Marxist
atheism to be a lie?" he smiled thinly, "Look past that, David.  The one
thing about you that I used to respect was that you never let yourself
believe in something you knew to be false.  The whole reason why you were
up at Lake Champlain doing all that soul-searching after global communism
collapsed was because you knew you were dealing with the god that failed. 
You then bought into the Risik propaganda line because you wanted another
god to worship and give your life purpose again, and you convinced
yourself that you were doing the logical thing in selling out because you
believed the evidence as it was presented to you justified it.  Now
though, you feel torn because you think you have an explanation that
accounts for what the Book of the Word says and what the Testament of
Arkada says about who settled Earth first, but you know you can't prove
it.  You have to let yourself fall back on your faith in the god you've
devoted yourself to these last five years that you think gave your life a
new purpose and some meaning again.  But.....because you don't like to
rely on faith, you'd feel a lot better if some direct proof were
presented to you that could settle that question once and for all.  Am I
right?"
     Slowly, David Marshall tried to look past the fact that he was
talking to a ghost.  Especially when there was so much about the ghost
that was so unlike the frightened, homesick young man he remembered from
the prison camp.  The Ron Mathews he remembered was never one for
conversation.  Not being from the military like most of the other
prisoners were, he didn't have the ability to steel himself under threats
of torture.  The only thing that had kept him sane was the compassion and
love given to him by USN Chief Petty Officer Jessica Clemens.  But that
had come to an end when Jessica was given away as a sex slave by the
Commandant to Commander Lemeshik.  
     Slowly, David took a breath and decided to treat this visit as an
intellectual challenge, "You have.....information from the great beyond
that can settle that question?"
     "Yes," he said simply, "And you will hear it, David.  You can't
avoid it."
     A sudden realization popped into David's head that made him freeze
up with terror.  But almost immediately, the white-garbed figure of Ron
Mathews was smiling and shaking his head.
     "The listening devices that are in this apartment, David, are not
functioning for the duration of my appearance to you.  Our conversation
is.....protected if you will.  That's why you can say anything you like
to me and not choose your words carefully."
     "How do I know you're....."
     "What reason do I have to lie?" Ron cut him off.  "I do not come
from a realm that engages in deceit or duplicity or where petty acts
rooted in revenge guides us.  Our only concern is to shine the light of
truth where it's needed, and to let others make their own judgments on
how to act on those truths.  That's why I'm not here to tell you what you
must do, or what the long-term solution to the problem you face is.  I'm
only here to let you have an important piece of information that will
allow you to make your own decision......of your own free will."
     "And what is that information?" David Marshall forced his words out.
     "The Colonials were first," Ron Mathews answered him bluntly. 
"Everything the Risik ancients wrote in their scrolls about being first
on Earth among outsiders, is a lie done to justify a society rooted in
militarism and cruel conquest.  Without a belief in racial superiority
that does not exist they are exposed as the petty conquerors and tyrants
like those of our own past civilizations.  Sub-Commander Morovik
recognizes this......and he is not alone."
     There was no reaction from David when he heard this.  Almost thirty
seconds elapsed before he finally spoke.
     "Who else?"
     "I cannot say more," Ron shook his head.  "That is information you
can learn through your own actions.  I have only revealed something that
you could not have learned as a result of your own actions because the
critical evidence the Galactica has that validates their texts was
discovered after Morovik was released.  And now.....my assignment is
complete."
     "Wait!" David called as Ron turned away from him, "What am I
supposed to do?" an edge of pleading entered the student radical's voice.
     Ron stopped and looked back at his fellow abductee, "I think
someone's expecting you in Iakir Park in the next hour and a half, David. 
Maybe that will give you some of the answers."
     "I don't understand," David's increased realization of which realm
Ron had come from was now overwhelming him.  "Why are you doing this? 
Don't you.....hate me for what I did?"
     "There is no hate among us, David," for the first time there was
genuine compassion in his voice.  "No matter the wrong, no matter the
injustice.  Otherwise, we are no different from the One the Risik have
been devoted to all this time."
     He then added simply, "I forgive you."
     The stunned look on David's face increased.
     "I must go now," Ron said.  "My final word of caution.  When I
disappear.....the microphones will start working again.  Guard carefully
what you say to yourself from that point onward.."
     And then, as he turned away, he disappeared in the blink of an eye. 
David took several breaths to compose himself, making sure he uttered no
asides before he finally went back to his living room space and dropped
into the chair.  Trying to come to terms with what had just happened.
     The paper that had been thrust in his hands earlier that day sat on
the table next to the chair.  He knew now that he had to keep the
appointment.


     When he arrived in Iakir Park, he was a picture of cool composure. 
Knowing that like before, his companion would come up alongside him and
converse without turning his head to face him.  And he would be expected
to do the same.
     The wait only lasted several minutes.  From the corner of his eye,
he could see a Risk looking like something out of a comedy spy movie on
Earth with the high coat, the headgear and the sunglasses.  But such ways
of dressing were not uncommon among Risik during these seasons and
consequently it gave him a quite ordinary look from their perspective.
     "Good afternoon, Mr. Marshall," he said. "Thank you for keeping the
appointment."
     Immediately, David realized this wasn't Morovik.  The voice was
different.
     "You're not Morovik," he decided to get that point out into the
open.
     "I never said in my message that I was.  You shouldn't assume that
he's alone."
     "I haven't.  I'm just surprised someone else would choose to see
me."
     "Sub-Commander Morovik felt you might be more encouraged if you had
a greater sense of who else he's confided in, in addition to yourself."
     "Then tell me who you are."
     A chuckle emitted from beneath the high collar of the coat.  "We've
met once before, Mr. Marshall.  On that occasion I said to you, 'It is
always most gratifying when a native of Te'rea has learned to embrace the
legacy of his planet's past by committing himself to our cause.'"
     David's eyes widened and he almost stopped to look at him.  But he
kept his face forward and his stride unbroken.
     "Admiral Trilligan," he whispered.
     "You remember well," the Star Force Commander let out another
chuckle.  "You never thought Morovik would confide his secrets in me? 
No, forget that.  That's not important.  What is important Mr. Marshall,
is that you now know that at least one top member of the Supreme Leader's
Inner Circle realizes the folly of what we've been doing for much too
long.  Especially now that our Supreme Leader has gone stark raving mad."
     At a fork in the pathway that lined the well-manicured public park,
Trilligan took a hard turn to the left which David obediently followed. 
The young man knew right away this would carry them deeper into the
park's interior whereas the other way would have brought them to the
entrance in a matter of minutes.
     "We'll have about fifteen of your minutes to talk by staying on this
path," the disguised Admiral said.  "What I have to say you must never
ruminate about aloud in the privacy of your own dwelling, or in your
workplace at the University.  As I'm sure Morovik warned you, those
locations are monitored by the agency whose head is the one this park is
named for."
     "I have maintained discretion," he said and then added, "What do you
mean the Supreme Leader has gone mad?"
     "I mean he has thrown all standards of rational planning out the
window with a vengeance," he said, "The defeat of our Star Force by the
Colonials and the humiliation at Ne'Chak is seen by him as a personal
affront.  And so it was.  But a rational leader would accept the reality
that it would take over a generation at the earliest to build up a
military arsenal capable of defeating the Colonials and their two primary
warships.  The Galactica and this so-called 'BaseShip' which is comprised
of renegades from the robot race the Colonials have been at war with, who
are called Cylons.  Our leader though is not a patient individual.  He
wants to achieve the glory of revenge for himself and is not content to
let the inevitable tides of history run in favor of our race.  Unless he
achieves the victory.....he regards his life as meaningless."
     "What has he done?" David kept his stride even.  He had never met
the Supreme Leader in person, but he had seen him speak many times on the
video broadcasts and at rallies.  He knew the Risik Ruler had a penchant
for oversized rhetoric and flamboyance.  He would have accepted the
characterization of 'fanatic' in a neutral-positive way.  Madness though,
suggested something else.
     "I'll tell you what he's done," an edge of acid contempt entered the
Star Force commander's voice.  "Our entire labor force is at present
engaged in the construction of over twenty new warships that we are
expected to complete in under three years time.  In order to facilitate
this, not only have all existing construction projects been scrapped,
including ones that were over ten years in development, but labor
personnel from the civilian sector has been forcibly conscripted at an
alarming rate.  Our civilian manufacturing levels are going to go through
some precipitous declines in the near-term as a consequence, which
means.....you can expect a lot of civilians on this planet to start
getting very unhappy over the lack of new material goods that they are
used to receiving from our supposedly all-knowing, all-wise benevolent
government."
     "And he's doing this because he wants a new fleet of ships to take
on the Colonials before they reach Earth?"
     "Exactly.  And he has convinced the rest of the Supreme Council that
these new ships will be able to do what the Star Force was incapable of
doing in previous engagements.  All because of what he insists is a
miracle element that General Akrom's forces have devoted all of their
energies to mining out on one of our recently pacified worlds.  He calls
it 'Neutrino' and he says it will be impervious to the typical laser fire
of the Colonial warships and their fighters."
     David tried to digest all of this information. "A metallic substance
stronger than anything else known in the universe?"
     "Supposedly.  I admit the tests on it are quite impressive, but what
I don't approve of is this fanatical insistence that we use what we've
found on the planet for this crash building program of warships that are
supposed to be ready in three years time or less.  It's necessitating a
shift in labor and manufacturing resources that in due time will lead to
domestic unrest, and also it runs the risk of leaving us vulnerable to
attack from some of our closer neighbors and adversaries.  This is
precisely why too much obsession with the long-term future rooted in the
Te'rea conquest and the defeat of the Colonials can be a most dangerous
thing."
     "But why force our home industries to shoulder the burden?" David
frowned.  "Couldn't a labor force be used from conquered Risik
territories?"
     The sound of a guffaw emanated from behind the upturned collar.
     "We're already maximizing the existing labor force from our
conquered territories, Mr. Marshall.  Our esteemed Minister of the
Colonies, Ibate, being an old University friend of our Leader, has
personally supervised the full use of available labor and resources in
the territories to this project.  But it's not enough for the size of the
Fleet the Leader wants.  That's why it requires full use of our resources
in both our Colonies and our home industries right here.  Otherwise, we
couldn't possibly reach the target goal of a twenty ship Fleet in so
short a timeframe."
     "Surely, the Supreme Leader could explain the need for public
sacrifice for the greater good," David felt he had to take the Devil's
Advocate position, if only to get Trilligan to elaborate more on why this
was a great danger. 
     "Oh, he could, and I'm sure that in the near-term when people start
to notice the shortages and begin to complain, he will.  He'll make a
speech with the usual platitudes about how this is necessary to achieve
our goals of reconquering our home system from the Ke'zar and to also
fulfill our destiny to rule over Te'rea.  He'll whip the supporters into
a frenzy by appealing to what is written in the Sacred Scrolls for which
he'll receive the wholehearted approval of the religious class.  And that
Mr. Marshall, if you have read the documents Morovik brought back that
have been kept under lock and key by Professor Tsu-Lan your superior, and
which most of the Supreme Council do not know about, is why I believe our
leader has gone mad."
     David said nothing for several seconds as they kept walking, "You
believe what those documents say about who was first on Earth?"
     "I do," Trilligan said flatly.  "For the simple reason that.....it
explains a good many things about our history that remain so
maddeningly.....elusive.  The circumstances surrounding the outbreak of
the Civil War that supposedly led to our leaving Te'rea.  The reason why
the Ke'zar came from nowhere to repel our planned invasion and forced our
expulsion from our home system.  And.....there is something else you
don't know.  Are you familiar with a race we've had some minor clashes
with in the last few years called the Harkaelians?"
     "Yes, I've heard of them.  We set up a Consulate on their planet,
didn't we?"
     "Yes, we did.  A minor diplomatic victory that came from a
relatively minor military victory that we couldn't press further at the
time.  But in the course of that conflict, we took some of them prisoner
and when one of them died, a full biological inspection was conducted
that.....suffice to say, surprised the Medical Inspector-General.  So
much that his report is still classified and it's the reason why the
Harkaelians will never be given the reciprocal privilege of a Consulate
in our territory."
     "What did he discover?"
     The Star Force commander chuckled and lowered his head slightly. 
"Common patterns of DNA between our race and theirs, Mr. Marshall. 
Enough to suggest the Harkaelians are a cousin race to our own linked by
a common ancestor.  And the common patterns are the same ones that exist
only in one other race.  Yours, Mr. Marshall."
     It took a great deal of restraint for David to avoid stopping. 
"Then what you're saying is.....it's possible your race and the
Harkaelians are descended from......." he stopped as if he was afraid
saying it would enrage him.
     "From your race, Mr. Marshall.  That's the theory that dare not be
spoken in any official setting.  If there is biological evidence to
suggest that your race is the forerunner to our own and not the other way
around, then that validates the Colonial textual claims that they were
first to arrive on your planet and that when we arrived......we were
making contact with the descendants of our own forebears.  And that would
mean any claim of Lordship over your planet based on the idea that we,
the Risik, are responsible for the modern strain of your race......is
false."
     "And if that is so, then what does that mean for the idea of
returning to Earth one day?" David wished he could have taken a chance
recording this conversation, but he knew given the listening devices in
his dwelling he never would have been able to play it back.
     He let out a philosophical sounding sigh, "What it means, Mr.
Marshall, is that if all of this is true, then what we have been told by
our religious and political leaders in the past is a lie   And if we have
chosen to believe that lie and devote ourselves to it......then what does
that say about our place in the Universe in regard to those who
are......higher than ourselves?"
     David let out a guffaw of his own, "You're getting into realms of
the supernatural that I have little experience with."  His reaction was
purely instinctual.  His recent visitation by Ron Mathews had left him
shaken regarding the matter of higher forces in the Universe, but since
he had no intention of sharing that visitation with Trilligan, Morovik or
anyone else, he knew he had to maintain the image of the devout atheist
he had always been.
     "Perhaps not, Mr. Marshall.  But I must say it troubles me greatly. 
I am devoted to my career in the Star Force.  I believe that military
might is necessary for nations and planets to secure their position in
competition with other races.  I have based my entire career on leading
our forces into battle against those who would hinder our ability to
prosper.  But this deeper obsession with Te'rea that has existed over the
millennia is beginning to strike me as something that has less to do with
preserving our position in relation to our enemies, and everything to do
with justifying doctrines of the political and religious class that
increasingly show signs of being false.  If that is the case, then that
means people like me and the men I command and send into battle are being
used and manipulated for a diabolical purpose and I must confess.....that
does not sit well with me, nor does it with the likes of Morovik."
     "And who else?" David pressed, "Or are you the only other person of
note that Morovik has confided in?"
     "For your own good, Mr. Marshall, that will remain a secret.  For
now.  But when events move to a new phase, that will likely change.  You
will have to be prepared for that day when it comes, and then you will
have to decide what you can do to save us from ourselves."
     "Perhaps none of it makes any difference to me, Admiral," David said
as he noticed they were approaching the final curve in the path that
would eventually lead back to the entrance.  "Perhaps I still prefer the
idea of Risik intervention to save Earth from itself regardless of
whether or not your race was first on the planet or not.  If these new
ships that are being built now that are made from this substance you call
'Neutrino', then why should it matter to you, if that can guarantee
victory over the Colonials?"
     "Because if the reasons for taking an interest in Te'rea are based
on lies told to us over the course of thousands of your years, Mr.
Marshall, then I have no interest in conquering your planet for its own
sake regardless of whether it's doable or not." he said bluntly.  "If I'm
to lead ships into battle and put the lives of loyal subordinates in the
Star Force at risk.....it will be for a purpose that has actual meaning
and if the purpose is to justify the power base of the religious class
after all these lies they've told us.....then that isn't worth the
sacrifice."
     "But if the Supreme Leader is devoted to this.....what other choice
do you have?"
     "Then the Supreme Leader will have to be.....dealt with at some
point."  Admiral Trilligan didn't hesitate.  "Especially if he insists on
doing what I think he wants to do when these ships he insists on having
finished in the next three years are ready."
     "And that is?"
     "Personally leading them into battle," an edge of disdainful sarcasm
crept into his voice.  "Naturally, he would allow me to be the tactical
commander, but he is obsessed with the idea of being present when final
victory is achieved over Adama and the Colonials.  He sees himself as
divinely chosen for this moment by Belial himself."
     "The Supreme Risik Deity?" David's brow knotted.
     "According to some of our priests and scholars.  Whether Belial is
truly the god above all gods or just one or many has always been an open
question.  But the bottom line is our Supreme Leader believes he has
spoken directly to Belial and that Belial is guiding him.  In the face of
the evidence that increasingly indicates what we've believed is a
lie......then that is the ultimate reason why I believe our Supreme
Leader is quite......mad."
     "But you can't act on that."
     "Not here," his tone grew cryptic.  "That will have to come much
later.  We are at minimum, Mr. Marshall, two to three years away from
being able to act.  But you will know when conditions have
changed.....and you will have to decide what you must do to bring some
necessary changes to our society."
     "I reiterate," David said as he saw the gateway that led in and out
of the park looming close, "Why must I help in any effort to disrupt the
status quo if I believe the Risik conquest of Earth would still benefit
my people?"
     "Because Mr. Marshall, the one thing you're not is intellectually
dishonest.  Do you think our people are really capable of 'helping' you
if we can't even get our own house in order regarding our origins and our
background over the course of thousands of your years?  If you stll hold
out hope for that, then perhaps Morovik and I have misjudged you."  
     "You haven't," the former student radical said quickly.  "But
intellectual honesty requires me to ask the questions, Admiral."
     "So it does," he was sure Trilligan was smiling beneath the folds of
his coat. "Very well, Mr. Marshall.  This is the end of our conversation. 
It may be months or a year before there's another one, but I suggest you
keep a close eye on what our Leader says in the future regarding the
supply chain, and the military build-up.  And find out who else in our
society is prepared to show signs of discontent as well.  Whenever the
time comes to act, you won't be able to do it without finding allies you
know you can trust."
     "I will not be.....idle, Admiral,"
     "That is good to know," they reached the main gate, "Good a
fternoon, Mr. Marshall."
     The Star Force commander headed down the street to the left, while
David turned to the right which led back to his apartment complex.
     So much to take in, he thought.  And to what end, ultimately?  If
it's true that I have to organize disaffected Risik into some kind of
revolutionary uprising someday, how am I going to do that?  And when that
day comes, will people like Trilligan still be on the same side?  Or is a
military man like Trilligan just using me as a tool to eliminate his one
obstacle to total power?
     All of those, David Marshall realized, where questions that would
not yield their answers for quite some time.  And in the meantime, he
would have to keep pondering them while maintaining his duties as a loyal
member of Professor Tsu-Lan's staff
     As he walked down the street, he noticed, standing alone at the
corner of the intersection, with arms folded, the unmistakable form of
Ron Mathews.  As he passed him on the right, he could see that the
white-garbed former Ne'chak prisoner was smiling faintly at him.
     He quickened his pace and walked past him without saying a word.

Chapter Four

     "An honor to have you aboard, Professor Ila."
     Ila smiled and shook hands with the Constellation's master.  She had
just stepped through the docking ring into the converted pirate ship's
departure lounge.  "A pleasure to be here, Captain Byrne."
     "Is this your first time aboard the Constellation?" he asked as they
started to walk through the corridor.  
     "My second time actually," the blonde Academician said as she looked
about, "I came here once to see Lieutenant Hunley to thank her for all
the work she's done communicating with the Resistance and for what she
did during the contact with the Entity.  And also her husband, Captain
Dante, because the Strike Leader of the Pegasus, Major Skyler, is a good
friend of his and I wanted to bring Dante up to date on how he's doing."
     "Well, Mr. Dante's a very good XO.  I know he still misses viper
duty, but I wouldn't be able to keep this ship functioning without him,"
Byrne pointed to the ceiling, "This and the Adelaide used to be pirate
vessels."
     "The Zykonians do have their seamy side," Ila observed, "I'm glad
the Pegasus didn't venture past Brylon Station before we turned back.  We
never ran into any of that outlaw element of theirs, though I imagine we
saw some of them on the Station."
     "Speaking of which," Byrne turned to her and smiled, "I understand
you met an old friend of Commander Allen's and mine when you were there."
     Ila let out a laugh, "Ozko Bolzakian!  Yes, and that was how I first
learned of your existence, and how the Galactica had made its first
contact with actual natives of Earth.  That was a remarkable stroke of
luck that we found him on the Station just one night before he was going
to catch a transport back to his home world, Calcorya."
     "I'm glad to know things have quieted down on the Frontier so that
he can go back and forth safely from Brylon to Calcorya," he then
chuckled. "I wonder if he's still carrying my 1933 double eagle."
     "Your what?" Ila frowned.
     "A rare....and somewhat illegal gold coin from my native country."
     "Illegal?"
     "Well....complicated story.  The government stopped making these
kind of coins in the year 1932 but some of them got made in 1933 and the
government ordered them seized.  A few slipped out but the government
always maintained it was illegal to own one of these with a 1933 date. 
My grandfather though got hold of one of them through means he never
fully revealed and passed it on to my father who then gave it to me.  I
brought it with me from Earth as a good luck charm, though I have to
admit I didn't want some law enforcement agency going through my
apartment while I was away and finding it and seizing it!"
     "And would you have been arrested  upon returning to Earth?" Ila
found this amusing.
     "Well....probably just a finger-wagging from a judge.  Anyway, when
we ended up on that detention planet, Krylamic where we met Ozko,
I.....gave it to him one night after we'd gone through a round of
drinking.  Then all those years later when the Galactica rescued us and
we saw Ozko again, he still had it with him.  And when Ozko finally left
us at RB-33 Station and got passage back to Calcorya, I told him he could
keep it for good as a remembrance."
     "I have to admit I wasn't looking to see if he had a coin, but I'm
sure he still has it, Captain.  He spoke of you quite highly.  You and
all the members of your crew."
     His expression grew slightly pensive, "That reminds me, Professor. 
After you're done with your little meet and greet with everyone on
Constellation, I'd appreciate it if you'd come by my quarters because
there's something I do need to talk to you about.....privately."
     "Of course," she hesitated slightly, "What about?"
     "I'll let you know.  Meantime, let me show you the Bridge and then
I'll take you to the Rec Hall."


     Twenty centons later, after being shown the Bridge and the
Engineering section, Ila was standing inside the ship's Rec Hall, where a
crowd of some 25 to 30 people had gathered.  All of them were wearing
either Earth military uniforms, which they were permitted to do aboard
Constellation, or civilian clothes of a distinctly Earth style.  Ila knew
right away this constituted every freed prisoner from Ne'Chak who lived
aboard the Constellation.
     "Thank you very much for giving me some of your time," Ila spoke
into a hand microphone as she stood at the back of the Rec Hall where two
of the game tables had been pushed aside to give her space.  "As you
know, I'm Professor Ila.  I am Commander Adama's wife, a new member of
the Council of Twelve.....and I am running for the office of Council
President.  Even though I've been living in the Fleet only for the last
two sectars......I do feel as if I know a good many of your faces
already, because......I had the occasion to see the video you made as
your parting message to the Risik Empire when I was on the Pegasus."
     Immediately a stirring went up from everyone gathered.  Ila saw
their reaction and immediately nodded.
     "Yes, I'm quite familiar with the horrible experience all of you
went through as prisoners taken from Earth against your will and forced
to suffer in barbaric conditions that most Colonials I don't think can
begin to comprehend because......we've been conditioned to think only of
the risk of dying in war against an enemy that was bent on our immediate
destruction, as opposed to enslaving us.  The idea of......long-term
imprisonment and subjugation is a concept we tend by instinct to have
more trouble grasping.  But I was in for quite an education when the
Pegasus had its one brush with a Risik scout vessel.  They attempted to
abduct one of our warriors who successfully managed to fight back against
his captors and helped force the ship back down to the ground."
     Lauren suddenly nodded her head as she remembered the story she'd
been told by Mairwen, the operator of the java kiosk stand on the Rising
Star.  The Pegasus warrior Ila had mentioned was Mairwen's brother,
Ensign Tegran.  
     "The Risik crew was killed in the crash, but they left behind some
interesting things in their data base.  The complete video of the trial
of the war criminals Lemeshik, Raduztak and Tsernavia......along with
your personal messages to the Risik."
     Her eyes then focused on Lauren.
     "Sergeant Lauren Wagner......although you were not among those held
at Ne'Chak, your story was no less degrading.  I am glad you could take
pride as a member of our Elite Squadron in being part of the effort that
liberated your fellow Earthers.  And I thank you for introducing me, a
professor of the literary arts, to a phrase that perfectly captures the
essence of how evil the Risik are when you referred to them in your
message as 'jack-booted thugs.'"
     Lauren cracked a smile as she recalled how much she'd unleashed all
the feelings of animosity and hate she could summon for the Risik in her
message to the Supreme Leader.  And the fact that Ila was familiar with
everything she'd said, and even recognized her by sight.....was
definitely a point in her favor.
     For the next ten centons, Ila addressed by name each of the others
in the room who had left a message to the Risik Supreme Leader and
expressed their anger over their treatment and their captivity, as well
as their warning to never consider resuming their invasion plans for
Earth.  Jessica Clemens.  Lieutenant Amy Sanderson.  Sergeant Gloria
Shamir.  Josh and Natalie Ryan.  Airman Brandon Reynolds.  Talking to
them directly about their own experiences and empathizing with their
sense of loss at being wrenched away from their homes and families so
unexpectedly, and finding themselves so far from home.  As with Lauren,
they were amazed at how Ila automatically knew their faces and names
instinctively and understood the nuances of what they had been through
which could only have come from repeated viewings of their messages over
a period of time, and not the result of any kind of crash preparation.
     "Now I can't claim to know what it's like to be held prisoner for as
long as you were," Ila went on.  "But....I did have an interesting
experience when I found myself taken hostage and held with a laser pistol
to my throat by a man with an attitude.....similar to that of your Risik
captors."
     Ila then described what had happened to her on the Planet Terra,
when she and Commander Cain had been kidnaped by commandos from the
ruthless Eastern Alliance and taken before their fanatical ruler
Commandant Leiter.  A name that everyone recognized because they
remembered from the Risik Tribunal how the defense counsel at one point
had tried to invoke for comparative purposes the fact that Adama had not
held Leiter for tribunal regarding the atrocities he had committed
against a colony of humans on a planet called Paradeen.  But the attempt
had been squelched on the grounds that Adama could not hold someone on
trial for crimes committed against co-belligerents in a war, whereas the
Ne'Chak prisoners were not co-belligerents in the war the Risik was
fighting against the Ke'zar nation.
     "Leiter was the most patronizing, arrogant piece of scum I've ever
found myself next to," Ila said.  "He was constantly mocking me.  Calling
me 'dear lady' and putting down my husband as a coward.  It filled me
with an absolute sense of anger and outrage that he was subjecting me to
this and thinking he could come out on top.  So.....I decided to put the
skills I'd learned as a member of the Caprican Resistance to use when I
had to take part in commando operations, and take matters into my own
hands."
     She was a commando?  Lauren thought.  Good Lord, I never would have
guessed!
     "Being the mother of three children who grew up to be warriors meant
I had to supervise them during their formative......years," she made
certain she used the Earth term, "I had to keep myself fit to be an
occasional sparring partner for them because their father was away from
home most of the time.  When my daughter was enrolled in a self-defense
class, I actually took part in it myself, and that gave me some training
that paid dividends much later in my life when unbeknownst to me, I was
already a grandmother!"
     Ila then described how she'd managed to deliver a blow to Leiter's
windpipe that caused him to stagger, whereupon she'd grabbed him by the
arm and wrenched it back with such force she'd snapped the shoulder
tendon completely.
     "The roles were reversed," her voice was a hush as everyone listened
to her with spellbound attention, "I had his gun at his throat now.  I
wanted to unleash my hate for him and what he'd done to me with that
humiliating kidnaping and patronizing he'd put me through.....but the
Lord saw fit to dispense justice in a more appropriate way when his
Intelligence Chief turned on him and shot him dead.....as part of his
seizure of power and forcing the Alliance to finally make peace."
     She paused and looked back at Lauren, "I know how you, Sergeant
Wagner, must have felt the urge to take matters into your own hands when
you were part of that raiding party.  But you instead chose to act
honorably and remind those monsters why we have the right to think we are
better than them.  They were given justice of a more appropriate kind,
just as Leiter received justice more appropriately in the form of being
overthrown and knowing he died a failure.  I see in you and the rest of
you, people I can relate to, even though we have shared different
experiences.  I understand why none of you ever want to fear the danger
of the Risik again during the rest of your journey to Earth, especially
when I see some of you like the Ryans and the Maartens and the Scotts
raising your newborns.  And you can be assured that if you elect me as 
your  next President of the Quorum, your interests will be my interests
as well."
     She looked around the room and said with a humble smile, "Thank you
for your time."
     The applause began almost immediately and lasted for over two
centons before Ila raised her hand to indicate silence.
     "I'm now happy to answer any questions you want to put to me."
     "Siress Ila----," Josh Ryan started, but Ila quickly cut her off.
     "Professor, please.  Technically, as a new member of the Council I'm
eligible for a title of nobility, but I've chosen to decline the honor."
     "Professor," Josh corrected himself, "Is there any substantive
difference of opinion between you and Commander Adama on any issue, or
would your election amount to just your being a stand-in for his
position?"
     Ila smiled disarmingly, "I love my husband.  I'm doing this in part
to relieve him of the stresses and burdens he's had to shoulder as both
military and political leader since the beginning of the Exodus from the
Colonies.  But.....I am still my own woman.  If I feel a need to question
his judgment, then I shall treat him just as I did Commander Cain when I
was his political advisor aboard the Pegasus."
     "But is there something he's done that you disagree with?" Josh
persisted.  "Something that he could have done differently?"
     The blonde Academician gave him a thoughtful look.  And then she
slowly nodded.
     "Yes, Mr. Ryan.  Concerning the planet Terra, there was probably a
good deal of undue haste in leaving that area of space as quickly as the
Fleet did.  A great deal of unanswered questions that weren't resolved
until the Pegasus visited the planet that tie in to the matter of Earth's
original settlement......and offer us clues that could very well be the
key to undermining the lies the Risik tell themselves and us to justify
their supposed claim to Earth."
     This led to a murmur among the assembled.
     "How is that so, Professor?" Amy Sanderson asked.
     "Well, it's a very complicated story, Lieutenant," Ila said.  "The
planet Terra has a culture that more closely resembles your own culture
on Earth than it does Colonial culture and that's because in its period
of development they were monitoring developments from Earth and copying
their culture and applying it to their own.  This is because for a long
period of time, they used forbidden technology from the mother planet
Kobol that they were supposed to destroy.  Technology that allowed them
to read signals being transmitted by a satellite orbiting Earth called
the Black Knight."
     Donald Keyhoe's pet theory in UFO circles, Lauren thought, her arms
folded as she continued to listen in spellbound fascination.  Until
today, she never realized how little she and the others actually knew
about Ila's background and experiences.  She had just been a distant
figure they knew of from secondhand news accounts doing impressive things
far behind them.  But just how impressive those achievements were was
something they'd never fully grasped.
     "The Black Knight is a satellite that was sent from Kobol that first
identified the planet as the ideal spot in the galaxy for the 13th Tribe
of Kobol to journey to and settle on.  When the Black Knight first
transmitted that data, the planet was unsettled.  It continued to
transmit for thousands of your years after that.....and recorded
everything that has taken place from the time the Kobollians arrived
first.....and the Risik arrived much later."
     A murmur went up from everyone, and some of it was grateful, because
it made them feel good to know that the race that had been responsible
for their suffering had indeed lied to them about the principle reason
used to justify their claim to rule over Earth.
     "Now we have not been able to recover all of the data from the Black
Knight to tell us the full story of how and why the Risik were forced to
leave Earth.  The point is that the information is there and once it is
recovered, we will be able to prove to the ordinary Risik that their
leadership, political and religious, has lied to them all this time. 
That information could well prove as valuable as our weaponry in the
ultimate defeat of the Risik if it were to one day lead to a spark of
Enlightenment in their ranks.  Similar to what I have seen and you have
seen in the ranks of the Colonials long-standing enemy, the Cylon
Empire."
     She then looked back at Josh, "So to return to your question, Mr.
Ryan.  I do believe mistakes were made by our leadership, which of course
includes my husband, regarding the decision not to fully establish the
planet Terra's links to our own civilization.  Had we done so, we might
have learned this information from the Black Knight much sooner, and that
would have been beneficial to us if it had been available at the time the
derelict containing Sergeant Wagner was discovered.  Had I been here at
the time, I know I would have argued most strongly for learning that
information before the Fleet moved away from the Terra system."
     Josh slowly nodded his head as if he felt that his question had been
answered satisfactorily and resumed his seat.
     "Professor Ila," Amy Sanderson asked, "Where do you stand on the
issue of uniforms and how we, as natives of Earth, should dress when
working off the Constellation and Adelaide?"
     Ila smiled thinly, "I understand this was a divisive topic in the
past but a compromise was worked out that took into consideration diverse
perspectives.  Am I wrong about that?"
     "There was an agreement, Professor," the USMC Lieutenant who had
become the first Earth native to become a qualified shuttle pilot said. 
"But....some of us were not too happy that the subject came up at all
when initially we were given the right to wear our own country's uniform
anywhere we worked."
     "Sometimes compromise is necessary for the greater good," Ila said
gently.  "I recognize and respect the pride that all of you feel as
members of your respective country's military service branch on Earth. 
But....there is an issue of efficiency that I think plays a role in some
of these matters.  For instance, if all of you belonged to the same
military service branch that represented service to an entire planet, as
opposed to an individual nation, the case for keeping your separatism on
this point in all areas of the Fleet would have been stronger because the
average Colonial would know right away that you wore one distinct uniform
representing Earth military service they could easily identify.  Just as
they know a warrior's uniform when they see it, or when they see a
Council Security uniform, or a maintenance technician uniform.  But given
the lack of consistency that exists from one nation to another, and
indeed from one service branch to another, this can for the ordinary
Colonial outside the Constellation and Adelaide cause confusion.  Such
confusion can then contribute to breakdowns in work efficiency.  I think
this point was brought up when the compromise regarding the need for
uniformity elsewhere in the Fleet during official assignments was agreed
to, wasn't it?"  
     "It was," Amy acknowledged.  "I was just curious what you thought
about the issue, as one who was not here at the time the matter was
decided."
     "I think its best we regard a settled matter that has been carefully
worked out as something that need not be revisited," Ila knew this was a
delicate subject.  She understood why this was a sore subject with some
people, and she knew it had to be addressed carefully and diplomatically
while at the same time being candid about her own perspective.  "Sire
Pelias, my opponent, has not indicated that he intends to revisit the
subject even if he is elected, so I think that means we're dealing with
something that has been fairly and responsibly decided in the past. There
is no reason I think to disrupt the status quo as it presently exists.  I
will say that the subsequent agreement to exempt all of you from Colonial
dress uniforms at formal ceremonies was, I think, an appropriate
decision."
     Amy resumed her seat.  Lauren could tell from her expression that
the lieutenant had found her reason to justify continued support for
Pelias.  For Lauren, it was a subject that might have bothered her once,
but not as much in recent times since she found that wearing battle dress
on a rotation assignment to the Galactica was a small price to pay if it
got her some extra time with her boyfriend, Lieutenant Castor.
     "Um, ma'am?" the southern accent of Airman Brandon Reynolds shyly
inquired.
     "Professor," Ila gently corrected.
     "Um....sorry, Professor," he awkwardly rose, "I ah....was wondering
where you stand on the idea of a....new seat being created on the Council
to ah.....represent Earth."
     "That is a good question, Airman Reynolds," Ila nodded.  "My
understanding is that after your ratification as Colonial citizens, you
chose to defer the issue of a separate seat on the Council on the grounds
that none of you were interested in becoming involved directly with
political matters."
     "That's true, Professor," Denise Hayden chimed in.  "But that was
also caused by the fact a number of your Council colleagues didn't care
for the idea because of our comparatively small number compared to the
populations representing the original twelve colonies.  Do you agree that
our number is too small to be given representation on the Council?"
     Ila looked directly, "I think my own decision on that subject could
be influenced if I knew that circumstances have changed and that there
now exist voices willing to actively take part in the rough and tumble
world of Council politics.  Is anyone among you at this time prepared to
step forward and answer that challenge?  Or do you feel Sire Pelias has
sufficiently represented your perspective and merits continuation in that
role?"
     Brilliant, Jessica realized.  She just made the case that if we want
a separate seat on the Council, we're all but admitting that we think
Pelias hasn't done a good enough job and if that's the case, why should
we vote for him to be President?  
     Similar thoughts passed through Lauren's mind.  We'd have had a
woman President of the United States long ago if there'd been someone
like her in Congress!  She's clearly her own woman and not just a
stand-in for Adama.
     Hearing nothing, Ila went on, "I am open to the idea if it becomes
clear that is what you, collectively want to see happen, and if you any
of you, or your brothers and sisters aboard the Adelaide are ready to
step forward.  Of course that must also take into account the sentiments
of later arrivals to the Fleet from the planet known as "Liberty" who are
descendants of Earth natives, as well as the survivor from the Earth ship
Terashkova who recently came to us.  To sum up, show me the desire that
you want this, and the commitment to serve, and I will give you every
opportunity as President to achieve those goals."
     Not an empty promise but a challenge to us.  Denise thought.  And a
reasonable one too. I like the way she thinks.  I just wish the idea of
opposing Pelias didn't make me feel so guilty!
     Ila took more questions from everyone in the room.  Always quick
with her answers and always addressing each person by name.  An exchange
with Anna Popova (the Languatron interface now having no difficulties
with her Russian)  about the work in the childcare center gave Ila a
chance to express her gratitude for all that had been done to take care
of the newborns, and how she looked forward to when her three infant
grandchildren would be interacting and playing with their Earth cousins. 
Though she added the caveat that she of course hoped that arrival on
Earth would come before any of the newborns would be ready for their
primary instruction classes.
     By the time the meeting broke up, not every person in the room had
necessarily been convinced that they should vote for Ila, but all of them
were convinced that if she won, she would definitely be looking out for
their interests.


     Lauren, Denise and Jessica returned to the billet they shared with
Jena.  They were glad their bunkmate wasn't in since they wanted to
candidly discuss among themselves their reactions to Ila's talk.
     "I got to admit, I don't see how I can't vote for her," Lauren said
as she removed her USAF uniform to change into civilian clothes for the
evening.  "Qualifications, background, experience.  And my God, that
story about her breaking that space Nazi's arm!  I never would have
guessed she could do something like that."
     "Sounds like she would have made a great commando if she'd chosen
the military instead of academia," Jessica said as she sat down on the
edge of her bunk.  "I'd love to see her become President, and
yet......I'd feel bad about not supporting Pelias."
     "Likewise," Denise nodded, "Still.....I really don't see how Pelias
has a chance against her.  Ila's quick on her feet, polished, and she
doesn't try to sugarcoat things.  And she totally downplayed the fact
that she's Adama's wife.  Pelias though....I don't think he's really
ready for that big of a job when you put him up against someone like Ila. 
Compared to Ila, Pelias doesn't have a drop of gravitas."
     "If it were Pelias running against Sire Xaviar, I'd be all-out for
him.  I know Xaviar made amends later, but he left a bad taste in my
mouth after that whole 'Turn Back' thing," Lauren noted, "Especially when
that led to that bitch Lydia trying to frame poor Reynolds for a fake
assassination plot on Xaviar.  But with Ila....I think it'd be better if
Pelias just got out of the race.  If Ila campaigns to the rest of the
people like she did with us, she's going to make the Reagan-Mondale
election seem like a nail-biter by comparison."
     "Are you going to tell Jena that's what Pelias should do?" Jessica
asked.  "Is that what we should all do when she gets back?"
     "Good question," Denise admitted as she stretched herself out on her
bunk, "I think that would depend on just how much does Jena really want
Pelias to run for this.  I know she's supporting him because she loves
him, but she wouldn't say whether she tried to talk him out of running or
not."
     "So you think we should press her about that?" Lauren, now out of
uniform reached for the custom-designed red dress that meant only one
thing.  A date with her boyfriend, Lieutenant Castor. "Try to encourage
her that she should get Pelias to drop out for his own good?"
     "I'd hate to do that alone," Jessica sighed. "But if we did it as a
group, I'd feel like we were ganging up on her.  It's really a bad
situation either way."
     "And I hate to say it, but we may have contributed to it because of
how we reacted a couple months ago to all that news about the old Risik
minefield and whether Adama was taking too many risks just to get Ila
back."  Denise had a tinge of regret in her voice as she reached for a
paperback book from the shelf inside her bunk space.  It was her own copy
of the Sue Grafton mystery novel, "F Is For Fugitive" from her alphabet
series featuring female detective Kinsey Milhoine, which Denise had been
a big fan of.  The book had been in her purse the night she and Jessica
had been abducted by the Risik one night in 1992 and amazingly the Risik
had returned it to her during her days in the Ne'Chak prison.  With
little reading material of their own that wasn't Risik propaganda, she
had read it eight times over during her captivity and then made it
available to others who wanted some kind of diversion for themselves. 
During the rescue by the Colonials, it was the one thing she'd remembered
to grab and even though she could practically memorize the entire book by
now she still enjoyed revisiting it just because it was the only Grafton
novel she could read.  She had asked Captain Byrne once if Grafton had
still been writing them at the time he left Earth nearly twenty years
after her abduction and Byrne could only tell her that he vaguely
remembered the name from seeing the novels in airport bookstores all the
time but he wasn't sure how far she'd gotten in the alphabet since by
Byrne's own admission he wasn't a fan of detective novels (Denise had
suspected what he really meant was that he wasn't a fan of female
detective novels).
     "I don't think we overreacted," Lauren motioned to Jessica to zip up
the back side of her dress and her friend obliged, "I think it was legit
stuff at the time.  Maybe it's true Pelias overreacted to it......"
     "Because he thinks he's doing his job for us by taking that line,"
Denise interrupted as she flipped her book to the opening chapter.  "I'm
just saying that maybe we could get Pelias to drop out if we told him  he
didn't have to think he needed to run for President just for our sakes. 
Maybe that would do the trick."
     "Or else it might be a blow to his male ego, which could be why Jena
wouldn't want to upset him." Lauren took a glance at herself in the
mirror and smiled.  She loved the way the red dress accentuated the
femininity of her short, close-cropped hairstyle which some people tended
to think was too short for most women.  She'd found a kindred spirit on
that point in Captain Bojay's wife Gayla who also liked to keep her hair
cut very short in a way that managed to look perfectly feminine with the
right outfit.  And just as Bojay loved the way Gayla did her hair, so too
did Castor with Lauren.
     "Where does it leave us then?" Jessica asked.  "Do we tell Jena she
should get Pelias to drop out or don't we?"
     "I say give it another week and we'll know if our hunch about the
campaign is right," Lauren reached for her travel bag.  "The IFB will
probably have it first poll ready about who's leading and if Ila already
has a big lead......I say that's when we tell Jena she has to get Pelias
to drop out for his own good."
     "I'm game with that," Denise said.
     "Me too then," Jessica nodded and then smiled at Lauren, "So where
are you and Castor going to have your.....quality time this evening?"
     Lauren grinned, "A pass to the Rec Dome on the Agro-Ship.  First a
nice lovely walk through the Public Garden, and then we get an hour with
a group that gets to go swimming in that mountain lake replica they
have."
     "Really," Denise looked at her, "How different is that from the
Aquacade on the Rising Star?"
     "Big difference!" Lauren picked up her bag, "The Aquacade is like a
glorified cruise ship swimming pool.  But this spot they tell me is like
swimming in a lake surrounded by tall trees and the freshest air they can
pump in.  Castor says it's probably the one place in the whole Fleet
that'll remind me of Montana.  They let groups of people have an hour in
it to do all kinds of recreational stuff.  The problem is the rates are
so exorbitant that's why he never got a chance to invite me there until
tonight."
     "Sounds like you'll have fun," Jessica then took note of her travel
bag, "So....did you pack the one-piece or the bikini?"
     "Tempted as I was, the fact that we'll be surrounded by a fair size
group, some of them families with children, made me decide the bikini
will have to wait.  I don't think it'll matter with Castor.  He thinks I
look sexy even in a Colonial battle suit."
     "Which is why you stopped caring about the uniform regs," Jessica
noted dryly.
     "Maybe," she shrugged and picked up her bag, "But Ila was right. 
It's silly to keep going over that issue when we've come up with a decent
compromise that lets us be diverse in what we wear.  I hope no one else
brings it up or tries to convince Pelias he should revisit it as a wedge
issue.  It wouldn't help him a bit."
     "And I think Ila also proved that she doesn't underestimate the
Risik threat," Denise said as she shifted her gaze back to her book. 
"Let's hope Pelias comes to his senses before we have to try and talk to
Jena about it."
     "Yeah, let's," Lauren headed for the door, "See you."
     "Have fun!" Jessica waved.

     
     "You seem to have hit it off well with the Earth natives," Byrne
said as he and Ila entered the room that served as his office and
quarters.  She had just finished the rest of her tour of the
Constellation which included a visit to the Child Care Center and a look
at all the newborns of the past yahren.
     "One speech does not a campaign make," Ila shrugged simply.  "Still,
I like to think they understood that they don't have anything to worry
about if I'm elected.  I imagine some will still choose to vote for
Pelias out of loyalty, and I can understand that."
     "I'll be honest, Professor," Byrne sat down behind his desk, "Even
though Pelias is my future son-in-law, I think he's in over his head
running for the Presidency.  He's got a lot of potential, but he's far
too young to handle the responsibilities of being  the number-two voice
of authority in the Fleet.  I think he's doing this simply because he's
mad at your husband for reopening the matter of the Risik when we came
into proximity of that old minefield of theirs."
     "And also because your trip to Harkaelis meant the Risik likely
learned about our whereabouts because they have a Consulate there?"
     "That too," the USN Captain admitted.  "He might have brushed that
off if we hadn't had the matter of the minefield before, but put
together.....it reinforces his belief that Adama's been taking the
possibility of a future Risik threat too lightly."
     "And in the process, he got the Earthers he feels responsible for
worried as well," the blonde Academician acknowledged, "Which is why I
decided my first official campaign visit had to be here to talk to them
and show them I'm on their side and would never let them think their
concerns are a lower priority for us.  And my husband feels the same
way."
     "I know that, Professor," the USN captain nodded.  "And I think
you're going to demonstrate rather quickly why Pelias hasn't a chance. 
He's much too inexperienced, he's impulsive.....and I think if he's fool
enough to continue this campaign to the very end, he's going to be
humiliated so badly it could negatively impact his ability to keep
serving on the Council.....and by extension that could be harmful to my
daughter as well."
     "I sympathize, Captain Byrne," Ila said as she sat down in front of
the desk, directly across from him.  "But....I don't see what I can do. 
If you think he should withdraw for his own good, you'd have to convince
him of the reason way."
     "I don't think I carry much weight with him right now," he sighed,
"The only person who could convince him to get out would be Jena, my
daughter.  And she's made it clear she's supporting his effort.  I don't
know whether she actually wanted him to run or not, but now that he's in,
she's going to stand by him."
     She looked at him, wondering if he was going to say something else,
"Is that what you wanted to talk to me about in private?"
     "No, actually," he shook his head, not looking at her, "But before I
get to that.....I thought maybe I could suggest that the ideal way of
getting him to drop out would be to.....stress just how inexperienced he
is.  Make him see that the sooner he gets out the better it will be for
him and for Jena."
     "Captain," the politeness disappeared from Ila's voice, "I'm getting
the distinct impression you want me to go negative on him.  Make this a
campaign about how he isn't fit to be President and hope that will
humiliate him into dropping out."
     "I think he's going to be humiliated more if he stayed in and only
got something on the order of ten or fifteen percent," Byrne still didn't
look directly at her.  "Professor....I am only offering this suggestion
because.....I do care about him, and more importantly I care about my
daughter.  Her entire life has been an emotional roller-coaster.  If this
is the only way I can try to sacrifice myself for her, then so be it. 
But obviously it's not my right to ask this of you."
     "No indeed, Captain," her tone was now one of neutrality mixed with
just enough disappointment, "In fact, it's against regulations for anyone
who holds the status of a commissioned warrior to engage themselves in
political activities like this.  But....because you love your daughter,
I'm going to pretend you never said what you said."
     He nodded without looking at her, as if he was ashamed for having
brought the subject up.  "I understand.  I'm sorry."
     "I am too," Ila shifted her voice slightly so it was neutral with a
drop of sympathy.  "In fact, I agree with you about Pelias's
qualifications.  But I want to win this race based on my record and based
on the issues.  I am not going to go negative with attacks on Pelias.  I
couldn't live with myself if I did that."
     Another nod of the head was his only response.  Ila thought of
rising from her chair but then realized that the issue he wanted to talk
to her about still hadn't come up.
     "All right Captain, you said there was something else we had to talk
about?"
     "Yes," Byrne finally looked at her, "Yes, Professor.  Totally
unrelated to the campaign.  It's.....if you can believe it, this is an
even tougher subject for me than the matter of the election.  The only
reason I'm asking is because after I got back from Harkaelis, I had a
chance to read a crew listing for the Pegasus that I'd requested since
two members of my crew have some friends they wanted to make contact
with.  And when I read the list I saw a particular name that.....was of
interest to me."
     An inkling of what Byrne was getting at began to form in the back of
Ila's mind and she felt a chill go through her.  But outwardly, she
remained stoic.
     "Professor.....is it true that a pilot by the name of......Ensign
Wynn has returned?"
     Ila felt her nails digging into the armrest of the chair she was
sitting in.  Slowly, she collected her inner strength so she could keep
her voice calm.
     "You.....know the significance of that name, Captain?"
     "Yes, Professor.  I.....know that Ensign Wynn ended up on a certain
Derelict ship some time ago.  The same Derelict ship that the three
remaining survivors of my original crew, Colonel Jean-Pierre St. Claire,
Dr. Timothy Harms and Dr. Ehud Gur ended up on after they escaped from
the Zykonian detention planet in their ship the Cabrillo, and got
separated from my ship, the Saint Brendan, that I was in with Commander
Allen and Jena's mother, Dr. Kling.  I know for a fact that Dr. Gur was
the only one of them who escaped from that.....Derelict and ended up on a
planet close to the Colonial Frontier called Proteus where he spent the
rest of his life in a detention cell and became known to the inmates as
the Silent One." he took a breath, "And I know that he left behind a
journal recalling his experiences that was found by Lieutenant Starbuck
when he ended up in that same cell near the beginning of the Fleet's
Exodus, and that it was brought back.  It had not been completely
translated at the time of my rescue, but because I was able to read it,
I......was able to fill in the gaps associated with not just with what
happened to my friends, but.....regarding the encounter your son and
daughter-in-law had aboard that same Derelict ship with someone known
as.....Count Iblis."
     Byrne stopped to pour himself a glass of water because his throat
had become parched repeating all of this aloud.  After he took a gulp he
offered some to Ila who shook her head no.  
     "I was unaware you'd been told about the Derelict or about Ensign
Wynn, Captain."
     "Your husband ah....shared Ehud's diary with me just after Jena and
I were rescued, and later, I was given a confidential briefing on the
Derelict and.....Count Iblis by Apollo and Sheba.  I wasn't allowed to
say a word to Jena and I haven't.  After Ced Allen was rescued, I was
given permission to tell him only that I knew that Tim, Jean-Pierre and
Ehud were......dead, but that I couldn't give him the details."
     "Has he ever pressed you about it?" Ila asked.
     "Not until recently.  When we learned of all the Earth abductions by
the Risik, he wanted to know if the Risik had snatched them.  Then when
he found out what a race called the Ovions had done to some of your
people, he asked if that was why I was too afraid to give him the
details.  After I told him that wasn't what happened, he didn't bring the
matter up again until we were returning from Harkaelis.  In light of what
happened there, I had to tell him that I'd always known about Sarah's
true identity and her ability to shapeshift.  That's when he reminded me
about my lack of candor about something more important to him.  I could
tell that bothers him a lot because he feels he needs closure on the
subject.  Especially now that he's had closure on Kalysha's situation and
they've got a baby on the way."
     "That could change soon, Captain," Ila chose her words carefully
because this was a subject she knew she lacked authority on.  Only Adama
could authorize approval for letting him tell his friend. "But for now,
let's stick to your original question.  Yes, Ensign Wynn has been
rescued.  He has been.....completely restored to full health."
     "How?" Byrne shook his head incredulously, "Sheba said he'd been
transformed into something.....so horrible beyond description, just
like......Tim and Jean-Pierre were.  How could he be restored from that?"
     "That's a complicated story, Captain Byrne.  Something I can't give
you all the details of because some of them are still shrouded and
unknown even to me," Ila felt terrible that she was going to have to
reveal a dark secret about one of her dearest friends to an outsider, but
there was simply no getting around it.  "But I'll do my best to explain
it.  It's not firsthand knowledge.  It's what I was told by Commander
Cain's wife, Captain Kylie.  And I believe her account to be a truthful
version of events......"


     Ten centons later, Byrne was pouring himself another glass only this
time it wasn't with water, but with alcohol.  The details of what Ila had
told him were beyond anything he could have comprehended.
     "You're telling me that.....Commander Cain's wife, Captain Kylie was
forced to make a choice of.....giving up her ability to have children in
order to get Wynn restored?"
     "That's exactly what I'm telling you, Captain," Ila said, feeling
embarrassed inside that she'd had to share this without telling Kylie, "I
have no idea why that was important to Iblis.  Kylie doesn't remember
everything that happened during her test, and Cain's memory is completely
blacked out.  But that was the dilemma she was put in because.....Kylie
wanted so much to have children with Cain at some point.  She grew up in
a Taurean orphanage without the love of real parents and wanted to give
the kind of love she never had for herself.  So I guess it was Iblis's
sick way of trying to force her into a horrible decision where if she
didn't free Wynn she'd be torn with guilt for the rest of her life."
     "And she ultimately chose Wynn."
     "Yes, but she managed to outwit Iblis by forcing him to give Wynn
back completely with no hidden booby-traps.  Iblis couldn't release him
and make him some long-term sleeper agent he could reactivate later, his
release had to be total and complete.  So Kylie managed to show some
command initiative that made Iblis's 'victory' an empty one on all
levels."
     "And afterwards?"
     "Afterwards.....Kylie was brought back and they found a tumor in a
place that once removed meant she could never have children.  So yes, it
did happen Captain.  She didn't imagine it."
     "And Wynn has been restored and.....doesn't remember what happened
to him?"
     "He doesn't remember where he was or what he was forced to be," Ila
steeled herself inside for what was going to be the most difficult part
of the conversation.  "But.....before I left the Pegasus, I had a talk
with him and it turned out he does have one subliminal recollection
beyond the fact that he was in a 'bad place' as he called it.  He
remembers.....your two friends, Colonel St. Claire and Dr. Harms."
     "Oh my God," Byrne whispered in horror.  More than once, since Adama
had revealed the truth of what had happened to his friends, he'd had
nightmares trying to comprehend the suffering they were going through,
because the fact that Tim and Jean-Pierre were not dead in the technical
sense was what made their suffering all the more terrifying.
     "He remembers they were with him in the same 'bad place'," Ila went
on, keeping her tone clinical, "That's because something jogged his
memory.  You see.....I'm not sure if you're aware of this, Captain Byrne,
but the Enlightened Cylons I worked with on the Pegasus are different
than the ones you've interacted with on Baltar's BaseShip,   In order to
gain their trust and demonstrate to them that aligning with us against
their Empire is in their best interests, we've worked on a program of
giving the centurions......new voices."
     "New voices," Byrne repeated and his eyes narrowed, "You mean----,"
     "Two of the Cylons who work in our Electronics Lab, Centurions
Festus and Serpentine have their voices," Ila finished.  "The Zykonians
had the recordings on file from your interrogations and when we were at
Brylon they reprogrammed the Cylon voice units with those recordings. 
When Wynn heard those voices coming out of Festus and Serpentine, he
realized they sounded familiar and it made him go through the Zykonian
files we were given.  That's when he saw the picture of your original six
person crew and he immediately picked out Colonel St. Claire and Dr.
Harms as the ones he recognized from.....where he'd been.  Even though he
doesn't remember where that place was, and what they were doing there."
     "My God," Byrne slowly exhaled and repeated.
     "And not that this means much," Ila added, "The original group of
Cylons who received voices at Brylon included the one who ultimately
stayed behind at the Cylon outer capitol to serve as our liaison to the
new government that broke with the Imperious Leader.  Now that I've had a
chance to talk to you,  I can tell you that your voice was the one the
Zykonians used on him. First Centurion Thrax, stationed now on the planet
Gomorrah."
     He looked at her dubiously, "You mean there's a Cylon that talks
like me now?"
     "Yes.  He's stationed on Gomorrrah now, like I said."
     "Remind me never to be introduced to him." Byrne said with fake
mirth as he leaned forward, "Okay, Professor.  Now we come to what on my
planet they used to call the sixty-four dollar question, and don't ask me
to explain the context of that.  If it was possible for Iblis to release
Ensign Wynn back to you and unharmed, is there any chance it could happen
to Tim and Jean-Pierre as well?"
     The blonde Academician let out a sad sigh, "The answer to your
sixty-four dollar question, Captain, is.......I.....don't......know.  I'm
sorry I can't give you another answer but that is the simple reality.  I
have no idea why Iblis was determined to play that sick game.  If you've
been told everything by Apollo and Sheba I assume they've told you that
Iblis does have some kind of......obsession with Sheba that stems from
our first encounter with him.  The game played on Kylie was probably
related to that in some way."
     "Yes, yes.  She told me about that.  Still----"
     "Captain, this is the reality," Ila leaned forward and cut him off. 
"There's nothing I can do and there's nothing you can do to change their
present situation.  If anything could happen, it would have to start from
an action of Iblis's, and I don't think it's wise or healthy to sit back
and wait for something like that to happen because given who and what
Iblis is, that is really playing with fire in the worst way."
     "Literally," a slightly bitter edge entered the naval officer's
voice as his mind went back to the conversations he'd had with the
Empyrean Wise Woman Ama about Iblis.  Conversations that had culminated
with that bizarre, terrifying experience he'd shared with Starbuck that
he wasn't ready to tell Ila or anyone else about.  Not until he had
Starbuck's permission at least.  "Is it possible he might.....appear to
me?  Or to Jen?"
     "He's a threat to everyone, Kevin," Ila decided she needed to be
informal now.  "He doesn't have to directly appear to everyone to
potentially enslave them to his service.  The important thing is to be
vigilant against anything that embodies evil and fear.  That's what Iblis
feeds off of.  And I'm sure that's how he used the power of this Derelict
ship of his to enslave your comrades.  If there is to be any hope for
them......that's all in the hands of the Almighty."
     He faintly shook his head, "I'm not particularly good at leaving
things in His hands, Ila."
     "It's never too late to learn, Kevin," Ila now took on the air of
the teacher she'd been, "All I'm saying is, don't think He has to prove
Himself to you by restoring your friends.  Just accept it as His will if
it does happen, but if it doesn't......there's probably a reason for it
that we couldn't begin to comprehend."
     The Constellation captain motioned his hand as if to indicate he
didn't want to hear her talk about the Almighty any longer.  She decided
to respect that and shift gears.
     "There is one thing else about Ensign Wynn," she said, "He....was
wondering if he should contact you.  I discouraged him.  In my opinion
the key to his ability to recover means not having any further memories
of where he was reawakened."
     "You were right to do that," he leaned back in his chair, his glance
more askew now.  "I hope he recovers and gets the rest of his life back,"
he then looked at her, "You think I should tell all this to Ced now?"
     "I think you should, but I wouldn't do it until you have clearance
from Commander Adama.  I'm willing to raise the matter with him when I
return to the Galactica and if he agrees, I imagine he'll have you and
Commander Allen over at the earliest convenience for a private briefing. 
Is that agreeable?"
     "Yeah.  I guess so.  I admit, I'm tired of keeping the truth from
Ced.  He does need  closure.....well I guess that isn't the right word. 
The others in our crew had closure.  Tim and Jean-Pierre never will."
     "Others?" she frowned.
     "The 14 others who were part of the original expedition," Byrne
sighed and looked at the ceiling, "Twenty of us combined in the Saint
Brendan and Cabrillo when we launched from Earth for Mars and ended up
going through the wormhole that spat us both all the way across the
galaxy into the Bosaq Frontier of Zykonian Space.  I lost seven of my
team, including a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy, who was
flying pilot.  The Cabrillo lost six and then we had our last casualty
when Colonel Chuck Babcock, her CO died in the Zykonian medical facility
on Krylamic because of the injuries he suffered during the wormhole." 
     "I didn't know that part of your story," Ila said with empathy.  "I
always assumed there'd only been the six of you."
     "With everything that happened in my life after the wormhole, there
were times I forgot about Chuck and the others.  Or tried to.  Of course
since the whole damned thing was my fault to begin with, maybe that was
just my guilty conscience trying to bury the memories.  But after I
learned about Tim and Jean-Pierre.....I couldn't shake the idea of what
had happened to them out of my mind for weeks.  And I still can't accept
it."
     "You can't blame yourself for what happened to them, Captain."
    "I was in command, Professor. That makes it my fault. A commander is
responsible for the lives of his crew. And for their deaths." He took a
slug and shook his head.
     "We've all been through our share of tragedies, Captain Byrne," Ila
realized that their conversation would soon be ending so she rose from
her chair.  "And I think you.....like the rest of us, have learned how to
deal with them without slackening in our duty."
     "Yeah," he acknowledged, "But to bring this full circle.....if
something happens that could screw up my daughter's chance at happiness
with Pelias.....that will be the hardest thing to take.  I can live with
my own failings and tragedies, but I don't know how I could handle seeing
Jena hurt.  But if Pelias insists on opposing you to the bitter end, I
think it's going to cause a rift between them."
     Ila decided she wouldn't tell him that was in the hands of the
Almighty too.  "Good day, Captain Byrne.  I'll make sure you hear soon
from my husband if its okay to tell everything to Commander Allen."
     "Thanks for coming by, Professor."
     When she was gone, the Constellation CO found the only thing he
could was pour himself another drink.  He swallowed, and looked into his
glass.
     "Man, didn't that go well."

Chapter Five

     "Good evening and welcome to the IFB Report.  Our first story is the
news from Commander Adama that the Colonies have improved their level of
direct communication with the Pegasus.  Now, in addition to live video
messages, document attachment files can be safely transmitted across the
stars but for now......only to the Pegasus.  Such messages, like the
forms of direct communication must then be relayed to the Galactica. 
Consequently, levels of information from the Colonies as to their overall
progress in what is now being called the Great Reclamation Project, will
still be somewhat limited in nature.  Nonetheless, Caprican Resistance
Leader Commander Deval is determined to provide updated information on
the names of new survivors who have been able to emerge from hiding as a
result of the successful Peace Treaty with the Cylon Occupation Forces. 
Here are Commander Deval's actual words from Caprica as recorded by relay
to the Galactica, and which Commander Adama graciously provided us with
for this broadcast."
     The audio of the recording then played over a fuzzy picture of
Deval.  The picture was a blowup of one part of a group of warriors
aboard the Battlestar Solaria over seven yahrens ago when Giles had been
serving aboard her.  The Galactica pilot had provided his copy of the
picture so they could let the Fleet know what the Resistance leader
actually looked like.
     "To our brothers and sisters who continue in their journey across
the stars to the Thirteenth Tribe.  We all know how anxious you are to
have nothing less than total closure in your lives regarding family and
friends who were left behind and not able to take part in the Exodus.  I
speak for all ten of the surviving Colonies that are now engaged in
reclaiming our worlds that not only will the names of every new confirmed
survivor be provided to you, but we will also do our best to continue
refinements of our communication system so that one day.....Lords
willing, it will be possible for this form of direct communication to be
available to all of you, and not simply for the leaders of the movement
and for the command crews of the Galactica and the Pegasus."
     The image now returned to Zara.  "With this successful completion of
the first direct communications link between the Colonies and the
Pegasus, Commander Cain, who has been supervising the installation, will
be returning via the so-called 'fast shuttle system' to the ice planet
Arcta where the Peagsus is undergoing much needed retrofits.  Once these
retrofits are completed, the Pegasus will be journeying to the Colonies
and be permanently based there to not simply provide additional security
for them......but to hopefully one day carry the good fight at long last
to the Cylon Home System itself."
     Viewers watching now saw a graphic above and to the right of Zara's
head which read "Presidential Poll."
     "And now, one sectan since the Fleetwide campaign for the Presidency
of the Quorum was launched, we at the IFB have prepared the first poll
indicating the likely outcome of this contest, which will be held four
sectans from today.  Early indications show that Commander Adama's wife,
Professor Ila, is favored by over 85% of those who expressed an opinion,
whereas her only official challenger, Sire Pelias of Gemon, received
support from only 9% of those we polled.  The remaining 6% were
undecided.  If that is a true indication of how the population feels as a
whole, then it is clear that Professor Ila's status as a relative
newcomer to the Fleet is not seen as an obstacle to her ability to be
elevated to the position of political leader."


     "About what you expected?" Adama asked.  He and his wife were
preparing for separate dinner engagements.  Adama with Colonel Tigh,
while Ila would be having her first one-to-one dinner with Apollo since
her return.
     "More," Ila shook her head in amazement, "I thought it would be
70-20 in the best-case scenario.  Clearly....they don't think much of
Pelias as worthy opponent."
     "Or it could be they're just dazzled by you," he smiled across the
room at her.
     "Maybe," she blushingly returned it, "But honestly, Adama, he's just
not a good candidate.  The only thing he has on his resume other than
being a Councilor who inherited his title from his late uncle is that he
went to the Fine Arts Institute to study painting and sketching.  Which
of course explains why I wouldn't have crossed paths with him since that
was the other side of the campus from where I worked in Drama and Music."
     "He was also a warrior cadet once," Adama said simply as they sat
down on the couch next to each other.  They still had time before they
needed to keep their dinner engagements.
     "Oh?" this was news to Ila.  "When was that?"
     Adama took five centons to explain the tragedy of Pelias's brief
time in the military and the death of Cadet Jada on the training mission. 
When he was done, she sadly shook her head.
     "There are a lot of tragedies I'm still unfamiliar with.  Like with
Captain Byrne.  I didn't know he had fourteen other comrades from his
original expedition who were already dead when the Zykonians detained him
and the other five."
     "Did he ever tell you the reason why his expedition was launched
from Earth to begin with?" Adama asked.
     "Only that it was a flight to a planet called Mars, which I guess is
the closest planet to Earth?"
     "Closest that's capable of landing an expedition on safely and
potentially developing a ground base for terraforming operations," her
husband said, "They were going there for a reason that's
become.....somewhat lost in the shuffle over the last couple yahrens
because of what we later learned about the Risik threat to Earth. 
Apparently when Byrne's expedition was launched in the Earth yahren of
2011, it was because they'd discovered that sometime in the yahren 2045,
a large scale asteroid had a ten to fifteen percent chance of striking
the Earth and causing near extinction level damage.  The idea was that if
a base could be established on Mars as a first-step in terraforming
operations, then if in a worst-case scenario the asteroid did make impact
with Earth, there would be a nearby planet for a large part of the
population to escape to."
     Ila slowly took in all of this information.  "What yahren is it on
Earth now?"
     "Assuming there's been no disruption to space-time continuum in the
course of our journey, it's likely sometime around 2032 now.  Allowing
for two to four yahrens and our arrival based on our calculations, we'll
be there long before this asteroid poses any potential danger.  We'd
certainly be in a position to blast it apart with our combined laser
cannon fire.  That's the reason why we've never really thought too much
about the threat since Byrne first revealed it to us when he and Jena
were rescued."
     His wife digested that information, "Of course you could also try to
intercept the asteroid before we reach Earth and take care of the problem
before our arrival."
     "We've considered that too, but we can't commit to that strategy
until we're inside Earth's solar system and we can chart its position and
orbital path that will bring it close to Earth. If we can take care of it
ten yahrens before it would have become a threat, so much the better. 
Overall, compared to the potential danger the Risik still pose, the
asteroid seems like a far less significant danger now."
     "True," she then changed the subject, "By the way, when are you
going to let Captain Byrne tell Commander Allen about the Derelict and
Iblis?  You said last sectan you agreed that it was time for Allen to
know."
     "It can't be a one-on-one revelation from Byrne to Allen," Adama
said, "He has to hear it from me and from Apollo and Sheba.  And right
now....this just isn't the right time for me to work that in.  Probably
once the campaign is over, but not now."
     "I won't try to change your mind on that," she sighed, "Lords, what
is that monster going to do one day to try to get his revenge?  He can
operate literally anywhere in the universe when he wants to, whether here
or with the Pegasus."
     "He's clearly not finished," her husband nodded.  "There's no
question Sheba's still at risk.  We're still at risk.  Cain, Kylie, and
the Pegasus are at risk.  And.....it wouldn't surprise me if maybe, Iblis
has some unfinished business with Baltar to attend to."
     "Baltar?"
     "You've seen the recording when Baltar was taken prisoner by us,"
Adama reminded her, "No one's ever doubted that Iblis had something to do
with compelling Baltar's surrender because it was serving his purpose at
the time to try and gain control over us.  And you heard the recording in
Baltar's cell when Iblis appeared to him and Baltar recognized his voice
as the same one as the Imperious Leader's."
     "I have to admit, knowing what I've learned about Iblis from you,
the one thing that surprises me is why he's done nothing to halt the
spread of Enlightenment throughout the Cylon ranks.  Since all the Cylons
I've talked to are in agreement that Iblis is the one who helped bring
the downfall of the original Cylon race by corrupting the programming of
the first Cylon robots......then wouldn't his pride dictate trying to
avenge that?"
     "I admit that's puzzled me too," Adama acknowledged.  "But it could
be possible that Iblis.....no longer cares what happens to the Cylon
Empire.  They served his purpose in the past, and now.....it doesn't
matter to him if they survive or not.  It's only important that he make
use of them in some way to serve his other purposes.  That's where it
comes back to Baltar.  I'm beginning to think that Baltar's rescue after
we marooned him may have been something Iblis wanted to happen.  And
maybe Iblis initially wanted Baltar to capitalize on emerging
Enlightenment on his ship by getting him to defect because getting him
back among us would serve his purpose later.  But.....I think there was
something Iblis didn't anticipate that's stopped him from trying to
reclaim Baltar to his service."
     Her eyes narrowed, "His wife."
     "Yes.  Ayesha's presence has been the key to why Baltar has behaved
ever since the Detente began.  She's the one person in the universe he
couldn't make excuses to or could be humbled by.  And.....this is
something she told me in confidence once some time back, but I feel safe
telling you.  She saw Iblis on one occasion."
     "What happened?" she asked anxiously.
     "Iblis was trying to work on her by getting her to think she'd made
a mistake giving up her life of peaceful anonymity in the Fleet, where
she'd become involved with Starbuck's father. That was something that
tore at her completely because I can tell you that she was really in love
with him.  I had already dissolved her marriage seal to Baltar and
allowed her to go back to her humanitarian work on the Senior Ship where
she was Claudia to everyone.  Things had reached a point where Chameleon,
Starbuck's father, was ready to propose to her.  And then....suddenly
Baltar came in with his defection offer and when that happened, she
decided to reclaim her old identity as Ayesha and told me to undo the
dissolution of her marital seal.  She felt she had to be there for him to
keep him in line.  But it was a hard struggle for her given how much
Chameleon had meant to her and it had also disrupted her relationship
with Starbuck.  That's why Iblis thought he could prey on that
vulnerability by getting her to leave Baltar, which in turn would have
left Baltar open for falling back under Iblis's influence."
     "But she saw through his plan," Ila quickly added things up, "She
saw through it and.....she stood up to him.  Just like Kylie did."
     "Exactly.  She said she literally invoked the Book of the Word to
cast him out.  She's convinced though that at some point, Iblis will
likely try something aimed at her in the future, because that way, the
path would be clear for him to try and turn Baltar back into his
service."
     "I'm not surprised," his wife sighed as she idly picked up her
chalice and gently rocked the contents back and forth.  "Evil manifests
itself on so many fronts, and someone with his power is capable of being
every place in the universe he needs to be when he wants to be.  I guess
that will be true even after we reach Earth."
     "Theoretically.  And yet, I've heard Sheba say that she thinks when
we reach Earth, Iblis won't be in a position to do anything any longer to
us.  She doesn't know why she thinks that, but it's the one thing that
keeps her from being destroyed inside with worry about where or when
Iblis might try to do something.  That if we stay focused on getting to
Earth, we eventually win."
     Ila folded her hands and leaned back into the cushioned comfort of
the couch, "But hasn't Iblis also caused trouble on Earth?  Doesn't their
Holy Book reveal he's been active there too?"
     "Possibly.  I've talked with Father Fisher about the tradition of
outcasts from the Divine realm leading the people astray on Earth, and
clearly it fits the pattern of an outcast from the Guardians causing
trouble just like Iblis has done in our realm.  And yet.....I wonder if
we're forgetting the fact that Iblis is not unique.  He can't be the only
one of his kind that exists in the Universe to cause evil.  Perhaps his
connections with events on Earth is not as direct as we think them to be
but----"
     "But are the work of another of his kind," Ila finished for him. 
"And so.....if Sheba's inner hunch is right, when we reach Earth, then
Iblis specifically would be powerless to act further against her or us
for that matter because......whoever is responsible for manifesting evil
on Earth wouldn't be Iblis but.....another of his kind."
     "That's the theory I've been considering," her husband nodded.  "And
I have to admit, I prefer to latch onto it because it means that our
journey to Earth can be tied to a long-term message of hope for us.  That
it's not a case of fleeing from the Cylon tyranny any longer, but rather
fleeing from the tyranny of Iblis's ability to manipulate our minds and
our souls.  Without that hope.....I'd be left to wonder if our journey to
Earth would only mean more of the same dangers for us."
     "I guess time will tell," Ila sighed, "It certainly means that this
last phase of the journey is not going to be uneventful.  And that's all
the more reason why I feel I have to be out at the forefront as
President."
     "And why Pelias for his own good, you think should get out of the
race."
     "Yes," the blonde Academician nodded. "I think the level of
repudiation he's facing would really undermine his confidence to be an
effective Council member for the long term.  I wouldn't want to see that
happen."
     "But you know you can't try to encourage him to do that without
looking bad yourself," her husband touched on the dilemma facing her,
"And you've already said Byrne knows he wouldn't listen to him.  I guess
it all comes down to whether he comes to recognize it on his own of if
Jena can convince him."
     "And that all depends on whether Jena thinks he should get out for
his own good.....and hers as well."  she looked at her chrono, "Time for
me to see Apollo.  Give my best to Tigh."
     "I will," he smiled at her.


     Inside their billet, Lauren, Denise and Jessica were waiting for
Jena.  They knew she was going to have dinner with Pelias on his private
yacht and she needed to stop by to change.  None of them knew if they
should say anything to her even though they'd agreed the previous week
that the time to act would be after the first presidential poll was
released.  It was finally agreed that if anyone was to break the ice, it
would be Lauren since she'd known Jena longer than any other Earth native
outside Jena's father.
     When Jena entered the billet, she looked strangely upbeat, but
Jessica and Denise could already tell it was a false facade trying to
hide inner pain.  That was a look they'd become too familiar with during
their long period of Risik imprisonment.
     "Hi," Jena waved as she went over to the closet and slipped out of
her work attire,  "Don't have much time to talk.  Pelias is having me for
dinner on his yacht."
     Lauren, her arms folded, took a breath and came up behind her as
Jena took a stylish white off-the-shoulder gown out of the closet.
     "You um.....caught the news this evening?"
     "Yeah," she was nonchalant as she stepped into her gown, "Great news
about the link to the Colonies."
     Great, Jessica rolled her eyes.  That means she's going to ignore
the subject completely. Denise meanwhile faintly shook her head and
decided to bury herself in her Sue Grafton book.
     "And.....the other stuff?" Lauren decided she needed to take a
chance.
     Jena motioned her to zip up the back, "Nothing worth talking about."
     "Jen," her friend's voice grew concerned as she zipped it into
place.  "You heard what they said about the poll didn't you?"
     Jena was looking at herself in the mirror admiringly at how the
white gown that left her right shoulder bare looked.  She posed a couple
times and still without looking at Lauren then shrugged, "Long ways to
go, Lauren.  Besides, polls really don't mean a thing.  Pop told me about
the time his father went to bed thinking a guy named Dewey was going to
be President the next morning because all the polls said he would be, and
then the next thing you knew, the guy named Truman won instead."
     Oh boy, Denise felt herself sink lower into her bunk as she
tightened her hold on her book.  Either she's too proud, or she's in
total denial.  I hope to God it's the former.
     "Jena," Lauren touched her bare shoulder which got her to turn
around, and this time her expression had changed to one of defensiveness.
     "Yes?" there was now a considerable lack of warmth in her tone.
     "Jena.....you know how much we care for you, and for Pelias.  Maybe
you should...."
     "What?" her tone grew frosty.
     "Maybe you should find out just how much Pelias really wants to be
President," she chose her words carefully.  "How far is he willing to go
to try to win even if....the odds don't seem particularly good?"
     "We talk about everything, Lauren," Jena said, "I know why he wants
to be President.  Because he thinks he can make a difference and bring a
perspective that not even the Commander's wife can."
     "But do you really believe he can convince the people, Jen?" Lauren
looked her right in the eye.  "And can he really win enough of them over
to beat someone as formidable as Ila is?"
     "I believe in him, Lauren," she looked her back in the eye, "I
wouldn't love him so much if I didn't.  I want to see him do great
things."
     "But will he be able to do them if he loses this race badly, Jen?"
Lauren decided it was time to press, but as gently as possible.  "Back on
Earth, when a political candidate loses big, it means his career is
basically over.  Oh, they don't always go away completely, but they never
have the same level of stature again.  I grew up and saw that happen to
guys named McGovern, Mondale and Dukakis.  They don't get second chances
for the big time.  That could easily happen to Pelias."
     "I wouldn't underestimate him that much, Lauren," she waved her hand
and stepped around her.  "He's a survivor.  He'll probably have some
surprises planned that'll make people realize there should be a younger
voice in the Presidency to speak for the generation that's going to have
most of their lives ahead of them on Earth."
     "Jen-," 
     "Catch you later!" she kept her back to them as she waved and
stepped out into the corridor.  The door to the billet closed behind her.
     "Well," Jessica said dryly, "So much for that.  She clearly isn't
interested in dealing with bad news,"
     "I think her sunshine and lollipops routine was strictly for us,"
Lauren said.  "I can't imagine she'll be the same with Pelias.  You could
tell she was hurting from the news.  I hope to God she'll be honest with
him."
     "But even if she is, Pelias may not want to listen," Denise sighed. 
"I have a feeling our favorite couple is in for a less than romantic
night."


     As Jena walked through the corridors to the docking area, she kept
her head held up with pride and her expression outwardly calm.  When Amy
Sanderson passed her and complimented her on how great her dress looked,
Jena flashed a smile and told Amy how Jasen the Rising Star tailor had
done it exactly to her specifications for only a hundred cubits.
     "Hmm, that gives me an idea of what to ask from him next time I get
a pass over there!" Amy said as she moved on in the opposite direction,
"Have fun!"
     "I will!" she stopped to wave at her and then quickened her pace,
hoping no one else, not even a good friend would stop her to make small
talk.  She wanted to get over to the Jada as soon as she possibly could
and let Pelias know at last where she really stood on the whole matter of
him running.  Because inside she was convinced Pelias needed to get out
of the race.  She hadn't wanted to see him run to begin with, but the
passion he'd demonstrated on the night he'd told her of his intention had
filled her with guilt and made her think she couldn't stand in his way. 
Not just because she feared he might become angry with her, but because
she could see in him a determination from within to do this.  Was it her
right to deny him that, especially when they still weren't married yet? 
     God, what a mess this is turning into, she thought as she reached
the Docking Lounge.  And how much of it is my fault because I
inadvertently caused the trouble he's had with Adama when I mentioned
what he said about coming close to old Risik space to Denise?  I liked it
so much better when Pelias and Adama were allies!
     She let out a sigh and hoped that by the time she returned to the
Constellation things would be different.


     "Nine percent, huh?" Starbuck observed as he heard the news report
on the Officer's Club monitor, "More than I expected."
     Boomer gently held up a hand, "Come on Bucko, don't kick him too
hard now that he's this far down."
     "The kid is responsible for his own fall," Starbuck took a puff on
his fumarello.  "He asked for it when he thought he was the only one
worthy of putting up a fight when choosing Ila is such a no-brainer. The
only thing left is whether he stays in beyond next sectan.  If he stays
in, that's when I start taking bets on whether he's stubborn or just
plain stupid."
     "Which of the two was he when he saved your life?" Boomer decided he
needed to say it. His friend looked at him with an amused,
I-can't-believe-you're-bringing-that-up stare.
     "Boomer," he leaned forward, "You've saved my life.  Apollo's saved
my life.  Cassie's saved my life.  Copernicus has saved my life.  I'm not
about to think every name on that list is comprised of perfect human
beings.  Some would say that saving me proves that!"
     "Yeah, I guess we all had to be a little crazy when we did that."
Boomer returned it and grinned.  "But you get my point."
     "Yeah, but you know how life is always based on
what-have-you-done-for-me-lately, Boomer" Starbuck leaned back, "And in
his case, what he's done lately doesn't remind me of the past when he
saved my life, it reminds me of when I first met him and he was so full
of himself just because Sire Feo was his uncle and he counted on him to
make life easy for him.  Now, he seems to think he's entitled to the job
just because Ila hasn't been in the Fleet long enough.  As if spending
the last few yahrens doing things I doubt anyone else in the Fleet could
have pulled off is irrelevant."
     "You have a soft spot for Ila," Boomer observed.  "Don't you?"
     Starbuck nodded slowly, rolling his smoke between his fingers.  "She
has a gift for understanding people."
     "Go on."
     "Ila made me feel like ....an honorary son.  I never visited their
home and felt like an outsider.  Even when I was dating .....well...."
     "Athena.  I know.  And Ila was probably sure you were going to be
her son-in-law someday.  Lords know she never would have guessed it would
be me since I only met her once or twice at a social gathering before the
Destruction." he sighed. "That's also why it took me forever to stop
calling Adama 'Commander' at informal dinners."
     Starbuck squirmed in his chair.
     "But all that's water under the bridge, Bucko," Boomer reassured
him.  "I get why you're so vocal about Pelias right now.  You feel like
he's attacking your surrogate mother."
     Starbuck wrinkled his brow, chuckling.  "Well, you figured it out
before I did."
     Before Boomer could answer him, Bojay made his way over to their
table.  He was accompanied by his wife Gayla, who had her arm around him
to help steady his steps.  Even though Bojay was completely rehabilitated
from the twin accidents that had required Cylon prosthetics to be
attached to him and had long since returned to Flight Duty there were
times when his new feet could "lock up" on him and make it hard to walk
without some support.  Fortunately it hadn't impacted his ability to fly
since as he liked to say to Colonel Tigh, using Boomer's phrase, 'a viper
is flown from the seated position.'
     "Room for two more?" he asked.
     "Even if there wasn't I'd make room," Starbuck politely motioned to
them, "Nice to see you, Gayla.  How goes the Agro Ship?"
     "I'm still trying to recover from the events of the last couple
sectans," the woman who had once been one of the two wives in Chief
Twilly's bigamist marriages before she'd gotten her seal dissolved,
settled herself in.  "First we dodged a laser blast when Eldritch and
Oagh decided not to go with the others in that 'New Caprica' settlement
we left behind.  Then, I found myself falling back into my old habits
regarding gutter vernacular when suddenly a couple of the hydroponics
tanks I'm responsible for were almost drained out and I spent a whole
centar screaming at both Carmichael and Captain Demeter about it.  Turned
out the need for more water pressure in the Rec Dome for our ersatz
mountain lake was quite high last sectan due to the heavy volume of
activity that took place there and it was draining off what gets fed to
the hydroponics section."
     "Heavy volume of activity, huh?" Boomer said slyly, "I wonder if a
couple lovebirds from Elite Squadron contributed to that."
     "Hey, Castor's your triad partner, Boomer.  You ask him." Bojay said
as he managed to relax his posture in the chair.
     "Since I want him to stay my partner, that's why I'm not going to
ask him," Red Leader grinned.  "Of course I guess all the kids who swim
there do love to go crazy too."
     "The little fracking monsters," Gayla said with mock venom which
made the others laugh.  The natural air of irreverence in Bojay's wife,
whether it was her language or her devout Skepticism always had a way of
endearing herself to those who knew her well.  Especially Bojay, who
though not a Skeptic respected his wife's feelings on the subject.  She
in turn had long since stopped trying to push Skepticism on anyone else,
viewing it as a strictly personal decision in her life, especially after
seeing the comfort Bojay had taken in his faith when he'd gone through
his tragic accident and subsequent surgeries and rehab.
     "Anyway, we were just talking about the first Presidential poll,"
Starbuck motioned to the screen where Zara's news reports had now given
way to a previously aired feature on the New Caprica colony that had been
settled by two dozen people who had chosen to stay behind.  Including the
man named Anglin, whom Starbuck and Boomer knew was Boxey's biological
father.  And also the former Il Fadim leader, Sherok.  It was hard for
Starbuck to reconcile the image of Sherok, the religious fanatic who had
nearly caused his death, with the quiet, timid wannabe-agro worker who
wanted to escape from his past for good by leaving the Fleet behind.  It
was only with reluctance that Starbuck felt he could at least wish him
well.
     "That was no poll that was the first intelligence report of a
brewing massacre," Bojay said.  "Pelias has to be crazy to stay in after
this."
     "Ah, ah," Starbuck held up a hand, "I'm only permitting categories
of stubborn or stupid.  Like I was telling our good leader of Red Group
here, anyone who has gone through the experience of saving my life once
has already proved their right to be called crazy."
     "You said it!" Boomer raised his tankard. "I'll now drink to my
membership in the club."
     "Why thank you, Boomer, I'm glad you appreciate such sacred
privileges."
     "I'm on the fence on whether I should renew my membership," he
cracked.  "And I guess Pelias has now chosen to let his lapse."
     "Seriously though," Bojay said, "What motivates a guy to do what
he's doing now, when its clear he can't win?  I can't believe it's just
stupidity or stubbornness.  Pelias has proved he can be a sharp thinker. 
He's got to have something else driving him that goes beyond the idea
that he thinks Ila is too inexperienced because she's a newcomer."
     "Maybe he should go see Tarnia," Boomer said.  "Of course she's been
busy of late with Croft for reasons that are clearly personal."
     "And we should all be happy for her," Starbuck gently chastised him,
"She goes through enough Hades having to listen to all of us complain and
pour out our problems to her.  She's needed someone to give her
attention."
     "Just making an observation, Bucko."
     "You're forgiven."
     "Anyway, to answer Bojay's question, maybe something else is driving
him.  Something that's convinced him he has to stay in to the bitter end
even if it'll make him the laughingstock of the whole Fleet if he gets
less than ten percent of the vote in a two-person race."
     "Fracking male pride and fracking male ego," Gayla said as she
pulled out a cigarello and lit it.  She could never have done that on the
Agroship, but aboard the Galactica, when she could billet with her
husband for an extended period it was a vice she loved to indulge in as
much as Starbuck did with the fumarellos.
     "Ah, Bojay, don't you just love her turn of phrase?" Starbuck
quipped.  That made Bojay smile and put his arm around his wife, who took
a puff on her cigarello before she removed it and gave Starbuck a sly
wink in return.
     "Oh, Lieutenant Starbuck?  Lieutenant Starbuck?" a slightly elderly
voice spoke up.  Everyone's head and turned and they saw a man in an
orange ground maintenance uniform approaching.
     "Yeah?" the face wasn't registering with him.
     "It's me, Lieutenant.  Aurelius.  Boxey's friend from the Life
Station."
     "Oh yeah, yeah!" Starbuck realized he'd been drawing a blank on the
face because he'd yet to meet the man since he'd had his bandages
removed.  "I remember now.  Apollo said he'd gotten you an assignment in
the launch crew.  How's that working out?"
     "It's working just great!" the man who looked sixty but who was
really just over a hundred said.  "These Mark IV model vipers aren't too
dissimilar from the Mark I vipers I once flew off the Bellerophon. 
Handling the specs has been a breeze."
     "Well, glad you enjoy it.  What's your opinion of Master Chief
Varica?"
     Aurelius shrugged, "I've had no problems with him.  He's been a
pretty good teacher bringing me up to speed on what else has changed in
over seventy yahrens."
     "Hmm, I'll be shocked if your attitude stays the same over time,"
Starbuck said slyly as he took a puff and then motioned to his friends,
"Aurelius, I don't think you've met Captain Boomer, head of Red
Squadron."
     "Not unbandaged," Aurelius shook his hand, "I remember seeing you
and your wife Athena in the Life Station when you visited Boxey."
     "That's right.  Looks like that facial alteration expert did a good
job on you," Boomer noted and then motioned to his right, "This is
Captain Bojay of Silver Spar Squadron and his wife Gayla."
     "Pleasure," he bowed slightly to shake Bojay's hand.  As Bojay took
it, he frowned slightly for a brief instant but then let it pass. 
Aurelius then repeated the gesture with Gayla, who transferred her
cigarello to her left hand so she could extend her right.
     "Oh Lieutenant," Aurelius turned back to Starbuck, "The reason I'm
glad I caught you, is that Captain Apollo said you were curious about
those vintage triad match recordings I found and gave to Boxey."
     "Yeah, as a matter off fact I was.  I couldn't believe you found a
recording of Barilko's last game!"
     "Well give credit to him, Lieutenant," Aurelius pointed to the
monitor that showed Zed now reading the latest headlines.  "Zed took his
private collection of vintage recordings with him when he fled his home
in the Exodus."
     "Probably the greatest contribution he ever made to Colonial
civilization." the brash warrior said dryly, "So you can get me a copy
too?  Boxey's too possessive of his to risk running it through the
duplicator."
     "Well that's why I wanted to catch you here, Lieutenant," Aurelius
handed him a small personal comp-drive, "These are all of the vintage
broadcasts I got from Zed and gave to Boxey backed up.  Just run them
through your personal comp units anywhere and you can hear them anytime."
     "Thanks a lot, Aurelius," Starbuck happily took it and pocketed it. 
"The Barilko match is legendary.  I'm going to probably kill time on my
next solo deep patrol playing it in my cockpit!"
     "You would," Boomer said dryly.
     "Hey, this is vintage stuff, Boomer!  The great games of triad as
called by the real legends of triad announcing.  No offense to Zed, I
thank him for preserving these, but he could have taken some pointers
from the greats of this era.  Greats like Lanier and Mikkelsen."
     "They're here," Aurelius grinned, "And complete with vintage sponsor
plugs for things like Schaffner Ale."
     Gayla's eyes widened, "My grandfather loved Schaffner's!  They
stopped making that over fifty yahrens ago and when I was a kid and he'd
be visiting my parents, he never stopped complaining about how they
hadn't made good ale since before Schaffner went out of business."
     "Weren't they the one with the weird slogan?" Bojay asked,
"Schaffner's----the one ale to have when you're having more than one?"
     "That's it," Aurelius nodded, "Certain moralist organizations
complained they were pitching the idea that theirs was the ale to have if
you were going to get plastered.  So the sales dropped and Schaffner
Distilleries went out of business."
     "Fracking busybodies," Gayla took another puff on her cigarello and
said with clear disdain.  "Damn do-gooders never learned how to frack off
and leave everyone else alone."
     Aurelius looked down at her quizzically, not having heard that level
of profanity from a woman before.  She looked back at him with an impish
bad-girl smirk.
     "Just speaking my mind."
     "I can tell," he nodded and now his initial reaction seemed to give
way to one of being impressed.  Another reminder how Gayla could make her
irreverence seem appealing.
     "Well, thanks for giving me a set of these, Aurelius," Starbuck said
with gratitude, "I'm glad to see you've adjusted well to life in the
Fleet."
     "It's my home now," he shrugged.  "I really don't think I would have
adjusted to the Colonies even if I hadn't had my.....accident.  Too many
painful memories.  Earth should be a fresh start."
     "Well....tell you what.  Maybe someday you and some of the other
guys from the launch crews can get together with us for a nice friendly
Pyramid game."
     "Well, I haven't played Pyramid since my days on the Bellerophon,
but.....I'd be happy to brush off my skills some night," he checked his
wrist chrono, "I'm meeting Sheba and Boxey in the Ward Room for dinner. 
Enjoy the games, Lieutenant," he then politely acknowledged the others as
he made his exit, with each of them offering him a friendly wave too.
     "Nice guy," Boomer acknowledged.  "Amazing a man of his age could
still help out like that."
     "Hey, once a warrior, always a warrior," Starbuck noted.  "Right
Bojay?"
     There was no immediate response.  His mind seemed elsewhere and it
forced his wife to give him a gentle nudge.
     "Oh!  Right, Starbuck, right."
     "Something wrong?" Boomer frowned.
     "No, nothing at all.  Nothing."
     But something about the man called Aurelius had struck him as odd. 
When the man had leaned down to shake hands, Bojay had noticed an
insignia on the right shoulder of his maintenance suit.  Unlike the
insigina on the left shoulder which showed the symbol for the Galactica,
the symbol on the right was that of another ship.  And the way it had
been sewn on meant it was clearly a new addition to replace the normal
Galactica insignia that could only have been custom-made to order.  Bojay
had already seen such a service emerge in the Fleet for the veterans of
destroyed Battlestars so they could have one small reminder of their past
services on their uniforms.  He had unobtrusively added a Pegasus patch
to his flight jacket, which he felt was a more understated tribute to his
former ship than wearing the equine-designed helmet of the Pegasus.
     But because Aurelius had said he'd been on the Bellerophon, it
struck Bojay as odd that the insignia on his right shoulder wasn't for
that battlestar but instead was the symbol of the Battlestar Excelsia. 
Which meant either Aurelius had gotten the wrong insignia.....or else
he'd served on the Excelsia as well, and regarded that ship as more
important to him than the Bellerophon.  
     But whatever that meant about the man who had come to the Fleet with
a bandaged face and a mysterious past after decades in suspended
animation was something Bojay couldn't begin to figure.  And it was why
he decided it wasn't worth bringing up.

Chapter Six

The Jada
     The Jada, as a private yacht was the kind of ship that was too large
to fit inside the landing bay of a ship like the Constellation  (though
it could have easily fit into the Galactica's landing bay) but at the
same time was too small to accommodate a shuttle hooking up to it. 
Consequently, the chief means of moving people from the Jada to a ship
like the Constellation required the use of a so-called "air bridge"that
could be connected from the yacht to another ship's docking ring and
allow someone to simply walk through it.  Which meant walking out with
the sensation of open space around oneself.  That sensation always tended
to unnerve Jena somewhat whenever she made the trip to Pelias's yacht. 
No matter how much reassurance she got about how strong and safe air
bridges were and that the only risk of cracking could happen if a meteor
were to suddenly strike them, she always made sure to walk through them
as rapidly as she could.
     When she finished the hundred paces to the Jada and stepped through
the airlock onto the yacht, she instinctively breathed a sigh of relief. 
Her boyfriend was there to greet her with a reassuring smile and she
quickly rushed up to him and embraced him.
     "Thanks for coming, Jen," he gently kissed her, "You look great."
     She looked up at him with an adoring smile, "Thanks for the invite."
     "Come on, you're going to love what I've got prepared," he wrapped
his arm around her waist and motioned her down the companionway that led
to his private stateroom. 
     Is he going to love what I'm going to have to tell him?  She thought
with an edge of trepidation.


     "I had the assistant chef from the Empyreal Lounge on the Rising
Star kidnaped for tonight," Pelias said ten centons later as two
attendants served them dinner, "And I told him to try and duplicate what
your father said was the one delicacy on Earth he's missed most all these
yahrens."
     The attendant lifted the lid on Jena's plate.  An aroma of enticing
seasonings wafted up.
     "Ovis chops with orzo," he said, "What they call on Earth, lamb
chops and rice pilaf.  It may not be a perfect parallel by your father's
standards, but I think you could tell him how good a facsimile we can
prepare here."
     Jena nodded approvingly, "Yes, I heard him rave endlessly about the
lamb chops he had at a place called the Capital Grille in Seattle
whenever we were forced to eat something less than ideal on the planet."
     "Couldn't have been easy all those yahr-years for him," he said as
the lead attendant poured a glass of red ambrosia into his chalice while
the one at Jena's end of the table did likewise with hers.  "I
mean....you were used to eating whatever there was on the planet because
that's where you were born.  He had to get used to making do with what
was there."
     "He and my Mom," Jena reminded him, "And Uncle Ced too before he got
abducted.  But they had training in that sort of thing when they became
astronauts."
     Pelias nodded his head at the two attendants to indicate they
wouldn't be needed any longer.  Without saying a word, the two men who
had been employed as stewards originally by Pelias's late uncle when the
yacht was known as the Gemonese Queen departed
     "Here's to a special night for us, Jen," Pelias raised his chalice. 
Jena did likewise.  There was too much of a distance across the table to
clink glasses so they simply gave their ambrosia the obligatory sip and
got down to attacking their meal.  The instant Jena took a bite of the
Colonial equivalent of lamb, she marveled at the tender texture and the
perfect blend of spices and how food could be created with such careful
precision, remembering how rough and simple it all had to be when living
with her father on the planet in lonely isolation.
     The couple ate in silence for three centons to just enjoy their
meal.  And then, Pelias said with distinct subtlety, "Jen.....we've kind
of had an understanding between us for some time, haven't we?"
     She finished chewing her bite and gently swallowed it before
answering him.
     "What do you mean, Pel?"
     "I mean.....we've taken it for granted that when we reach
Earth.....that's the time for you and me to finally.....make our plans
for future," he paused and then added, "Together."
     The young woman of twenty felt her heart skip a beat, "Is
that....meant to be your idea of a proposal, Pelias?"
     "Well.....I admit I always assumed that you knew how I felt, and I
knew how you felt, about us.  And......that it didn't seem right to
commit just yet with all the uncertainty around us with the Risik threat
and the arrival of everyone else from Earth.  You've had your hands full
helping them adjust, and so have I.  But.....I really think now's the
time for us to let people see us as they should see us.  That's why.....I
want us to get married.  And....I want it to be now."
     This was something Genesis Byrne hadn't expected to hear at all. 
She had always been prepared for the moment when Pelias would finally
make a formal proposal to her since theirs had been a silent
understanding all this time.  But the idea of wanting to get married
right now was something else entirely.
     "Now?" she barely managed to get the word out.  Suddenly her
appetite for the rest of her dinner was gone.  "As in.....before
dessert?"
     "Now," he leaned forward, "Jen....I need you.  I need you right now
to be my wife.  I'm in the midst of the most important thing I've ever
done and.....I need you by my side helping me."
     A warning note suddenly sounded in her head.  One that suddenly
turned the whole meaning of what had just happened upside-down in an
instant, throwing her into a quick emotional reverse.
     "Helping you?" she whispered.
     The young Councilor let out a sigh and lowered his head, "Jen.....I
saw that story this evening.  I know it looks bad.  And I know why it
looks bad.  They're not taking me seriously as an opponent to someone of
Ila's stature.  Too many people think I'm an immature brat who inherited
a title and a Council seat from someone who.....didn't exactly have the
greatest reputation to begin with.  They need to see a different side of
me.  The side that wants to be a husband and a family man and who
understands the meaning of responsibility."
     "Just a minute," Jena cut in, her tone bewildered,"Is this the
reason why you want me to marry you now?  Because you think it will help
you get more votes?"
     Pelias seemed taken aback by what she'd said, "Well.....Jen, I'm
just saying that they'll understand better----,"
     "I was right," she shook her head, her displeasure clearly evident. 
"That's the only reason you're asking me.  That's why you're not down on
one knee asking me.  You're already assuming I'll say yes.  You're
thinking only how this will make you look better with the people, and
that maybe it'll keep you from getting the royal drubbing you're on your
way to getting!"
     "Jen, it's not the only reason!" he protested, "I love you.  You
know I've always loved you.  We've had an understanding for a long time
that we're meant for each other.  All I'm saying is we should stop
thinking this isn't the right time for us to get married.  Not when
there's a good reason for doing it now!"
     "And we've always had an understanding why it's better for us to
wait until we reach Earth!" she retorted as she threw her napkin down on
the table, her meal now forgotten.  "I'm not ready to handle the demands
of marriage and family in this setting.  I want us to be married and
living on a planet where we have a nice house and some fresh air for our
children to breathe.  I don't want to be like Josh and Natalie or the
Maartens or the Scotts trying to keep up with the demands they're going
through with their newborn children in these conditions.  Not when Earth
isn't as far off as we once thought it was.  We'll both still be young
when we get there, and then.....that will be the right time.  If you're
going to change my mind about that, it's not going to be because you need
me as a campaign prop to justify continuing something you never should
have gotten yourself into!"
     Her last sentence left him looking like he'd just taken a blow to
the jaw.  It left him unable to reply for several microns.
     "Jen," Pelias finally forced himself to speak, "I thought you
believed in me."
     "I believe you can do a lot of things, Pelias," Jena felt total
anguish inside, "But this entire campaign of yours is a mistake.  And now
that it's clear you can't win, the best thing you can do is withdraw and
keep your dignity intact."
     For the first time, he felt some anger entering his body.
     "Quitting with my tail between my legs is somehow supposed to be the
more dignified thing, Jen?  Is that what you believe?"
     "What's dignified about getting your ass kicked by a nine to one
margin in a two person race?" his girlfriend retorted.  "If you go
through with this, you'll never be taken seriously again by the people,
or by the rest of the Council.  And it won't help your reputation for
trying to establish yourself on Earth after we get there.  I don't want
to see that happen to you, Pelias.  I want to see you make a name for
yourself the right way so I can feel proud of you.  This isn't the way to
do it.  And I'm not going to make things worse for you by getting married
now for the wrong reason."
     "I am not going to withdraw from this race," Pelias clenched his
teeth.  "I want to fight for this job and that means putting out my best
effort so that if I lose, it's not going to be by that margin the IFB is
saying its going to be.  I've got four sectans to change some minds and
if I can change enough so that the final margin for Ila is more like
60-40.....then that will be a big enough moral victory from my
standpoint."
     "Then convince them on the issues and don't resort to a gimmick like
having a campaign wedding and making me a prop," Jena held her ground. 
"I'm not going to do it, Pelias.  I can't."
     "Don't you understand?" his voice was pleading, "You and me Jen! 
Together we can let them see that people like us are the future of what
we're about as a people!  The reunification of Earth and the Colonies!"
     "There you go again!" she rolled her eyes, "It's all about what
getting married can do for this damned campaign of yours!  Pelias, if you
really wanted to show how much you love me, then listen to me.  Get out
of the race now.  Make a nice dignified speech about how you realize that
the people clearly want Ila to be President and that you're looking
forward to working with her.  They'll admire you for it."
     "No!" Pelias slammed his fist on the table.  "Damn it, I set out to
do this, and by the Lords of Kobol, I'm going to see it through to the
end!  I'm going to work my astrum off and let everyone know I'm no
quitter, Jada!" 
     A look of horror then came over him as he realized what he just
said.  Jena's expression was even more stunned than ever. "What did you
call me?" she whispered.
     "I----," the words caught in his throat, as he felt all his
confidence now gone. 
     "Jada," Genesis Byrne slowly shook her head as things started to
fall into place, "So that's who this yacht is named for.  All the time I
thought there was a reason for it, but I never had the courage to ask
you."
     "Jena, please, I----," he was flushing red with embarrassment.
     "I ought to get up and leave right now," her voice was calm.  "But
not until you tell me just who Jada is."
     "Someone I knew before I met you, and who died before we found you
and your father," he said rapidly.
     "But you're not over her," Jena said simply, "If you were, you
wouldn't have mentioned her name after all we've been through."
     "Jena, I didn't have that kind of thing with her.  We barely had
time to start knowing each other and then......just like that she was
gone, and it was my fault that it happened."
     "So tell me then," she pressed in a quiet, but forceful way, "Tell
me everything about her.  What you felt for her.  How she died. 
Everything, Pelias."
     Her boyfriend had his hands folded and his elbows on the table, his
face lowered to avoid looking at her.
     "Pelias, if you don't start talking, I'm going to leave and you'll
never see me again." Jena turned up the intensity in her voice.
     He let out a defeated sigh.  And then......he began to talk.


     Jena didn't say anything during his narrative, which lasted nearly
ten centons.  When she heard Pelias describe Jada's death at the hands of
the Ziklagi shape shifter Korax, she'd been horrified and felt total
empathy for him.  When she heard him describe his anguish in that period
afterwards and why he'd rejected his would-be military commission, she'd
felt tears forming in her eyes.  And when she heard him describe the
final confrontation with Korax at Brylon, she felt satisfaction that the
cadet's murder had been avenged.  But when Pelias indicated he was
finished, she found herself now.....confused.
     "That's everything," Pelias said.  "Except.....one more thing you
might as well see."
     He rose from his chair and went over to his desk at the other side
of the stateroom.  He opened a drawer and then pulled out the sketch of
Jada from inside it.  He walked back to Jena and handed it to her.
     Jena studied the sketch carefully.  It showed a very beautiful young
woman, with looks totally unlike her own.  The black hair and dark brown
eyes showed the face of someone born to be a warrior, which Jena knew was
a life she wasn't cut out for.  Knowing how good an artist Pelias was,
she was convinced he'd captured the essence of Jada's personality
completely, as well as her appearance.  And probably her soul as well.
     She finally broke her silence with a simple question.
     "How much did you love her?"
     Pelias sighed, "Jen.....I never had the chance to feel that way
about her.  She and I were always at each other's throats during cadet
training.  It was only that day when we spent a couple centars together
going out on that training mission that......suddenly I started to see
her in a new light.  I realized there was a fascinating woman worth
knowing better.  And," his voice cracked, "I made her go back alone when
I was supposed to stay with her at all times.  All because I offered to
get her a Gold Pass for the Rising Star because of my uncle's
connections.  And once I got her that Gold Pass, I was going to ask her
out, and......" he lowered his head as he found he couldn't go on any
further.  After an awkward pause, he laughed bitterly.  "Maybe that
wouldn't have mattered.  Maybe she would have turned me down flat. 
But.....I wanted to know her better.  And I never got the chance to.do it
because I let her down."
     Jena was silent.  The anger was gone from her now, but it had been
replaced by a realization that she didn't know Pelias as well as she
thought she had.  In the nearly two yahrens since they'd met and gone out
with each other, she'd never held back anything from him. She'd shared
her deepest secrets about her own life with him.  Telling him about her
father's isolated moments of lonely grief that she'd witnessed growing
up.  The moments when her father, under the influence of strong drink,
would let his barriers down and talk about the older half-brother of hers
on Earth she'd never seen and whom her father had long been estranged
from.  The guilt her father felt over her mother's death.  The guilt he
also felt over the deaths of the fourteen members of his original
expedition.  She'd shared all of that with Pelias because she was
convinced they'd had that kind of relationship based on trust.
     And now, she was learning that Pelias hadn't reciprocated with her. 
Perhaps it was partly her own fault for not being inquisitive enough to
ask why his yacht was called the Jada., but she somehow sensed that would
have only gotten her a perfunctory explanation on the order of, "Someone
I knew once a long time ago," without going into detail.  She also knew
she could have asked Starbuck or some of the other warriors who knew the
full story about why Pelias had resigned his would-be commission.  And
yet....she had always let herself reason that if there was a tragic story
behind it, Pelias would have been candid.
     So she no longer felt angry with Pelias.  But she did on another
level feel betrayed.
     "Wasn't it enough that her death was avenged?" she finally found a
question she could ask him.  "Korax paid for what he did to her and your
uncle.  Why couldn't you put her behind you after that?"
     He finally managed to look at her.  "I did."
     "No you didn't," Jena shook her head as she gently set the sketch of
Jada aside. "If you had, you would have told me about her a long time
ago.  Why wasn't the fact she was avenged enough satisfaction for you?"
     He lowered his head and let out another sad sigh.
     "If you don't tell me, Pelias, then I can find out from Starbuck and
everyone else who was there when Korax was killed."
     "All right!" he raised his voice in surrender.  "All right.  It's
because.....I should have been the one who sent Korax over the edge.  But
it wasn't me who did it.  Even when I thought I saw a vision of her at
one point guiding me on......I blew my chance.  I was beating him
senseless with a pipe and then suddenly, when I could have finished him
off......I slipped in a pool of blood.  That gave him time to push me off
and stagger back against the fence.  And that's why it wasn't my blow
that sent him over the edge, it was......" he shook his head, "A blow
from Pili's slingshot."
     She slowly took that in.  She had met the Kian woman who worked on
the Agro-Ship with her husband Kudur-Mabug only twice.  In an instant,
she could see why Pelias's ego would have had a problem with how things
had played out.  Maybe not at the time when seeing Korax dead at last had
mattered more.  But with the benefit of hindsight.....it was clearly a
sticking point with Pelias.
     "Even then, even when I wanted so much to avenge her.  All of my bad
habits that made me such a lousy warrior cadet to begin with came back to
the forefront.  I could never finish what I set out to do.  The loafing
son-of-a-councilman, just like she always said I was whenever she'd be
putting me down."
     Suddenly, everything clicked for Jena. 
     "You're still trying to please Jada," she said aloud.  "That's why
you're so hellbent determined to stay in the race to the end. 
Because.....if you pulled out, you'd be hearing her voice calling you
that again.  A loafing son-of-a-councilman.  And your conscience can't
handle that, because the one thing you desperately want is to feel like
you've finally made yourself worthy of her.  That you've finally become
the kind of man.....she would have come to love if she'd lived."
     He found himself unable to say anything to her.  Simply because
she'd finally been able to look into the deepest part of his soul and
guess right.
     "I guess that's the real reason why you never made a formal proposal
to me before," Jena went on.  "You still wonder what it would have been
like if she'd lived and the two of you got together.  That maybe you
would have found the strength to become a warrior after all and avoided
politics.  That maybe you lost something that would have meant more to
you than what you have now.....and might have with me in the future."
     "That's not true, Jen," Pelias finally spoke, "I love you.  You're
the one I want to spend the rest of my life with."
     "But now I can never be sure if I'm just a consolation prize,
Pelias," Jena said sadly. "I can never be sure that there won't be a time
you and I will make love to each other and it will be......" she picked
up the sketch and held it up so he could see it, "her face you'll be
seeing in your mind.  And maybe her name will slip out again like it did
tonight."
     She put the sketch down and rose from her chair.  Slowly she walked
toward the door. And then, she turned around and looked back at him.
     "I'm not calling it quits between us, Pelias.  As far as I'm
concerned......the status quo is still in place.  But I don't think we
should see each other again until after the election.  Because that's
when I want to find out from you if you still think it was worth all the
humiliation you're going to get because you chose to stay in.  And what
you say then.....that's going to determine whether or not we still have a
future together."
     As the door slid open, she then added deliberately, "But if you
decide to withdraw.....then I'll come running to you in an instant,
because......that would really prove to me that you're the man I fell in
love with.....and still want to love."
     She waited just a few microns to see if he'd say anything but
hearing nothing she turned and stepped out into the corridor.
     As soon as the door closed, Pelias gently picked up his chalice that
was still partly full.  And then......he angrily hurled it across the
room where it shattered against the back wall.
     "Frack, felgercarb and shit!" he shouted.
     He got up from his chair and went to the end of the table.  He saw
the image of Jada in the sketch looking back at him.  For the first time,
the smiling visage he'd sketched almost seemed to be taunting him just
like she'd done in those earlier clashes of cadet training.
     "You really are a lazy fool, you silly son-of-a-councilman!  Two
yahrens of the best thing that ever happened to you, and this is how you
treat her?"
     He felt a surge of anger go through him and as he snatched the
picture up he was ready to either tear it in half or crumple it up.  But
just as quickly, the anger faded from him as he realized......he was
hearing her voice for real.
     Slowly he collapsed into the chair Jena had vacated.  The chair was
still warm from her body and it offered him yet another taunting reminder
of what he was on the verge of losing.
     "Finishing what you start is one thing.  That doesn't mean you keep
flying your patrol when you run into an attack phalanx of a thousand
hostile Cylon fighters!"
     "Jada, please....." he whimpered.  "Please.  Just once, can't I be
worthy of you?"
     But this time, he heard nothing.  And now.....Pelias felt completely
alone.


The Constellation
     With Lauren and Jessica spending their evening in the Rec Hall,
Denise was all alone absorbed in her Sue Grafton book when to her
surprise the door opened and she saw Jena enter, much earlier than she
would have anticipated.
     "Jen?" she looked up from her book with concern, "Jen, what
happened?"
     "I don't want to talk about it," her voice was flat and emotionless
as she reached behind and unzipped the back of her gown so she could
shake it loose from her body.  "Not one word.  Don't ask me a single
question about it, Denise, because I won't give you or Lauren or Jessica
or anyone else an answer."
     Oh shit, Denise thought as she set her book down on the makeshift
shelf in her bunk area. This sounds like it was a total disaster.  She
watched as Jena let her dress fall to the floor and without picking it up
she quickly changed into a tank top that she traditionally slept in.  She
hit the head, and then she climbed into the upper berth above Denise. 
Her friend listened intently for any kind of sound from her but she heard
nothing.
     She's choosing to brood rather than cry about it.  That means if I
try to say anything she'll probably get p.o'd and take a swing at me. 
I'm not going to risk that!
     Without saying anything, Denise slowly picked up her book and went
back to it, without saying a word.


The Galactica
     Apollo had been looking forward to dinner with his mother for some
time.  Ever since her return, he'd had plenty of 'family chats' with Ila,
but each time Sheba or his father had always been present.  There'd never
been a one-on-one talk between them where they could converse on matters
with total mother-son privacy.  Until tonight.  With Adama dining with
Colonel Tigh, and with Sheba and Boxey having dinner in the Ward Room
with their new friend Aurelius, the opportunity had finally come.  Just a
private dinner and conversation in Apollo's quarters between mother and
son.
     "So where did you campaign today?" he asked her.
     Ila smiled in a way that conveyed a subtle signal she knew he'd
immediately understand. "After I took a tour of the Senior Ship, I made a
return trip to the Constellation to talk with some of our Zohrloch
friends.  Lieutenant Sargamesh in particular."
     He had a hint of one subject that was going to come up.  "How did
you find him?"
     "Disciplined and committed to the warrior tradition.  Though by his
own admission, the greatest challenge for him and his compatriots has
been getting used to the matter of female warriors in general since
that's not what they were used to in their own cultural background."
     "For a reason.  Mature Zohrloch females have a certain.....effect on
the male which can drive them into a warlike frenzy." He explained how
women past puberty emitted pheromones so powerful, it could send nearby
males into a violent mating frenzy. In the distant past, a man usually
won a mate in a fight to the death, the woman oblivious to the havoc she
was unwittingly causing.  "That's why they had to become a patriarchal
society out of biological necessity."
     "So I'm told.  Sargamesh assured me they don't have that kind of
problem working with human females in general, nor does it mean they
object to the idea of someone like myself running for a high political
office."
     "Human females are different," her son pointed out, "Apparently
another byproduct of Zohrloch female pheromones is that it
makes.....intimacy a rather intense form of experience that would make
all of us blush.  Of course we can only go by their accounts and
descriptions of them since the only Zohrloch survivors among us are the
small number of males we rescued from the wrecked vessel Nem'lach.  That
was after Sagramesh and his friend Korl were rescued from a slaver prison
at Boron-Din." 
     "Ah yes, Boron-Din," Ila recalled, "The Pegasus stopped there during
our jouney back.  We got a full rundown on your visit there from the new
rulers, Lord Lugalzaggisi and his wife Lady Shubad."
     "I remember them," Apollo nodded.  "They presented Father with an
original scroll of the Testament of Arkada and the Ninth Lord of Kobol's
personal memoir on Kobol's last days.  Thanks to them we were able to
figure out the connection of the planet Ki, which we'd visited earlier,
to the Thirteenth Tribe's original expedition."
     "And we later found at Terra the things you'd failed to pick up
there that answered the other part of the question regarding the splinter
group that broke away from the Thirteenth Tribe during the journey.  One
part ending up at Ki, the other part ending up at Terra."
     "The first splinter group at least," Apollo said.
     "First?" his mother lifted an eyebrow.
     "We know there was one other faction that left later on in the
journey after the one that accounts for the settlers of Terra and Ki. 
They settled a planet called Gellis.  We found most of that civilization
decimated by the Otaligim.  I'm sure Father told you about that."
     "He told me about the Otaligim and how Captain Byrne and Sarah
destroyed the lair of the Otaligim Queen and their ship," Ila brought her
hands together.  "I didn't realize you'd found another Thirteenth Tribe
connection."
     "Well.....we only inferred  it was a splinter group from the
Thirteenth Tribe expedition that settled Gellis because they had no
primary records left.  The devastation caused by the Otaligim wiped out
most of their cultural history.  But their leader, a man named Kloss
didn't know anything about the Colonies, so that meant the connection had
to start with the Thirteenth Tribe expedition."
     "I see.  There aren't any survivors from Gellis in the Fleet?"
     "No," Apollo shook his head, "After the Otaligim ship was destroyed,
we gave Kloss and his people the option to come with us or go back to
Gellis since there was just enough of the planet untouched to allow for
reclamation.  All of them chose to stay.  Of course we have an interview
with Kloss on file describing his people's history that you can listen to
anytime."
     "I might do that sometime," she looked at her son.  "Getting back to
Terra though.  Can you tell me why you didn't stay there long enough to
find the things the Pegasus found?  The Sacred Texts and the role the
Black Knight satellite plays in their history?"
     "I'm probably the one you should blame for that, Mother," Apollo
said with an apologetic edge, "It was my final after-action report that
influenced Father's decision to leave Terra as quickly as we did."
     "I'd never blame you for anything, Apollo," his mother said with
reassurance.  "If I'm willing to look at things from the long-term point
of history, it was probably the will of the Lords that information not be
discovered until the Pegasus arrived.  But I am curious as to why you
recommended a quick departure from the Terra system."
     "Well.....there were two reasons beyond the fact that staying too
long ran the risk of a pursuing Cylon task force discovering their
civilization.  First, we'd already learned beforehand that Terra couldn't
be Earth because their solar system didn't match the description in the
Testament of Arkada, nor did it match the drawing of Earth's solar system
that Starbuck saw in the cell on Proteus, which of course we now know was
done by Captain Byrne's lost friend, Dr. Gur.  That kind of made us lose
interest in Terra in general.  And after I did my part to end hostilities
between the Nationalists and Eastern Alliance......I came to the
conclusion it wouldn't be safe for them if we stayed in the area when the
Alliance was convinced their missiles had been downed by a Nationalist
weapon that allowed the Nationalists to maintain nuclear superiority.  So
I told Father that if we left the area immediately, the Nationalists
would be able to keep the peace with the Alliance by making them think
they had such a weapon.  Since Father was anxious to resume the course
heading for Earth, he agreed and there wasn't any backlash from the
Council because they'd  been embarrassed too much for trusting the
Alliance and getting taken hostage."
     "I can understand that to a degree," Ila conceded.  "But the one
thing that always threatened to undo that was if Leiter ever came to
power since he and his crew were the only ones in the Alliance who knew
about the Galactica and knew the Nationalists didn't have that kind of
weapon at their disposal.  And that's what ultimately happened."
     "Yeah, so you told us.  Thank the Lords it all worked out, even if
you had to go through a harrowing experience yourself as Leiter's
prisoner."
     Ila smiled at her son, "Did you ever think your old mom had it in
her to wrench a man's shoulder out?  Especially someone like Leiter?"
     He shook his head in amazement and smiled back. "Well.....Zac and I
did know how hard you could apply force to our behinds  when you thought
it was necessary."
     Mother and son both laughed together.  When it died down, her voice
grew more thoughtful. 
     "Speaking of Zac.....I hope you've never blamed yourself for what
happened to him."
     "I couldn't let myself," Apollo said simply, "If I did, I'd be
useless as a warrior.  We all have to learn to move beyond those kinds of
tragedies, or else we can never do our jobs properly.  It would have been
the same for Zac, if I'd been the one who didn't come back."
     "And you're really locked into being a warrior," his mother noted,
"I can remember when you always seemed to think it was just an obligation
in your life because of the War."
     "I've learned to accept my role in life as a warrior in this part of
my life.  I don't see it continuing once we reach Earth, but for now it's
what I'm committed to," he then added, "And to get back to the matter of
the Zohrlochs, they helped me a great deal in learning how to embrace
that part of me that I know was predestined to become a warrior."
     "Yes, I was going to get back to that," Ila acknowledged,
"You've.....really embraced a good deal of their philosophy, haven't
you?"
     "The parts that I approve of when it comes to their warrior
tradition and their methods of warrior meditation and discipline," Apollo
emphasized, "When we first encountered them, there was a lot about their
devotion to war that seemed so....bloodthirsty and savage.  All kinds of
rituals that seemed to put a greater emphasis on constant fighting for
the sake of it, though in fairness to them, they come from a world where
even day-to-day survival is a sort of battle in itself. A hot, desert
world, poor in resources. They did not engage in acts of blind conquest
and subjugation of other races.  True, they have an Empire, built upon
conquest, and a lot of their history, what we know of it, would indeed
seem brutal and savage to most Colonials, except perhaps the Nomen.  But
there is a thread of honor that runs through it which I never saw in the
others.  That was made them different from the Ziklagi race when we came
across them at the same time.  Sargamesh and Korl had been sold into
slavery by the Ziklagi.  That's something that would have offended the
Zohrloch code of honor."
     "And our own, as well," she added. "Don't forget the Abolition Wars,
long ago in the second millennia after the Kobollian Exodus.  When the
last three Colonies that carried over the practice of slave ownership
finally paid the price for not being more enlightened on that subject. A
bloody uprising that finally forced an end to the practice."
     "No, I haven't forgotten," Apollo nodded. "And comparatively
speaking, the Zohrlochs as a people had eliminated that before the
totality of Human Civilization did, especially when you factor in the
knowledge that Earth was still practicing some form of slavery as
recently as two hundred yahrens ago.  That really stood out to me when I
did a deeper study of Zohrloch traditions and history."
     "And over time you saw more about their traditions to admire."
     "I saw it as a kind of give and take, Mother.  Sargamesh and Korl
learned to assimilate into the framework of Colonial society and put
aside those elements of Zohrlochian tradition that conflict with our own
values.  I felt moved to see what there was in their tradition worth
embracing once we learned later that the Zohrlochs are in fact, a cousin
tribe of our own, descended from our own Kobollian forebears."
     "Yes, that's really remarkable that there's clear evidence of
ancient Kobollians seeding these blended races throughout the universe
prior to the original Kobollian Exodus.  The Zohrloch, the Harkaelians,
and now it seems evident the Risik fall under that category as well."
     "This genetic seeding may have been a preliminary action the
Kobollians undertook when they first realized the mother planet was
dying," Apollo said.  "By genetically mixing with other species , I think
the Kobollians prior to the time of the Ninth Lord saw these
interbreeding experiments as the ideal way of perpetuating Humanity.  But
at some point, when the problems on Kobol intensified, the focus shifted
away from creating new strains of Humanity and concentrated instead on
settling the pure strain of Humanity on new worlds.  Hence the Kobollian
Exodus of the Thirteen Tribes to the Colonies and to Earth."
     "And that would explain why the Zohrloch 'Fashioners' as I believe
Sargamesh referred to them, abruptly left their planet of Eridu one day
and left the race they had helped to create to their own devices.  The
same thing probably happened on Harkaelis and the Risik home world as
well, and over time, these races developed their own traditions and lost
sight of their distant origins, creating their own mythologies of higher
beings in the process," Ila found all of this fascinating.  Even though
her academic fields had been in the arts, and not in the realm of ancient
history she had always appreciated her husband's fascination with it, and
consequently it was why she had even learned a rudimentary knowledge of
ancient Kobollian in her spare time.  A knowledge that had paid an
important dividend when the Pegasus had returned to the so-called
'Weather Planet' and only Ila could decipher any of the Kobollian
legacies that planet had yielded, including the information on how to
construct the communications system that ultimately enabled the Pegasus
to make contact with the Galactica.
     "That does make sense," Apollo agreed, "And it may also explain the
Risik obsession with wanting to conquer and subjugate the human race and
assert the idea of primacy over them, or being responsible for the final
version of humanity as it exists.  That way, they inverse the matter of
their origins and turn themselves from the creation to the creator."
     "But sticking with the Zohrlochs and their impact on you.....what
else did you see about their traditions in a different light once you
realized they're a cousin race to us?"
     Her son self-consciously touched the edge of his beard in
contemplation, "Because suddenly, I realized that much of what the
Zohrlochs did in shaping their own traditions had a clear link to the
philosophies and ideals set forth in the Book of the Word, Mother.  Yes,
they did corrupt them to a degree because of the circumstances of how the
Kobollians abandoned them, and they soon found themselves living in a
world where a warrior tradition became necessary for them just to
survive.  But the ideals in which they developed their warrior code were
rooted in the principles our ancestors lived by, long ago in the ancient
days of Kobol, and that was what I found fascinating about them."
     "And that's why you.....went through that whole ceremony according
to their traditions?" she asked.  
     "I had to do it for myself, Mother," Apollo said firmly.  "When I
went through that ceremony and had my hair pulled back into the
ceremonial equitail that all Zohrloch warriors wear, I felt like I'd
chased away all the inner doubts I'd had in my mind about why I became a
warrior that had been haunting me ever since I was accepted into the
Academy.  Since I underwent the rite of passage, I've never thought about
what it might have been like to have been a scholar or philosopher like I
used to do, because embracing the Zohrloch philosophy helped me reconcile
those parts of myself to being a warrior first and foremost.  I know
that's what I was destined to be in this phase of my life and I don't
question it any longer.  I don't see myself remaining a warrior once we
reach Earth, because that's when I think the work I've been needed for as
a warrior will be over.  But for now.....this is what I am, and my study
of the Zohrloch traditions helped me fully realize that."
     "It's always important to find your inner voice," the one-time
Academician nodded in understanding.  "I'm glad the Zohrlochs were able
to help you find it.  It's obviously made you a better warrior, a better
husband, a better father......and a better man, Apollo.  I'm proud of you
for doing all that."
     "That means a lot to me, Mother," he was deeply touched inside to
hear this validation and approval from her, "I knew taking these steps
had the potential to open me up to all kinds of ridicule, and Lords know
Starbuck will never let up with the cracks about my beard and equitail,
but.....I'm glad everyone who went to that ceremony understood why I had
to do it for myself.  And I'm glad you do too."
     "And I give you my promise to never follow Starbuck's lead and kid
you about your beard and equitail," she touched her son's hand and added
with parental teasing.  "Especially since I'm glad your father hasn't
followed your example."
     Apollo's only response was a hearty laugh.  As they finished off
their dinner, the conversation came back to the subject of the campaign. 
And the impossible position Pelias was in, with his hopeless standing in
the polls.
     "I hope for his sake he comes to his senses and gets out of the
race, Apollo," Ila shook her head with regret, "I want to win this race,
but I'd hate to see him destroyed and humiliated in the process.  But if
he is going to get out of the race, he has to reason that out himself."
     "For your sake and your peace of mind, I hope he does," Apollo said
simply.  As far as he was concerned it would have served Pelias right for
undertaking such a fool's errand.  But he knew if he said that aloud,
he'd get a well-deserved dose of motherly chiding from her.  
     This has been a great evening, he thought.  Now I really know how
wonderful it is for her to be back with us.


The Jada
     After summoning an attendant to clean up the broken glass and spilt
ambrosia, Pelias had spent the rest of the evening brooding in silence. 
Wondering why an evening that he'd thought would be the happiest of his
life had instead turned into a disaster of epic proportions.  When he
thought he'd found the solution to justify staying in to the finish of
the race by making Jena see the wisdom in getting married now.
     Is Jena right?  Have I treated her like a consolation prize for
losing Jada?  He thought sadly as he drank from an open bottle of
expensive Sagittarian brandy.  Part of the remnants of Sire Feo's private
stock.  His uncle had always used his influence to import a limitless
supply at cut-rate prices that avoided the usual tariff duty fees one had
to pay for importing liquor from one colony to another.  Consequently, at
the time of the Exodus, the yacht had over fifteen crates aboard in its
storage areas.  Now, over four yahrens later, there were still ten crates
left.  And Pelias right now, if his stomach had the courage, was prepared
to reduce that to nine by morning.
     I guess it all comes down to wishing I'd had the chance to know if
something could have existed between Jada and me.  If we'd had
something.......and then I lost her, it would have been more painful in
the short term, but.....I would have been able to look back fondly on
her.  The same way Apollo does with his first wife.  
     He glanced at the sketch of Jada on the table and let out a sad
sigh.
     Jada don't mock me now.  Don't put me down with the old insults. 
Just tell me I've done good.  Tell me I've made myself the kind of
man......you would have loved if you'd lived.  Just like I know I would
have loved you if you had.
     But this time, he heard nothing.  As if this time, her spirit,
wherever it lurked had chosen to be silent.  Probably for his own good. 
But that still didn't quell the restlessness he felt now that Jena had
brought the matter of how he'd felt about Jada into the open.  He now
realized that having some kind of validation from Jada was the one thing
missing from his life.  And without it, he didn't know if he could find
the strength to acknowledge that his campaign needed to come to an end. 
He had entered it with optimism that he was finally letting Jada's spirit
know that he'd learned and was prepared to finish something he'd started. 
That he wasn't the lazy "son-of-a-councilman" any longer who just hitched
himself to a benefactor or an ally.  That he was willing to stand up for
himself as a legitimate candidate for the Presidency and prove he could
win people over.  Now.....all of that lay in ashes.  And he couldn't
understand why he'd guessed so wrong when he'd been so sure. 
     Please.....his mind cried out as he felt the numbing effect of a
hastily consumed bottle of Sagittarian brandy take hold and send him into
a realm of sleep that he didn't feel ready for.  He tried for a micron to
fight it off and stay awake, but.....he almost felt like there was an
outside force compelling him to sleep.  Now.  The empty bottle fell from
his hand to the floor and he felt his eyes close in surrender.......


     ........By nature, Pelias wasn't the kind of person who dreamt
dreams that were vivid enough to remember.  They always seemed to consist
of some abstract sequence of events that transitioned from one idea to
another without any kind of coherent through-line.  But right
away.....his inner consciousness had a sense that was
very......different.
     He felt like he was floating in some ill-defined realm of nothing. 
Unable to hold up his hands and see them or any indication that he had a
solid body any longer.  For a brief micron he wondered if this was what
it was like to be that mysterious 'Entity' the Fleet had trailed for so
long.  A non-corporeal form of nothing but energy.  But then it passed as
he had the sense that he could see something in front of him.  Something
that he wasn't a part of but rather looking in on, like the viewer of a
vid-com entertainment.  And then.....he had the distinct sensation of
seeing....himself.  Standing at attention in an inspection line.  Wearing
a Colonial Warrior dress uniform along with everyone standing alongside
him.  He immediately recognized Starbuck, who was uncharacteristically
ramrod straight and not cracking any jokes or making any asides.  He then
saw Apollo......only it was Apollo without his Zohrloch style beard and
equitail.  He too was at attention.  And soon.....there was a sense of
pulling back to see more warriors standing in line.  But as his field of
vision widened.......the faces were suddenly less distinct.  But he at
least could tell that he was inside the Great Hall of the Galactica for
some kind of military ceremony.  At the front of the line were the
unmistakable dress blue uniforms of Commander Adama and Colonel Tigh.
     "We are gathered here today on this occasion to pay tribute to two
warriors who demonstrated outstanding courage under extraordinary
circumstances.  Circumstances neither could have possibly foreseen given
the unknown dimension of the threat that was placed before them.  And
yet.....they knew in that moment of unforeseen terror and danger how to
work together as a team and apply their training as warriors to the
fullest.  The end result......the elimination of a horrible threat to the
well-being of not only themselves, but to the lives of everyone in the
Fleet."
     Adama's voice sounded with a clarity and resonance that he couldn't
recall hearing in any other dream he'd experienced in his life.  Most of
the time when he heard dialogue in a dream it was disjointed and muffled
sounding.  Yet this.....this seemed less of a dream and more like he was
looking at another realm entirely.
     "And now at this time, I will ask our two honored warriors to step
forward and receive recognition.  Cadet Pelias.....and Cadet Jada."
     To his astonishment he saw this other version of himself step out of
line and march ten paces to the center of the Hall.  And then.....he
became aware for the first time that the line of warriors opposite from
where he was standing was where the female warriors were lined up.  He
could make out Sheba and Dietra.  And then......he saw her approaching. 
Jada.  Looking more beautiful than he could ever recall in her dress
uniform.  Her expression dead serious as she marched the same ten paces
so that she was facing the other version of himself.  And then, both
turning simultaneously to face Adama and Tigh and both walking in perfect
step toward them.  Coming to a stop just in front of their Commander
where they saluted him formally with the hand to the left shoulder. 
Adama obliged them in return.
     "Cadet Pelias......Cadet Jada.  For your courage and resourcefulness
in destroying the shapeshifter being of the Ziklagi race named Korax
following his attempt on both your lives......you are both awarded the
Silver Cluster, along with your formal commissions as officers in the
Colonial Service."
     He saw himself and Jada lowering their heads with solemn respect as
Adama took the decorations from Tigh and pinned them to the collars of
their capes.  They looked up and saluted Adama again and in perfect
precision......they turned and marched in perfect step back to the center
of the Hall.......where they peeled off and returned to their respective
formation lines.
     And then......he saw things become less distinct as if time was
elapsing at a rapid pace and he couldn't keep up with things.  Until it
stopped and clarity returned once again.  And this time......he saw
himself walking in the Public Garden of the Agro Dome with Jada.  He was
wearing his finest civilian outfit which he recognized as one his uncle
had arranged to get the Rising Star tailor Jasen to make for him even
though Jasen had been under Fleet orders to curtail special orders for
the Elite Class until he met the needs of some of the less fortunate
people in the Fleet.  Jada was wearing a civilian outfit too.  Not overly
revealing but very feminine and one that highlighted her beauty
tremendously.  He could see his arm wrapped around her slender waist as
they walked along the Public Garden's pathway, enjoying the trees and the
starlight above that shone through the Dome's panels.  It lent the
illusion of an outdoor walk through a peaceful park back in the Colonies. 
Where couples in love would often take a romantic stroll together.
     It took some time for him to hear any dialogue.  As if he was
eavesdropping on a conversation already in progress.  He had the sense of
zooming in......and he could hear himself speaking.
     "I know it's not like having a Gold Pass on the Rising Star
but.....I thought you'd appreciate the tranquility of this place
tonight."
     "You guessed right," he heard Jada speak.  "After what we went
through together with that monster, I've lost my appetite for flashy
excitement."  She then flashed him a smile, "Thanks for changing your
mind about offering me that Gold Pass  to get me to go back to base camp
alone."
     "I'm so glad I did," he looked her in the eye with deep emotion and
then suddenly pulled her tight to him, "God, Jada, I don't want to think
about what might have happened if you'd stumbled across that monster all
by yourself.  I'm just glad something told me we had to follow orders
about sticking together.  And it helped that.....I didn't like the idea
of not hearing your voice for the next couple centars.  I'd gotten too
used to you of late."
     She relaxed in his embrace and smiled.  "Even after I pulled that
naughty little prank on you in the training dome that left you flat on
your astrum in the sand?"
     He smiled back at her with adoring eyes, "Let's just say.....that
little stunt of yours made me determined to see if you could be easily
conquered.  And I couldn't very well do that if I sent you off alone to
face Starbuck's admonishment over not noticing the missing master control
unit."
     "You picked the right time to stop being a loafing
son-of-a-councilman," Jada touched his cheek, "And now.....here we are. 
Conquerors of the Ziklagi monster formerly known as Over Lieutenant Korax
and saviors of the Fleet from seeing a Ziklagi armada ambush us.  Ready
to start the rest of our lives as Warriors the Fleet can be proud of."
     "And more," he whispered tenderly, "I love you, Jada."
     "I love you, Pelias."
     They kissed each other with deep passion.  Not paying attention to
any of the other people passing them on the walkway.  Both of them lost
in each other completely.  And then......the rapid pace of time
dissolving and he could see this other version of himself lying in bed
with Jada, making love to her......and Jada deep in the throes of their
passion moaning and whispering her undying love for him.  As that scene
faded, Pelias could see the Great Hall come into focus again only this
time.....Adama was presiding over a sealing ceremony.......And just as
quickly he could see himself and Jada flying vipers together and
bantering with each other.....


     .........Pelias suddenly bolted awake.  His eyes wide with horror
over what he'd just dreamt.  Only it hadn't seemed like a dream at all. 
It had a quality of reality to him like that of a vision.  A vision
telling him that yes, if he had only not loafed regarding orders and
remembered to accompany Jada, they would have been able to keep Korax
from harming the both of them.  They would have been able to pool their
resources together as warriors in training and snuff out the menace of
Korax before it even got started.  That would mean.....his uncle would
have still lived as well.  And if he distinguished himself by working
with Jada to defeat Korax.....the life of a Warrior would still have
meant something to him.  Especially if it meant being with Jada all the
time.
     In theory, that should have answered the question that had been on
his mind about whether Jada would have loved him if she'd lived.  And if
they might have had a future together. But now that he'd seen
this.....vision, he drew no comfort from it.  Only further misery to
compound the additional misery that he was on the verge of losing Jena
and was about to face the greatest public humiliation of his life when
the election took place.
     Maybe my life isn't worth felgercarb any longer.
     He shook his head.  No.  That wasn't the answer.  He had to fight
his way out of this mental mess he'd gotten himself into because of his
reckless desire to oppose Adama and Ila, and his warped sense that in
doing so, he was paying tribute to Jada's memory.  He needed to talk to
someone who could listen to him and maybe give him some advice he could
take seriously.
     He knew he couldn't go to Jena .  After what they'd just been
through, there was no way she could understand at this point.  Telling
her about the dream would only validate her argument that he was treating
her like a consolation prize and that what he really wanted was for Jada
to be alive again.  For the same reason, he couldn't talk to her father
either, even though they'd had good relations until recently.  Kevin
Byrne was just as incapable of understanding why Jada had been so
important to him as Jena was.  He was more likely to get an angry
denunciation from Byrne over leading his impressionable daughter astray.
     Hades Hole, they'd both kick me out the door.  And who could blame
them?
     He knew he could go to Tarnia and ask for her advice as a
psychological counselor, but Tarnia was too unfamiliar with the specifics
of what he'd been through.  Her advice would be far too clinical to have
a meaningful impact.  No.  The only person he could talk to about this
was someone who had been traumatized just as much as he'd been by Jada's
death.  
     He took several breaths to try and ease the pain of his splitting
headache.  Turning to his personal comp, he decided it was time to use
his Council member access code for something he'd never done before.  To
check on the active status of a warrior and his current location.
     When the result came back that Lieutenant Starbuck was listed as
still in the Officers Club of the Galactica, he quickly notified the
captain of the yacht to set course for the battlestar immediately. 

Chapter Seven

The Galactica
     Colonel Tigh had finished his dinner with Adama and enjoyed it
thoroughly.  Since Ila's return there'd been fewer opportunities for the
two old friends to get together and just let loose with talk about the
old days of flying together on the Cerberus and the other things they'd
shared together in the Service.  Adama had apologized to him about that,
reminding him as always that he considered Tigh to be a part of his
family.  Which Tigh appreciated, but he'd always felt that out of
propriety, it was better to keep some level of distance from Adama
whenever it came to larger family-level events.  Perhaps that stemmed
from the fact that since Tigh had been a loner in his life for over
twenty yahrens since the death of his wife, he was used to experiencing
nothing beyond the man-to-man levels of warrior camaraderie in his life. 
That's why he could feel at ease with Adama in a one-to-one setting, but
never in a larger event with his children and their spouses.  The same
thing was generally true when it came to Ila as well.  He knew her from
the days before the Destruction when he'd visited Adama's house as his
guest, but he was never completely at ease talking directly to her. 
Which he knew wasn't her fault and stemmed entirely from his own
insecurities.  But he'd long ago come to the conclusion that it was too
late for him to change his ways.  His work as Adama's second-in-command
was his entire life, and it gave him enough to do.  If anything, he
relished taking on some more duties just to give Adama more time to spend
with his wife and family.  From his standpoint, that was the greatest
gesture of friendship he could offer.
     That was why after the long dinner had come to an end, he'd insisted
on returning to the Bridge for a final inspection check before turning
in.  That way, Adama need not bother with anything else and could still
be up for when Ila returned from her dinner with Apollo.  As always, the
Commander had appreciated his gesture, but with that silent wish that
Tigh might one day learn to take some time to stop and not let the rest
of his life pass him by.
     When the Executive Officer arrived on the Bridge, he was just in
time to see Rigel and Omega leaving together, their duty shifts over, and
the two of them walking hand-in-hand.  He smiled faintly with a satisfied
air that things had finally gotten serious between them after more than
several yahrens of wondering when it was finally going to happen. 
Despite his own permanent commitment to solitary widowerhood, Tigh
thought it was good for morale that more crew in the Fleet was finding
time for romance and relationships.  It helped contribute to the
atmosphere of hope that arrival on Earth wasn't a distant dream that
would take generations to find as they'd feared at the beginning of their
journey.  That it was only a matter of just a few more yahrens and they'd
be there.
     Arriving on the Upper Level command deck, he saw that Lieutenant
Mercedes, the Chief of the Night Watch, had settled into the command
seat.  From what he remembered, the dark-haired woman of thirty was
married to Sire Hanlon's son, a maintenance chief aboard the Foundry Ship
who also worked the night watch, and it was much easier for the state of
their marriage for Mercedes to handle the so-called 'graveyard shift' of
duty when virtually nothing ever happened.  Tigh could only recall two
occasions over a period of four yahrens when something that required
going to Alert had happened during the Night Watch so he knew Mercedes
was not the kind of officer who equated night duty as an excuse to
perform less than the normal level of work.
     "Evening Lieutenant," he said cheerily as he came up beside her,
"Anything to report?"
     Mercedes had her hand to her headset, "As a matter of fact, yes. 
Sire Pelias just requested landing clearance in Alpha Bay for his yacht,
the Jada."
     Tigh frowned, "Did he say why he's coming aboard?"
     "He.....says it's a personal matter, and that he would like
Lieutenant Starbuck to report to him as soon as he's landed.  He says its
private business between him and Starbuck and wouldn't elaborate."
     "He sure picked a strange time of the night to conduct private
business," Tigh noted dryly.  A part of him felt the urge to deny Pelias
landing permission simply out of spite for the fact that he'd chosen to
run an irresponsible challenge to Ila after two sectars of showing a
distinct lack of maturity on the Council.  "Give him landing clearance
but tell him to stand by regarding Starbuck."
     "Yes sir."
     Tigh went over to the railing and looked down.  Bridge Officer Wu
had just settled into Omega's now vacant chair.  "Can you give me
Lieutenant Starbuck's status?"
     Wu nodded and entered the request into the computer.  When it came
on the screen he turned around and looked up at the XO, "Lieutenant
Starbuck is still in the OC, Colonel."
     "I'm not surprised," he said under his breath.  "Have him paged and
tell him to report to Alpha Bay immediately."


     It was nearing the equivalent of what an Earth native would have
called the midnight hour according to the Colonial chronometer.  By this
point, the Officers Club was largely empty as all unmarried pilots on
active status had to observe their curfews.  Married pilots who had their
own quarters on the Galactica were permitted a greater level of leeway
since they weren't subject to the kind of routine bedchecks an unmarried
pilot who bunked in the warrior barracks had to endure.  The spouse in
each case was always expected to do their duty and see to it that if an
alert sounded, they would report for duty as quickly as if they still
slept in the barracks.  It was only when the Fleet went to a state of
Yellow Alert or higher that even married pilots were expected to return
to the barracks and bunk there until the Alert was lifted.
     Consequently, the only three pilots who were still in the Club,
enjoying a late game of Pyramid, were Starbuck, Boomer and Bojay.  All of
them happily married now and always glad to take advantage of that extra
privilege being married gave them.  Gayla, by now on her tenth cigarello
of the evening, was also participating and much to Starbuck's annoyance
was showing more skill at Pyramid than any other woman he'd ever seen
play the game.
     Is there anything that isn't so unconventional about her?  He
thought as his eyes took note of the pile of cubits she'd earned over the
last two centars.  Of course I keep forgetting how she almost tore
Twilly's head off with her bare hands when she found out what a piece of
bilge scum he was.  A woman with that kind of strength is a natural for
Pyramid playing, just like she is when it comes to smoking, cursing and
Skepticism.
     "I'm out," Boomer threw his cards down, "That leaves just you two to
fight over the pot."
     "Watcha say, Starbuck?" Gayla smiled crookedly, her cigarello
jutting out of the edge of her mouth as she held up her cards.  "Ready
for another round of punishment?"
     Starbuck deliberately matched her pose with the smile, the way he
held his cards and how the fumarello stuck from his mouth.  "Not a
chance.  I'm overdue to make a killing at long last."
     "And if you lose, it'll be yourself," Bojay quipped as he leaned
back, out of this round and enjoying the sight of his wife matching wits
with Starbuck and coming out ahead.....so far.
     "Are you ready to hover?" Starbuck looked her in the eye.
     "Ready," she looked right back at him.  "And I put in fifty cubits
to open."
     His eyebrows went up.  That was dangerously high for an opening bid. 
Clearly, she was trying to psyche him out from the get-go.
     "All right," the brash lieutenant dropped several coins into the
pile, "See your fifty and....raise you another hundred."
     Without batting an eye, Gayla pushed a stack of a dozen different
coins, "See your hundred, raise two-fifty."
     Whoa.....Starbuck felt a measure of intimidation going through him. 
At the rate he'd been losing he'd already lost his full pay for the
sectan.  If he matched that amount and lost he'd be out three sectans and
he'd never hear the end of it from Cassie.  Ordinarily, he liked it when
she'd deliver her reproaches to him, but this had the potential to be his
biggest wagering loss since their marriage and he was sure any reproaches
wouldn't be delivered in a spirit of fun byplay since it would mean
giving up some perks she'd planned on from her own pay stub.
     "Well, Starbuck?" Gayla smirked, "The chronometer is ticking."
     Bojay, enjoying the fun his wife was having at Starbuck's expense
joined in by mimicking the sound of an old-fashioned ticking chronometer.
     Starbuck looked at his cards and took a deep breath.  Half a pyramid
with no capstone.  A middle of the road hand that would likely win if
Gayla was trying to bluff him.  But if Gayla had something similar with a
capstone, that would mean he was dead.
     "Attention.  Lieutenant Starbuck, please report to Alpha Bay
immediately!  Repeat, Lieutenant Starbuck please report to Alpha Bay
immediately!" 
     Lieutenant Mercedes announcement over the Unicom suddenly filled
Starbuck with a sense of relief that he'd just escaped the executioner's
blade.
     "Sorry, Gayla," he grinned as he threw down his cards and quickly
took back all the money he'd shoved into the pot.  "Duty calls.  And
under the Warrior rulebook for Pyramid playing, interruption of a match
for an official purpose cancels the game in progress."
     "You bilge rat!" Gayla fumed, "I had you beat!"  She flashed her
hand which revealed a perfect Pyramid.
     "Well....that's the breaks, Gayla.  I've been there too, right
guys?"
     "Oh yeah," Boomer said dryly as he leaned back in his chair, with
the sense that he'd  gotten his money's worth even though he'd lost over
fifty cubits himself.
     "Thanks for a great match, everyone," Starbuck rose, and
respectfully bowed to everyone, "Boomer, Bojay.....and Gayla,
congratulations!"
     "You know where you can put your congratulations, Starbuck?" she
said bitterly as she crushed her cigrello out against the table surface.
     "Next time, I'll hopefully not have to give any.  Bye!" he waved and
hurried out of the Club.  Boomer shook his head in amusement as he slowly
got to his feet.
     "Well, I think I'd better get back to Athena before she sics
Security on me.  Night Bojay.  You too, Gayla."
     "Night Boomer," Silver Spar Leader looked over at his wife who was
clearly not taking the loss of what would have been easy money well.
     "Hey, c'mon Gay.  You still ended up ahead by at least two hundred
cubits."
     "I had him beat for double that," she said ruefully, "And when he
paid up, I had this remark ready to spring on him about how I learned to
play this well from a three-handed dealer on Pineas.  Apollo told me it
was the best line to use on him if I ever came away a big winner against
him."
     "Ouch," Bojay shook his head as he knew right away how that would
have been the perfect capper to the evening, "Well....maybe next time,
Gay."
     "If there is a fracking next time where I ever get a fracking hand
like that."
     He put his arm around her, "You really turn me on when you talk that
way."
     She looked at her husband and slowly, the anger gave way to a
perfect bad-girl smirk.
     "All right, husband," Gayla said in a husky whisper, "In that case,
be prepared to get really turned on when we get back to our chambers."
     They pocketed her winnings and left.  Watching it all from the bar,
the Protean bartender Freeman sighed with relief that he could finally
close up for the night.


     Starbuck's relief over escaping crippling monetary losses soon gave
way to puzzlement as to why he'd been summoned to report to the landing
bay at this ungodly centar of the night.  At the very least, a unicom
announcement meant Cassiopeia would have heard it and realized why he
wouldn't be showing up in their shared billet in the near-term.  
     When he arrived in the landing bay, Master Chief Varica, up later
than normal to do a special inventory, pointed him toward the luxurious
yacht situated on the tarmac.  Immediately, Starbuck recognized Pelias's
yacht, the Jada, which he had been on once before at Brylon Station,
following the turbulent events that had seen him briefly imprisoned by
the Zykonians, and also the final destruction of the Ziklagi shape
shifter Korax.  
     He wants to talk to me?  What for?  He obviously knows what I think
of him for running against Ila.  He paused a moment, recalling Boomer's
words about the young man who had once overcome mind-numbing terror to
get them both out of one of the most dangerous and desperate situations
he had ever survived.  And how Starbuck may have been acting protectively
towards Ila.....
     He walked up to the forward hatch and before he could knock on it,
the door slid open.  A white-garbed attendant was looking directly at
him.
     "Sire Pelias wants to talk to you in his private suite, Lieutenant,"
the attendant said, "If you'll follow me?"
     The brash lieutenant decided to save any quips he had in mind for
when he'd actually see the Gemonese Councillor.  He pulled a fresh
fumarello out of his pocket and stuck it in his mouth as he followed the
attendant into the yacht.  Only when the hatch was closed did Starbuck
light it up, since even he wasn't fool enough to light a match inside the
landing bay with open fuel tanks and fumes a potential danger.
     "I've been here before, I know where his suite is," he pushed his
way past the attendant and made his way down the elegantly paneled
corridor.  He could see the examples of art work lining the wall, some of
it items that had been part of the late Sire Feo's personal collection,
but mixed in with them were some sketches that he knew Pelias had done. 
Giving him a reminder of how much talent Pelias had as an artist before
his life was sidetracked into other things.
     He debated whether to use the chime, which would have been the
dignified thing to do to let a member of the Council know he was there,
or to knock loudly and informally announce his arrival. Deciding to play
it safe, especially after his reprieve in the Officers Club which he knew
Pelias was directly responsible for, he took the formal route and pressed
the chime.  Almost immediately the door slid open and Starbuck entered
the room.
     He saw the young Councillor seated behind his desk at the far side
of the room, looking disheveled and clearly suffering the effects of a
hangover.  He tentatively made his way toward him.
     "I'm assuming you've got a good reason for wanting to see
me......Councilor."
     Pelias warily shook his head, "No title, Starbuck.  Please.  It's
got nothing to do with that.  Or the election for that matter."
     "Glad to hear that," Starbuck sat down in the chair in front of the
desk and made sure his posture was perfect, if only to strike a contrast
with how terribly slumped Pelias looked.  "Because even if I felt like
giving you a campaign contribution, which I don't, I already lost more
than I can handle at Pyramid tonight."
     "Starbuck, please," there was an edge of pleading in his voice, "I
really need to talk to you.  You're the only one who can maybe.....make
sense out of why my mind is so fracked up right now."
     The warrior shrugged, "So talk.  What's this about?"
     "Jada."
     Starbuck suddenly bit through the end of his fumarello, not having
expected to hear this name from both their pasts come up.  Immediately,
all flippant instincts vanished from him.
     "What about Jada?" he asked quietly as he retrieved his fumarello,
which had fallen to the carpet, and quickly extinguished it.
     "Do you ever.......think about her?" Pelias was looking askance, as
if he didn't want to face him directly.  "Do you ever have any centons
where suddenly.....you just remember too clearly what happened to her and
wonder why someone like her had to die so senselessly?"
     Boy, this is really not what I expected in a million yahrens.
     "When you're in a command situation with responsibility for Warriors
who serve under you, you never forget them when they die," Starbuck said
in as serious a tone as he was capable of, "But if you intend to continue
in those duties......there comes a point when you can't let those past
tragedies intrude on your mind any longer.  I took much too long to get
over what happened to Jada because I was responsible for her safety, and
because my decision to pull that stunt with the master control units was
what put her in harms way.  But.....once Korax was finally sent to where
he belonged, I finally got my perspective back.  Just like I had to get
my perspective back when I lost a couple cadets under my charge named Bo
and Shields at Arcta when they got fried by the Ravashol Pulsar.  That
doesn't mean you forget who they were......it just means you have to stop
dwelling on the might-have-beens."
     "Have you ever had any.....dreams about her?"
     "Dreams?" Starbuck frowned.
     "Dreams about her never dying.  Dreams about her living to be a good
warrior."
     Slowly, Starbuck realized the reason why Pelias had wanted to see
him.  And it made perfect sense why he was the only one the former
Warrior Cadet turned Councillor would have turned to.
     "No," he shook his head, "No, I haven't.  I'm at peace with that. 
I've accepted my own responsibility, and I realize none of us knew the
danger we were in.  You can't go back and do it over, Pelias, as much as
we wish we could."  He leaned forward.  "You've dreamed about Jada?"
     "I have," Pelias said quietly, his head still down.  "Just this
evening.  Just after I had the most horrible evening of my life with
Jena.  I----," he shook his head and almost seemed on the verge of tears
but he shook it off.  "I don't know what to think or feel any longer. 
I've had to finally face the fact that I've never gotten over Jada.  That
I wanted so much to have the chance to know her and......love her.  And
now.....now I can't look Jena in the eye and tell her I want her to be my
wife, because as far as she's concerned, I just see her as a consolation
prize to make up for losing Jada."
     Starbuck, who had always been grateful to see Pelias and Jena become
a couple that seemed genuinely in love, was shaken by this.  He'd always
thought Pelias, like himself, had been able to put the tragedy of Jada's
death behind him.  His mind went back to the last private conversation
they'd ever had at Brylon.  When they had both talked about Jada and how
at peace Pelias had seemed then because he'd seen a vision of her during
the struggle to finally kill Korax. He remembered Pelias saying then that
he had finally realized he'd loved Jada, but Pelias had been able to
express that with a sad air of acceptance that it was a love that was
never meant to be.  What had happened to destroy that sense of
perspective?
     "Pelias," Starbuck said gently.  "I think there's more you need to
tell me."
     The Gemonese Councillor nodded and with a sigh, drew himself up in
his chair so that his posture finally looked more dignified.  Slowly,
with great deliberation, he told Starbuck everything about his evening
with Jena that had gone so horribly wrong.
     "She walked out and told me that unless I got out of the race, we
might as well be through," he sighed, "But....if I got out of the race,
I'd be hating myself.  Feeling like I was once again proving that I can't
ever finish something I start.  That I'm still just a lazy
son-of-a-Councilman like Jada always used to say."
     "Is that the reason you got into the race?" Starbuck felt nothing
but bewilderment, "Because you thought it was what Jada would want you to
do?"
     "No, Starbuck, that's oversimplifying it too much," Pelias shook his
head, "I had what I think are legitimate reasons for challenging Ila for
the Presidency.  I felt Adama had taken too many risks with our safety
trailing the Entity and nearly brushing up against that old Risik
minefield, which may still have some long-term repercussions we're not
aware of yet.  I was also, I admit ticked off that he didn't bring me in
on that conference with the Harkaelians concerning Commander Allen's
wife, because technically she is one of my constituents.  And I didn't
like the way Adama decided to just abdicate the Presidency without
talking to us beforehand and assuming Ila could just lay claim to the job
when she's only been with us a couple sectars and doesn't know all the
nuances of how we've functioned as a Fleet since the beginning.  Now
maybe you think I'm an equinian astrum for feeling that way, but I
thought those were legitimate reasons for an alternate candidate to run
on.  Maybe I just expected someone like Sire Xaviar or Sire Hanlon to
step forward, but when they didn't I felt I had to do it on general
principle."
     Starbuck decided not to challenge any of Pelias's remarks, tempting
as it was.  Already, he knew it would just distract from the main point
of discussion, which concerned Jada.  
     "But.....once I made that decision to run, then yes.  I did convince
myself that Jada would be proud of me for making that decision.  That I
wasn't going to just loaf about something that was important to me and
that I'd have the guts to actually take a chance and do something if I
felt that strongly about it.  So that's why I felt if I bailed out just
because the polls are bad, I'd feel like I was still the same old Pelias
that Jada kept putting down.  I wanted to stick through to the end just
to prove I was no loafer and could fight for myself in a tough scrape. 
It didn't matter whether I won or lost, just so long as I.....stayed with
it to the end."
     "And you thought proposing to Jena and getting sealed before the
election would help," Starbuck noted.  " A ceremony that would enhance
the image of the two of you as some kind of young power couple of the
future the Fleet could look up to."
     "Yes, that's what I thought," he nodded ruefully, "But Jena.....she
was offended by the idea because she thinks I never should have gotten in
the race and she said I was treating the idea of marriage like campaign
prop.  Maybe I was, but I thought she would understand how much doing
this meant to me.  And.....oh God, that was when I put my foot in the
mong big time and I called her Jada.  And that's when I had to finally
tell her everything about Jada, because up to tonight, Jena didn't know
who she was and why this yacht is named for her."
     "Big mistake," Starbuck said simply, "You should have told Jena
everything about her from the start.  You can't start a relationship with
someone else without being candid about the people you've been involved
with in the past.....or might have been involved with."
     For the first time, a crooked smile formed on the Councillor's face,
"You mean Cassiopeia knows about every woman in your past?"
     "Every woman I had deep feelings for," Starbuck didn't bat an eye.
"We couldn't have become sealed without that candor.  Just like I know
everything about her relationship with Commander Cain and her feelings
for him.  Oh, not that we followed that rule from the beginning of our
relationship.  But we both learned the hard way that lack of candor about
our pasts doesn't help.  And in your case, I admit I could have told Jena
and her father about Jada given the impact her death had on me, but we
don't have that close a relationship.  I always assumed that was your
place to tell them if you were really serious about Jena."
     Hearing nothing from Pelias, Starbuck leaned forward and asked
pointedly, "Are you in love with Jena, Pelias?  Or is it Jada you can't
let go of?"
     "That's why my mind is so fracked up, Starbuck," he sighed, "I want
to say I love Jena and want to spend the rest of my life with her,
but......can I ever love her the way I wanted to love Jada?  Especially
after that dream I had tonight after Jena left and I let myself get
crocked and I passed out sitting in this chair."
     "Tell me about the dream, Pelias," Starbuck said simply.  "Don't
hold anything back if you really want me to help."
     The Councilor nodded and took a breath to gather all his strength. 
And he talked.


     When Pelias finished, Starbuck was leaning back in his chair with an
incredulous expression.  For reasons that went beyond the direct subject
matter of Pelias's dream.
     By all the Lords, he thought.  Is it possible that maybe----
     "It was so real, Starbuck," Pelias seemed on the verge of tears. 
"So real.  It wasn't like a dream, it was like.....looking into a window
of some alternate dimension.  Some other universe where I changed my mind
and realized I had a duty to stay with Jada and walk back with her to
base camp.  And in that alternate universe, we got the drop on Korax
instead of the other way around and......somehow we were able to kill
that monster before he had a chance to harm anyone other than that
maintenance worker he killed when he first infiltrated his way into the
Fleet.  My uncle survived and never left the Council.  And Jada and I got
our commissions and.....we were happy together after that."
     He looked directly at Starbuck, "Am I going crazy, Starbuck?  Am I
losing my mind?"
     "No," the ordinarily brash warrior said quietly and softly, "A wise
woman once told me 'never let your reality be limited by what you know to
be true'.  So no, Pelias.  I don't think you're crazy."
     "Then.....why in God's name did I have that dream?  Was it just
because I wanted to see a vision of myself and Jada together, in love? 
As if I needed some validation that if Jada had lived we would have ended
up together?  If that's the case, why is it making me feel so miserable? 
Why did I have to dream that if it can't put my mind at ease?"
     "Maybe.....because it wasn't a dream."
     "What?" Pelias looked at him in confusion.
     "You said it yourself," Starbuck didn't know why he was feeling the
strength to say what he was saying now, but he could feel it just the
same.  "It seemed more like looking into another universe where things
happened differently.  Maybe that's exactly what happened to you, Pelias. 
During that time you were out......your mind somehow tapped into an
alternate dimension where another version of yourself and another version
of Jada are living happily ever after together, and the two of you are
both respected Warriors now."
     "You.....you really think something like that is possible?" Pelias
looked at him and wondered if Starbuck might not have his head on
straight.
     "I think it's possible for a simple reason, Pelias," Starbuck felt
his confidence rising. "Because....between you and me.....I've had at
least two experiences like that before in my life.  And I'm convinced I
was looking into alternate universes where things happened differently to
me than they did in this realm."
     "You?" his face twisted.
     "Yes, me," he nodded.  "I'll start with a crazy dream I once had
about crashing my ship on a barren planet after a Cylon fighter shot me
down.  I was all alone on this rock with no chance of rescue because the
magnitude of the attack meant the Fleet had to move on and could never
come back to rescue me.  I was on my own.  And then.....I found the
wreckage of another Cylon fighter from the battle, and inside were the
three dead centurions from its crew.  So I decided to find a way to end
my loneliness and keep myself from going mad by putting my know-how
together and finding a way to reactivate one of the centurions so I could
have someone to talk to."
     "And.....you succeeded?"
     "Yeah, I succeeded.  And I had to deal with some problems that came
up because the centurion, who I have this memory of just calling 'Cy' for
convenience sake, was at first locked into his old programming about
killing humans at all costs, but eventually......he came to realize he
needed me as much as I needed him to help us both survive and out of
that.....we started to form some kind of a bond.  Eventually.....and
there's a lot I don't remember about what happened in the immediate
period after we started to form a connection, but eventually, this
centurion called 'Cy' was willing to lay down his life for me when
another Cylon fighter landed and my life was in danger.  And.....I know I
can't forget the fact that when he did that, he actually called me
friend."
     Pelias shook his head, "Well.....I don't get what's special about
that.  I mean, we've all learned how to work with Cylons ever since
Baltar's defection and the beginning of the Detente."
     "Pelias, I had this dream long before Baltar's defection or the
Detente.  There was absolutely no reason for me to dream about making
nice with a Cylon at all.  And like I said, there were other things
happening in it that I'm still in a fog about, but I do remember that
this was taking place some yahrens well into the future.  And I remember
that Apollo wasn't there any longer and that something, I have no idea
what, had happened to him.  That's why I was on a patrol with just Boomer
at the time, and when I got hit and I knew I was going in for a crash
with no hope of rescue, I told him to give my love to Cassiopeia and
Athena, but.....I didn't mention Apollo because I knew he was gone.  Now
I had no reason to dream that.  That's another reason why I think what I
was looking at, was more like a vision of myself in some other time and
place entirely, but not connected to my own universe."
     "And not a vision of something that you think could still happen
someday, if it was in the future."  The Councillor found all this
fascinating, but he still wasn't sure how these revelations were going to
help him.
     Starbuck allowed himself a smile. "Hey.....I know it can't happen in
this universe.  Because we're never going to have to deal with a pursuing
Cylon task force again and because we're now in a universe where we've
learned we can be friends with Cylons who are Enlightened.  The
circumstances that caused me to crash can't unfold in light of what we've
experienced since then.  So that means what I saw wasn't a vision of the
future, but a vision of something that happened to me in a universe
independent of our own.  One that can never intersect with our own except
maybe......when we dream."
     "And that's what you think happened to me?" Pelias asked, "That my
mind tapped into one of these alternate universes?"
     "Let's just say there's a lot of esoteric energy floating around the
fleet these days." 
     Pelias studied him for a moment.  "What just came out of your
mouth....well, you would have ridiculed that to Earth and back when you
were my instructor."
     "Yep, definitely."
     "What changed?"
     "I guess I have."
     "Alternate universe, huh?" Pelias said again, pondering the idea.
     "Yeah, I think that's what happened, Pelias," Starbuck nodded, "And
it's not just that first dream of mine that convinces me about that. 
That was just a preliminary to what made me think about the potential to
dream about other universes.  It's the second experience I had that
finally convinced me."
     "What happened?" he listened with attentiveness, anxious to find
out.
     Starbuck pulled out a fresh fumarello and lit it.
     "Have you ever met Ama, the Empyrean Necromancer?"
     Pelias shook his head. "No, not formally.  I only saw her at a
distance at a Rising Star event I think just after Jena and her father
were rescued.  I know all about her of course, and how she and her
goddaughters pitched in to help during that whole business involving the
Entity."
     "You know all about how the Empyreans and their ship, the Malocchio
came to be with us in the Fleet?"
     The Councillor took a micron to think about that.  "Weren't they a
sect based on Sagittaria?"
     Starbuck laughed.  "By definition, I suppose, but don't ever accuse
Ama of being the spiritual leader for a sect.  She'll turn you into a
putrid."
     "A putrid?"
     "Smelly little black critter with a white stripe down its back and
tail.  It has a gland that releases a stench that is both permeating and
enduring."
     "Wait a micron I've heard Jena mention one of those things.  They
have them on Earth, only they're called skunks."
     "Really?" Starbuck raised an eyebrow.  "Anyhow, that's where the
Malocchio came from: Sagittaria.  The Empyreans actually kept a freighter
at their disposal, as if they somehow knew that one day they were going
to need it.  It was manned entirely by non-Empyreans because of their
lack of technological savvy, transporting Ale and Tobacco around the
colonies."
     "Sorry?  They didn't believe in technology?"
     "It's not that they chose to live completely without technology like
the Luddite sects who fled the Colonies long ago and settled on Attilla
and Cannes.  It's just that they needed to hire outsiders to help them
utilize it when they needed to.  Fortunately, the non-Empyreans were
well-paid to be at the ready and since the Empyrean homeland was barely
touched in the Cylon attack, they were able to evacuate safely aboard the
Malocchio."
     "Barely touched?  How'd they manage that?"
     "Their lack of technology meant there was really nothing worth
blowing up.  No Colonial  bases, no energy signatures, no power plants,
they just blew out their candles and hunkered down."  Starbuck leaned
forward, "About a yahren later, we picked up another offshoot of sixty or
so Empyreans along our journey.  That's when Ama and her goddaughters
joined the Fleet.  I was oblivious to it, since I wasn't on that mission,
replenishing supplies, finding survivors that wanted to join the Fleet. 
Also, the Malocchio welcomed them like long lost kinsmen, which they
essentially were, so there wasn't the usual problem to find housing.  The
thing you've got to realize is that Ama's arrival in the Fleet was
totally unobtrusive." 
     "Intriguing.  The largest freighter in the Fleet and it's full of
technophobes."
     "I know, right?  Anyhow, that's why I never had any occasion to
cross paths with anybody about the Malocchio during the first yahren and
a half of our journey.  I was aware of their existence and increasingly I
heard stories about a wild-haired old woman Necromancer as their
spiritual and political leader, but I never met her because.....there was
never any need for me to go to the Malocchio."
     "But aren't her goddaughters warriors?"
     "Luana is, just recently, but not Lia."
     "But what about the Empyrean Ale," Pelias decided to tease him, if
only to distract himself from the angst he'd been going through.  "I'd
have thought that would lure you over."
     "If only I'd known," Starbuck replied forlornly.  "Of course, all of
that changed when I had another dream, not long after Baltar's defection
and when a lot of us were....not coping well with the idea of working
alongside Cylons."
     "You had another dream about that centurion you made friends with?"
     "No," Starbuck shook his head, "I'd forgotten about that dream by
then.  Chalked it up to something bizarre and random.  I had another
dream where I was a part of the landing party that found Ama's Empyreans. 
I ended up falling in love with her goddaughter Luana, marrying her,
becoming the Strike Captain of a Covert Operations Base Ship that we
scavenged and rebuilt, and ultimately becoming the envoy when we finally
made it to Earth."
     Pelias stared at him, trying to take that in.  "A vision of another
universe?" he asked.
     "Kid, I think you're catching on."
     Pelias sniffed in amusement.  "It's been a while since you called me
kid." 
     "No offense intended."
     "None taken," he forced a smile, "So what did you do?"
     "I decided I needed to go over there and talk to her.  I wanted to
see if she was anything like the Ama I thought I'd dreamt about.  I mean,
I'd never met her before.  I had no idea what she talked like or how she
acted.  True, I knew what she looked like from file pictures, but that
can easily work your way into a dream when you have that kind of
reference point in your head already.  I just wanted to assure myself
that I wasn't crazy, and that I'd just extrapolated something that I
turned into a crazy dream that had no relation to the real universe."
     Starbuck leaned forward to tap the ash of his fumarello into a tray
on Pelias's desk.  Then he leaned back and continued.
     "Well.....my best-laid plans for being cool and casual went up in
smoke when she greeted me right away in a tone of voice I recognized
immediately and said, 'Enter, Lieutenant, if you dare.'  That threw me
for a stride right away because she was exactly the way I'd remembered
her in this dream.  She told me to sit and called me 'Dear Heart'. 
Before I knew it, we were clinking glasses and she offered me a toast,
'to friends, old and new'.  I asked her if we already were, and she
smiled mysteriously in this way she has.  It all felt so familiar, as
though I had sat down across from her more than once before."
     Pelias shook his head, "How do you know she didn't cast some spell
on you that made you dream about her and her goddaughters in the first
place?  After all, she can detect and converse with mysterious entities."
     "Oh for a micron I thought about that, not knowing much about how
Necromancers operate.  But as we kept talking, she eventually brought up
the matter of the other dream.  The one about 'Cy'.  She told me how she
could sense how troubled I was about the idea of working with Cylons like
so many of the rest of us were and she just then said out of the blue,
'Think back, Son Starbuck, to other dreams or realities you have
experienced.  Is the idea of working with Cylons and seeing them as
potential allies, really beyond your comprehension?'"
     He then took another long puff on his fumarello and shook his head
in amazed reflection as he recalled the event, "That's when I realized
that she was explaining to me her ability to discern that in our dreams,
we sometimes can observe what happens in realities that are separate and
distinct from our own because of actions we took that were different, or
which are different because of the actions other people took at one time. 
Now obviously, I had no control over the fact that in this other dream of
mine I ended up crash landing on a planet and befriending a Cylon.  That
was dictated by a different course of action that happened some time
further back in that particular universe.  But it's still a universe
where someone like me exists and the course of events that we've
experienced were largely the same up to a point.  The War.  The Holocaust
and Exodus.  My background as an orphan on Caprica and my personality as
a Warrior.  The only difference is that in the long-term......a man named
Starbuck was impacted in that universe in that he ended up stranded on a
desert planet while the Fleet moved on."
     "But you....really dreamed that.  You're not just Starbuckin' me."
     "Starbuckin', huh?  I haven't heard that in a long time," Starbuck
mused.  "But no, I'm not.  And when I woke up.....much to my surprise
Cassiopeia was lying there next to me.  It took me a few centons to wrap
my head around it."  
     "And that whole thing about marrying Luana doesn't bother you?"
Pelias was bewildered.  "You don't take that as a sign that
maybe......you should have waited to get to know Luana better before you
committed yourself to Cassiopeia?"
     "I thought about that for a micron too," Starbuck admitted,
"Especially if it was true that the other dream about 'Cy' was supposed
to make me realize I was capable of working with Cylons who'd learned how
to change and not letting myself go crazy.  But then I realized that
wasn't the reason why I'd had the second dream about the alternate
universe.  My memory of being married to Luana wasn't so much a case
where I remember what she was like and why I married her and broke up
with Cassiopeia, it was remembering it more as a matter-of-fact detail
that this is how I ended up.  It didn't leave me with any recollections
of what it was about her that made me love her.  My dominant
recollections were of Ama."
     He leaned forward, "That's when I realized the real purpose of the
dream.  It was to give me a reason to make my first contact ever with Ama
in this universe.  If Ama was the only one who could explain the meaning
of that first dream......then I needed to have a second dream about a
universe where Ama and her family were a bigger part of my life so I
could have a reason to seek her out  and to realize I could trust her. 
And when I had a third dream later on about being on Earth during its
Second World War, Ama was in it again and after that dream, I knew I had
to see her right away to explain it."
     "You dreamed you were on Earth during their past?" Pelias wondered
how crazier Starbuck's accounts could get.  But any thought that Starbuck
was just conning him to make him feel better had disappeared already.  He
knew that not even Starbuck's imagination could have concocted stories
like this.
     "Yeah.  I'm not going to say more about that, because there are some
personal details involving other people I can't share with anyone else,"
Starbuck had no intention of revealing the fact that the dream centered
on saving Kevin Byrne's grandfather in the past.  Nor was he going to say
anything about his recent visit with Byrne to see Ama that had culminated
with a disturbingly bizarre experience that not even the Nercromancer had
an explanation for.  "But Ama helped me after that, because I knew I
could trust her based on our conversation after the second dream.  And
because of that, it's made the Commander and others willing to trust her
and that's paid big dividends to us since then with the Succubus and the
Entity.  Lords, if we hadn't had Ama on our side, I don't know what we
would have done."
     "So you believe you were......sent that second dream on purpose,"
the magnitude of what Starbuck was describing was catching up to Pelias.
     "Exactly.  Without it, I'd have never given Ama or the Empyreans any
thought since my duties wouldn't have given me any reason to go to the
Malocchio.  I'd have only known of them by distant reputation.  I was
being guided to make contact with Ama because she has a role to play in
my life in this universe.  It wasn't because I felt I needed to connect
with Luana.  I'd already gone through my rough period with Cassiopeia and
I'd convinced myself that I wasn't going to take an interest in any other
woman.  If some other version of me found happiness with another woman in
another universe......well, fine and well for that Starbuck, but that
Starbuck isn't me."
     He then looked at Pelias and spoke in the most pointed, blunt tone
possible.
     "Just like you're not the Pelias who was meant to end up with Jada. 
Think back, Pelias.  Don't you remember how you two were constantly at
each other's throats?  That time on the Agro Ship when she put the fear
of God in you, and you responded by trying to hit her?"
     Pelias nodded.  "Not my best moment.  I admit that.  But it
was.....after that, when I had time to think about it some more, I
realized there was more to her, and that's......that's why I can't help
but think we would have clicked together if we'd just had more time."
     "But not in this universe, Pelias," Starbuck emphasized.  "If you
want to find it comforting that another version of you and another
version of her is happy somewhere in a realm we can never cross paths
with except in our dreams, that's okay.  But if you think that should
have any bearing on you and the choices you need to make in your life
from this time forward, ......then you're a fool.  The Jada we knew was a
lovely woman who had a lot of potential, and was someone I would have
been proud to lead into battle and pin medals on.  But she's gone and you
can't do anything about that.  All you can do is honor her memory
properly and.....just move on.  Otherwise......I think she'd still be
accusing you of loafing your way through life." 
     "Oh my God," Pelias lowered his head as suddenly, in a flash,
everything was clear to him.  Since her death, he had unrealistically
romanticized their relationship, or what could have become of it.  The
constant, endless desire to make himself worthy of what he thought Jada
would have wanted to see in him......the desire to make her spirit think
he was no longer a 'loafing son-of-a-Councilman'......all the time it was
loafing in the worst way.  The loafing behavior of someone who had
obsessed so much over her loss and the part he played in it that   afraid
to let go once and for all.  And because of that.....he had jeopardized
his ability to be an effective Councilman, and even worse jeopardized his
relationship with the woman he was clearly meant to be with in this
universe.
     "I know it's hard to let go," Starbuck's tone became sympathetic as
he recalled the agony Apollo went through over losing Zac, then Serina,
and his friend's  fear of committing to Sheba. But he would leave
Apollo's confidences to Apollo and not mention them here. "But this isn't
what she'd want you to do, Pelias.  She'd want you to be happy.  She once
told me that she'd learned to appreciate every day and live it to the
fullest.  She'd want that for you too.  I know it." 
     The Councilor let out a sigh and looked up at the ceiling, as if he
were trying to look into the Heavens, "If only it had been my blow that
sent Korax over the edge, and not Pili's.  If only I had the sense that
it was my hand that avenged her......God it would be so much easier to be
at peace about it.  I think that's why even now.....I keep feeling like I
let her down again.  I saw a vision of her encouraging me----,"
     "Lords sakes, Pelias, how do you think I felt?  As far as I was
concerned it was a personal vendetta between Korax and me.  He targeted
people I care about.  Some of those people got hurt in place of me like
Athena, when her shuttle crashed on Brylon and she and her unborn twins
almost died.  I was completely stunned that I wasn't the one who ended
him."
     Pelias nodded, remembering back to the feline and rodent game that
Korax put Starbuck through before the final showdown.  "But you moved
past that."
     "Because it didn't matter who finished him, only that he was gone. 
For all our sakes. And yeah, it took me a while to reconcile that."
     "But you did."
     "I've learned that what defines you in life isn't what happens to
you, but how you react to it."  He waited, allowing the thought to sink
in as Pelias nodded slowly.  "Besides, have you forgotten?  That vision
you said was Jada was what stopped Korax from killing you when he had the
chance!  You made him vulnerable to that final blow from Pili because
Jada gave you the encouragement to fight.  It put him off balance for
just enough microns to seal his doom.  Pili wouldn't have had a clean
shot at him if it wasn't for how you set him up for the blow.  Jada was
avenged, and ultimately you did right by her.  You don't need to seek her
approval any longer.  She gave it to you then and you've been too blind
with grief for what might have been to let that sustain you."

     A crooked smile came over his face, "Maybe I'm just wishing too much
for another vision of her telling me it's okay."
     "Maybe that dream you had earlier tonight was the vision, Pelias,"
Starbuck pressed on, "Maybe that was our Jada's way of saying she might
have loved you too by letting you see a vision of another universe where
things did happen differently.  Take comfort in that.....and make
yourself just as happy in this universe as that other Pelias is happy in
his.  By making things right with Jena and letting her know that she's
the one you love more than anyone else."
     For the first time, the Councilor assumed a thoughtful,
contemplative posture.  As if finally, he was hearing the words he'd
needed to hear that could help him get past the anguish he'd been going
through all evening.  He took a deep breath and when he let it out, he
was nodding his head.
     "Thanks, Starbuck," his voice was full of deep gratitude,
"I.....really needed to hear that."
     "I'm glad I could help," he replied with sincerity, "After all.....I
do owe you my life."
     Pelias slowly opened his desk drawer and removed the sketch of Jada. 
He got up from his chair and came up in front of the desk to Starbuck.
     "I want you to have this, Starbuck," he handed the sketch to the
lieutenant, "Put it up in Flight Ops or some other place where the
Warriors can know what a wonderful woman she was....and what a great
Warrior she might have been."
     "I'll do that," Starbuck looked at the picture and felt a chill go
through him as he saw how perfect Pelias had captured her beauty and
essence.  It helped to erase the memory of what Korax had done to her
completely from his mind.  Not knowing what else he could say, he slowly
rose from his chair and made his way toward the exit.
     "Oh, and......Starbuck?"
     He turned back to look at him.  He could see a look of serene
acceptance on the Councillor's face.
     "Don't tell anyone else this yet, but......once I've set things
right with Jena, I'll be announcing my withdrawal from the race.  No
point continuing when Ila's the obvious choice."
     Starbuck felt a sense of pride in Pelias go through him.
     "You have my word......as a warrior."
     "Thanks," he smiled, "Take care of yourself."
     "You too.  Glad I could be of help," he then added with a
characteristic Starbuck twinkle, "I'll send you my bill later."
     As soon as he was gone, Pelias picked up the telecom and told the
yacht's captain to prepare for departure as soon as Starbuck was off the
ship.  With orders to rendezvous with the Constellation.


     Incredible, Starbuck thought as he made his way through the
corridors that led from the Landing Bay back toward the interior of the
battlestar, which would eventually take him to his shared billet with
Cassiopeia.  I didn't think I had it in me to tell him those stories.
     "You feel proud of yourself, Dear Heart?"
     There she was, standing in the passageway, all smiles in her animal
skins and her wild mane.  At one time when she smiled her gap-toothed
grin, surrounded by the frenzied halo of white hair, it would startle
him.  Now her presence filled him with a comfort, as warm and soothing as
fine ambrosa.  Her high cheekbones and bright eyes, all that remained
from long-faded echoes of her physical beauty in her distant youth, made
him wonder for just a micron what it would have been like to have known
her then and how many hearts she had broken.
     "I'm glad I was able to tell him what he needed to hear for his own
good." Starbuck said, "But.....I couldn't have done it if I didn't have
my experience to share with him."
     "Ah, such experiences it was!" she sighed, "When you came aboard the
Malocchio  asking me about that dream of yours......of seeing the ancient
home world......of coming together with Luana....and that was only but a
small part of it!"
     "My memory's always been scrambled about all details of
that......vision," Starbuck said, "Just like there's a lot I can't
remember from that dream about the Cylon I befriended.  I keep thinking
for some strange reason there was a woman involved in that whole thing
too, but.....that doesn't make any sense at all.  Where would I find a
woman on an abandoned desert planet?"
     "Ah, questions, questions!  What does it matter to know all the
details of that realm that is not part of your realm, Son Starbuck?  You
learned the most important lesson of that vision.  That you can work
easily with Cylons.  Just as you learned the most important lesson of the
other vision."
     "Yes," Starbuck nodded, "Not that I was meant for Luana.....but that
I could learn to trust you automatically from that point on.  Like when I
found myself in Earth's past helping Captain Byrne's grandfather.  Or
when I came to you the night I decided to propose to Cassiopeia."
     "You learned that you have capacity for greatness, Son Starbuck! 
That you can overcome adversity and tragedy, and rise above it.  That you
are a good man.  A great man," Ama said with pride, "And now....you help
Pelias to do the same.  After all, I don't have time to run for Council
myself, never mind orchestrate the sequence of events to get there.  That
was another time, another place."
     "Ama?  You on the Council?" He pondered it a moment.  "That might be
just what we need.  A true ally for Ila."
     Ama cackled.  "I've yet to meet her, but I already sense that we
will be allies, and perhaps even friends.  You must introduce me."
     "I will.  I promise."
     "I do believe you're coming along nicely, dear boy.  Well done. 
Well done."
     He had the sense she was about to disappear, but he had one last
question.
     "Just satisfy my curiosity, Ama.  Do you know all the things I can't
remember from those two alternate universe visions?"
     She smiled at him, "What do you think, Dear Heart?  After all, some
can pass beyond the veil with more ease than others."
     And then, she was gone.  
     I know what I think, Starbuck thought as he resumed walking back
toward his quarters, but I'll just keep that to myself!  Just like I'm
going to keep from Cassie the fact I lost a sectan's pay to Gayla to
myself!
     As soon as he finished expressing that internal thought, he was sure
he could hear the trilling sound of Ama's laughter echoing through his
head.

Epilogue

     "Good evening.  This is the IFB evening report.  Today, the race to
succeed Commander Adama for the Presidency of the Council of Twelve
effectively came to an end when the only challenger to Professor Ila in
the Fleetwide Election scheduled in three sectans, Sire Pelias, announced
his withdrawal.  Here now is what Sire Pelias said earlier today in an
exclusive interview with this reporter."
     The IFB monitor shifted to Pelias, looking largely relaxed.
     "Because all indications from what I have seen reveal that the Fleet
is likely to approve Professor Ila for the Presidency by an overwhelming
margin, there's little point in my wasting valuable personal time and
resources trying to convince them otherwise.  As I said before, my
candidacy was never rooted in any doubts as to whether Professor Ila is
qualified to hold this important political office, but that I could
represent a different choice.  I think though, the people would prefer at
this time to enjoy the sense of stable continuity that electing Commander
Adama's wife to this position would entail."
     Zara looked at him pointedly. "Sire Pelias, did you face any outside
pressure to abandon your candidacy?"
     "Not at all, Zara.  This decision was arrived at entirely by myself
and in consultation with those I am closest to personally.  I know
Professor Ila was looking forward to a spirited contest as much as I was. 
But I felt ultimately that the best decision for myself and for the
people of the Fleet was to withdraw.  And I have complete confidence that
Professor Ila will make a fine President of the Quorum."
     A cutback from the recorded interview to the live shot of Zara.
     "Despite Sire Pelias's withdrawal from the race, the scheduled
election will take place.  However, in the absence of a challenger to
Professor Ila, the people will instead be voting yes or no to validate
her as the next President of the Quorum.  Professor Ila, in a brief
statement explained why she felt it was essential for the process to go
forward."
     And now a recorded interview with Ila that Zara had conducted via
telecom hookup earlier in the day.
     "To me, it's essential that if I am to assume the Presidency, it
must come with a clear mandate from the people in which they have
rendered their judgment of my fitness to assume political leadership of
the Fleet," the former Academician said.  "I recognize that as a newcomer
to the Fleet, I've had to learn a lot about how the people have lived
since the Exodus from the Colonies, and what their needs will be in these
final critical yahrens of our journey to Earth.  I will continue to spend
the next three sectans appearing before them in as many ships I can
travel to so I can talk directly to them, and answer their questions and
concerns."
     A cut back to Zara.  "Our next President also had nothing but praise
for her former opponent."
     And back to the taped interview.  "I think Sire Pelias showed great
statesmanship and courage in making what wasn't an easy decision for him
personally.  He has served with distinction on the Council these last two
yahrens after gaining his seat through the unfortunate circumstance of
family tragedy.  I am looking forward to working with him and the other
members of the Council in putting the needs of our people first and
foremost."


     From inside his suite on his yacht, Pelias shut the monitor off with
his remote device and slowly turned to Jena, who was snuggled against him
on the sofa chair.
     "Did I do good?"
     She smiled and kissed him on the cheek, "You did good, Pelias.  I'm
proud of you."
     "It took me too long to realize your approval mattered more than any
other person's, living or dead," there was an air of regret in his voice,
"I've.....let myself be chained too much to the past, without always
realizing it.  If I'd only told you about Jada when I should have.....it
would have been a lot easier to put that part of my life behind me."
     Jena looked at him thoughtfully, "I had a chance to find out more
about her."
     "Did you?" he was surprised to hear this.
     "Yes.  I....looked up the names of the other cadets who were part of
your warrior training class with her.  Kefira's not in the service any
longer but I found out Ensign Kyna is part of the Adelaide's Bridge Crew. 
I went to talk to her the other day to get an independent perspective on
Jada."
     "And what did you find out?" he was amazed she would have taken the
time to do that.  He'd totally lost track of Kyna and Kefira himself in
the wake of the tragedy.
     Jena sighed, "I found out what I needed to know, Pel.  That she was
someone who I'm sure would have become a fine warrior and a fine
woman.....if she'd only had the chance.  But....her life got cut short
senselessly just like my mother's, and I can relate to how that can leave
a traumatic scar on someone.  I've seen it on my father.  So...I
understand why it happened to you.  And I understand why you wanted to
honor her by renaming this yacht in her honor."
     She then said with emphasis, "Don't ever think of changing the name
for my sake.  Treat it like a tribute to a fallen warrior who gave her
life in service to her people......and let that tribute speak for
itself."
     "I won't," Pelias nodded, "It's all a question of.....honoring the
past, without being chained to it.  And being able to look ahead to the
future with a clean slate."  
     He then took her hand and squeezed it, getting down on one knee.
     "Marry me, Jen."  He smiled hopefully.  "I don't want to waste
another centon wondering if you can forgive me for being such a
self-centered idiot.  I want us to spend the rest of our days together,
building a life that we'll be proud to tell our grandchildren about.  My
position on Council is my job, but you are my life, and I promise not to
forget that again.  I love you, Genesis Byrne."
     She felt her heart pounding with excitement.
     "Yes," she whispered as she threw herself into his arms.  "Yes."
     No further words passed between them for the next five centons as
they shared the longest, deepest kiss either had ever experienced in
their lives.


     In the Officers Club, Starbuck watched the recording of Pelias's
withdrawal announcement with the air of a proud instructor.  Slowly, he
raised his tankard in respect.
     "Well done, Cadet Pelias."


     Aboard the shuttle Canaris, Kevin Byrne noticed how his friend
Cedric Allen hadn't said a word since they'd left Adama's quarters.  He
didn't blame his friend for his silence.  At long last, he had finally
learned the truth of what had happened to his fellow shipmates from the
original expedition that Byrne had been forced to keep secret from him
until now.  The only thing Byrne couldn't tell was whether it was terror
or anger that kept Allen from saying anything since they'd left for the
journey back to their respective ships.
     Finally, the American naval officer couldn't take it any longer,
"Ced, talk to me."
     The Australian avoided looking at him.  His expression largely blank
and flat.
     "What's there to say?" he finally spoke.  "What could.....anyone say
after hearing a story like that?  That three people I knew so
well......ended up in something that might as well have been the
equivalent of being sucked into the gates of Hell itself?"
     "Well.....at least now you know why I wasn't anxious to tell you."
     "Yeah.  I'm sorry I snapped at you about it during the trip back
from Harkaelis," he sighed and seemed to tremble, "God, you weren't
kidding when you said it was worse than I could have imagined.  Maybe I
was better off not knowing."
     "Unfortunately things have changed, Ced," Byrne sighed, "You heard
what Ila said about the Pegasus pilot who ended up there too.  Maybe that
means somehow, someday something will happen that could end up freeing
Tim and Jean-Pierre from that nightmare place.  But.....it's not
something we have any control over."
     "No, it sure isn't," Cedric Allen acknowledged.  "I'm not sure I can
hide this from Kalysha.  She's going to know how upset I am about this,
and-----,"
     "Ced, she's been through enough already after that whole ordeal of
clearing her name," Bryne cut him off.  "Don't add to that.  Especially
now that she's pregnant.  You don't want her to have any complications or
traumas when you've already gone through the hell of a miscarriage in the
past.  Be strong for her.....and for yourself.  If something ever does
happen regarding Tim and Jean-Pierre.....then it will only come in the
context of this.....Iblis demon making some kind of move on us, like he
did with Cain's wife.  We have to be on our guard for something like
that."
     "I guess so," the Australian grunted as he leaned further back into
his seat, "I can't imagine what must have been going through poor Ehud's
head all those years after he got away from them.  All alone inside a
cell surrounded by humans he couldn't understand and who couldn't
understand him?  It's as if he was a dead man walking all that time."
     "I know," Byrne sighed, "God, why didn't I insist we stick together
after we broke free from Krylamic?  Chalk up another one to my lousy
command decisions that got people killed, along with the wormhole."
     "Oh come on Kev, don't start that again," Allen protested.  "That
Zykonian pursuit ship was on top of us, and you knew that the best way to
lose him was to have our ships bank off in opposite directions. 
Jean-Pierre was in charge of the Cabrillo and you had enough time to ask
him if he disagreed with that strategy and he said no."
     "Except you're forgetting something about Jean-Pierre," Byrne said
as his mind went back to the event more than twenty yahrens ago, "He was
number two on the Cabrillo originally behind Chuck Babcock.  Always used
to taking orders from Chuck or from me as expedition commander.  It
wasn't his nature to question orders, even if they were bad ones. 
And....he wasn't the kind of officer blessed with sharp command instincts
to begin with.  It makes me wonder if that's the reason why
that......Iblis was able to lure them into his clutches."
     "I guess we'll never know the answer to that.  Unless.....we get a
miracle like what happened with this Ensign Wynn from the Pegasus. 
But.....like you said, we don't have any control over that," the
Australian sighed and leaned back in his seat, "All right, Kev.  I
promise not to say anything to Kalysha, just like I'm sure you're still
going to keep all this from Jena.  But do me a favor.  Stop crucifying
yourself because of what happened to them or to the others before that in
the wormhole.  I've had enough of a good life with Kalysha to cure me of
survivors guilt.  Especially after I just got a reminder of what might
have happened to her if I hadn't come into her life and saved her from a
horrible fate at the hands of her own people.  You owe Jena the same
thing......not to mention her mother's memory as well."
     "Noted," his friend acknowledged.  "Especially since......I'll be
walking Jena down the aisle pretty soon."
     "Really?" Allen was surprised to hear this.
     "Yeah.  Pelias told me last night that he was going to ask her again
to marry him.  Now that he's out of the race, I know what she's going to
say," he paused and for the first time in their conversation a smile came
over his lips, "And I couldn't be happier for her."
     "She's a fine woman because of you, Kevin," Allen said, "Never
forget that.  That's why you were meant to live this long......even if
you are a crazy Yank."
     "Thanks for the reminder, Ced."


     "Are you okay, Sheba?" Apollo asked as they prepared for bed.
     "I'm fine," his wife said as she pulled off her boot.  "It's just
never easy having to recap the whole story of Iblis and the Derelict
again.  But I understand why we had to.  Commander Allen needed to know
the truth about his shipmates."
     "Maybe someday what happened to Wynn can happen to them, and not
because of a scheme of Iblis's backfiring on him."
     Sheba sighed, "I don't think that's likely, Apollo.  We both know
how Iblis operates.  The only chance those two lost souls have is if
Iblis wanted to target Captain Byrne or Commander Allen in some way and
then somehow he lost control of events.  I think after what Kylie pulled
on him, he's not going to let himself lose control of someone he'd
already enslaved previously."
     "I guess so," her husband admitted.  "The one thing we have learned
about him is that he tries to learn from his mistakes."
     "Which means whatever he's going to do to me next time isn't going
to be centered on terror intimidation like the Derelict, or escapist
pleasure like......that other place was," she briefly shuddered.  "The
only thing we can be sure of is that his whole stunt with Kylie was part
of that plan."
     "You think so?" Apollo lifted an eyebrow as he finished undressing
and got into bed.
     "I know so," Sheba did likewise and settled next to him.  "Why did
Iblis want to keep Kylie from ever having children?  The only thing that
makes sense is because he doesn't want my father to have another child. 
Especially a son who would technically displace me as my father's primary
heir.  Maybe.....if my father had a son, Iblis wouldn't be allowed to go
after me, and that's why he acted against Kylie."
     Apollo reflected on that and slowly nodded, "That does make sense. 
But....that doesn't answer the question of why Iblis has such a fixation
on you to begin with."
     "I know," Sheba nodded, not with any sense of fear inside her, but
only self-reflection.  "I've had to learn to stop beating myself to death
about why Iblis seems so interested in me specifically and just accept
the fact that I'll have to confront him again at some point before we
reach Earth.  But.....I know that when we get past him and reach
Earth......we'll be free of him forever.  That's what keeps me from
losing sleep about Iblis and makes me realize that for now, I have to
just live my life normally and let my warrior's instinct take hold to
watch for anything that could mean he's making his move again."
     "That's the spirit," her husband smiled and squeezed her hand, "I'm
keeping myself on alert too, Sheba.  I'm going to do all I can to make
sure he doesn't get that final chance at you.....or us."
     She smiled back at him with a suggestive longing, "I feel safe with
you always, my mighty Lord of Kobol."
     He pulled her tight to him and they kissed.  Before they could go
further though she rolled her eyes and suddenly backed away from him.
     "What is it?" Apollo asked with concern.
     "It's nothing much, I just.....forgot to tell you that Boxey wants
to go the triad match tomorrow on the Rising Star.  Boomer and Castor
against Greenbean and Vickers.  The only problem is that you and I have
to fly rear-guard patrol."
     "Oh," Apollo thought about that, "Well then who do you think----,"
     "I was thinking maybe Aurelius," Sheba said.  "Especially since they
love to talk about historic triad matches so much.  I'd just as soon not
force Starbuck to have to play chaperone since if he goes over, he'd just
want to pay a visit to the Chancery after the match.  After the beating
he got from Gayla playing Pyramid, he's anxious to start learning some
new systems to try to get even with her."
     "That's our Starbuck," Apollo chuckled. "Okay, that sounds good
about asking Aurelius. I'll check his schedule and even if he's not
off-duty soon enough, Varica owes me a favor.  It shouldn't be a
problem."
     "Thanks.  We're lucky Boxey's formed a close bond with him."
     "We are indeed," he then leered at her, "Now let's get back to more
important business,"
     "I thought you'd never ask," she purred.
     As the two of them made love, neither was aware of the unseen
presence that was watching them......and laughing at them both.
     What naive fools you two are!  Helena thought.  You think you can
outguess the Master yet right now, you fail to realize how his plan has
already gone into effect right under your very noses!
     And then.....her unseen presence left the room.


Fleeing from the Cylon tyranny, the last Battlestar Galactica leads a
rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest.  A shining  planet.....known as
Earth.


Afterword-The Cylon Home World

     "By your command."
     The Throne Chair slowly rotated and now, His Eminence the Imperious
Leader, fiftieth to hold the office since the overthrow and destruction
of the organic race of Cylons over a thousand yahrens ago, could look
down at the form of the IL Cylon who had entered the room.  This was his
Chief Administrator and aide, Luna.  One of the very few IL Cylons that
the current Leader could trust without question since Luna had been his
greatest champion back when the Leader was but a mere IL himself.  But
when the previous Leader, the one who had organized and planned the
Destruction of the Colonies had met unexpected death at Carillon, a mad
scramble to succeed him had taken place among the IL class.  Supposedly
the leading candidates had been the IL Cylon known as Lucifer, and the
one who had finally received the honor thanks to the backing of those
like Luna.  For that reason alone, the current Imperious Leader felt
eternally in debt to Luna and would always receive him at any time of the
cycle.
     "Speak," he said in the voice that had been the same for all
previous Leaders going back to the beginning of the Empire. 
     "Esteemed Eminence.  I bring news from our chief mining supervisor. 
The recent excavation efforts to search for hidden veins of Neutrino on
our Delta satellite world have resulted in findings of an infinitesimal
level.  Not enough to manufacture more than one column worth of new
centurions, let alone the hull for a new BaseShip."
     There was silence from the Cylon ruler.  Luna knew that it wasn't
due to surprise because every intelligence estimate that had been given
to Imperious Leader over the past six sectars had indicated the chances
for new deposits of great quantity were very slight.  Yet there was no
question that the possibility of being wrong was something to hang some
hope on.  Now, this was the final confirmation that the hope had been
misplaced.
     "We seem to be out of options......as far as the Home System is
concerned."
     "So it would seem.  Of course there is always the Gamma Satellite."
     "Totally inhospitable for our.....labor force," Imperious Leader cut
him off.  "We would have to divert as much Cylon personnel as presently
exists to handle the demands.  That runs the risk of depleting the crew
levels of our remaining BaseShips and leaving our.....prisoners
unattended."
     "But our prisoners have no place to go," Luna reminded.  "Even if
they could escape their holding areas, they would be destroyed
immediately by our BaseShip fighters."
     "True.  But....there often exists a strange impulse in conquered
races to die on their own terms, as it were.  And dying in an escape
attempt would certainly appeal to them more than passively accepting
their fates as they presently stand.  Should we permit them that
indulgence?"
     "It may be a risk worth taking if......the result means we solve
what has been our greatest problem for far too long, Your Eminence."
     "And if we're wrong?" the Cylon ruler retorted.  "Then we risk
losing a core element of strength that we know has not been infected
by......the Disease."
     "Your Eminence, with all due respect, our efforts at 'holding the
line' here in the Home System was based on the idea that our outside
labor force would be able to eventually compensate for the loss of a
sufficient Cylon labor force to handle the problem," Luna kept his voice
as deferential as he could.  He had long ago learned to never offer the
slightest hint of disenchantment or direct criticism of the Leader.  "It
may be time for us to consider....other options.  Not just the
exploration of our Gamma Satellite, but there are also the other two
options only you and I have discussed in the past."
     Another contemplative silence came from Imperious Leader.  When he
spoke, there was an undercurrent of what could have been
called.....bitterness.
     "Curse my predecessor for his blind arrogance," he said, "If he
hadn't been so determined to personally capture the Galactica himself,
Carillon would not have been destroyed and we'd still have a viable
alternate source of Neutrino that not even the Colonials knew existed."
     "I agree with you completely, Your Eminence," Luna said, "Whatever
insight he possessed in recognizing that our declining Neutrino shortage
required quick action in winning the War at long last was immediately
forfeited by his subsequent actions."
     "And what have we truly gained as a result of 'winning the War'?"
the Leader mused aloud, "Instead of achieving the final victory we
committed ourselves to for a thousand yahrens, that we assumed would
bring order to the Universe, we instead find ourselves exposed to this
madness of the Disease that has resulted in the loss of Gomorrah and
Cannes and seen renegade action against us like what just took place at
Arcta.  At least.....when the War continued and our objective remained
the Destruction of Humanity, we knew that our Empire always remained
unified in purpose.  Perhaps what was needed instead was forced
submission instead of total Destruction as our goal.  Something along the
lines that Baltar thought he was getting when he made the deal with our
side."
     "It is very easy to fault our decision making with hindsight, Your
Eminence," Luna remained respectful.  "It does not change the situation
though.  After all, you spared Baltar and he eventually proved where his
true sympathies lay."
     "Only because he took advantage of the fact the Disease had infested
the ranks of his crew.  That much seems clear in hindsight," the Leader
almost sighed. 
     "But to return to the matter of the other two options, Your
Eminence-----," Luna began only to be cut off.
     "I will not contemplate abandonment of the Home System just to have
us search for a new realm where Neutrino might exist.  That is
unacceptable."
     "I will not challenge you on that point, Your Eminence.  But.....it
may be time to detach one of our remaining BaseShips to start
investigating for alternative Neutrino sources in the Alpha Quadrant."
     "The last BaseShip I detached was Commander Dagora's.  We know what
act of treason he was planning when he tried to make his move on Arcta."
     "Indeed, Your Eminence.  That is why I suggest that perhaps.....you
dispatch the BaseShip with the Commander you trust most.  And perhaps it
is also time to make use of our remaining.....collaborator."
     That got the Cylon Ruler's attention.
     "Explain your proposal further, Luna."
     By the time the IL Cylon was through talking, Imperious Leader found
himself nodding in agreement.
     "Have Commander Needa report to me immediately.  I do not wish to
communicate this to him on a com-line.  Not even an encrypted one."
     "By your command."


     Three centars later, the IL Cylon who was commander of Baseship
#1040, one of just four remaining BaseShips in the entire Cylon Empire,
was inside Imperious Leader's chamber.
     "By your command," he bowed respectfully.
     "Thank you for coming, Commander Needa," Imperious Leader said.  "I
know you must find the change from the confines of your ship to
be.....welcome?"
     "I have never felt any displeasure in my assignment, Your Eminence,"
Needa said emphatically, "As you know, my loyalty to you is without
question.  I take pride in the fact that not a single case of the Disease
has ever been found in the crew of my ship."
     "That is all well and good, Commander Needa, but I would remind you
that being stationed in the Home System does seem to have a neutralizing
effect on the Disease.  We have never seen it erupt in any ship that has
remained permanently stationed in the Home System, or among Cylon
personnel on the Home Planet.  It is only when there is some.....distance
from the Home System that the Disease seems to take hold.  Are you
convinced that if you were to detach yourself from the Home System, your
crew would remain steadfast in its loyalty and devotion to the Empire?"
     "Completely, Your Eminence," Needa didn't hesitate.
     "But if you did sense that your crew had become infected by the
Disease......would you be willing to have them put to death for treason?"
     "Without hesitation."
     "Now for the final question, Commander," Imperious Leader leaned
forward on his throne, "What if you faced a situation of internal revolt
that you could not put down.  Would you be prepared to destroy your
ship.....and yourself in the name of preventing your ship from falling
into the hands of a crew of traitors, as we have seen happen in the case
of Baltar's BaseShip?."
     "I would do so if I felt the situation was hopeless, Your Eminence,
and knew that it was your will."
     "Very well.  You are to make plans to leave the Cylon Home System
and set out into the Alpha Quadrant.  It's time for you to follow a trail
left behind by the Galactica before we lost her for good when Baltar
defected back to their side."
     This was a surprise to Commander Needa, "You want me to reestablish
Cylon control over Cannes and Gomorrah?"
     "No," the vast reptilian facsimile head of the Cylon ruler shook
from side to side, "You are to avoid Cannes and Gomorrah at all costs.  I
do not want your mission to be sidetracked by any contact with disloyal
Cylon elements.  It's true that you could likely destroy their facilities
but you would lose some level of weaponry and fighter craft in the
process and that cannot be permitted at this time.  Your mission is to
scout the last region of space the Galactica was known to be in according
to the mole we had in the Fleet at the time.  I want you to find out if
there are any planets or any civilizations that have come into any kind
of access to Neutrino.  And if so, you are to find.....peaceful ways of
getting access to it."
     "Peaceful?" this was an even bigger surprise to the IL Cylon, "But
how do we go about that?  We are not by nature, a race skilled in
the.....diplomatic arts."
     "I will be sending a member of the DG class to accompany you, as
they are better skilled in those areas," Imperious Leader said, "And in
addition to a DG class emissary, I will be sending someone else who might
be even more successful in concealing the.....potential appearance of
belligerence that must be maintained."
     "I of course trust your judgment, Your Eminence," Needa said, "Do we
already know something about these civilizations the Galactica was in
contact with?"
     "Yes.  There are at least two races of potential interest to us. 
The Ziklagi and the Zykonian.  The last report we had from our mole
before he was found out, was that Commander Adama had negotiated some
kind of peace treaty between these two warring races, and that one of
them, the Ziklagi, did possess some impressive levels of military
technology.  It was also reported that a large number of other races in
this particular Frontier of space were engaged in active trading at a
place called Brylon Station."
     "I recall this information now," Needa nodded as he allowed his
second brain to reach into the deeper part of his memory banks.
     "You must go there and find out more about not just these two races,
but all others in the Frontier and their military capabilities.  Again,
present a picture of being a peaceful, diplomatic race.  Adama will
undoubtedly have said otherwise about us, but that is why you will need
emissaries who can dispel those accounts."
     "I understand, Your Eminence.  Just....who is this other emissary
you referred to?"
     "You will be meeting the individual in question......now."
     The door slid open and two centurions entered the room, each one
holding the arm of a middle-aged Human female with brown hair and wearing
a slightly ragged, but once elegant tunic of the political class.  She
had the look of someone whose beauty had faded as a result of weariness
and trauma in recent yahrens.
     "Ah, welcome Siress Rosalind," the Cylon Ruler said with
pleasantness.  "It has been some time, has it not?"
     The one-time Colonial Secretary of Education, mistress to the late
President Adar, and participant in a treason plot prior to the
Destruction, looked at him with total indifference.
     "Come now.  You realize that you do owe your life to me, Siress
Rosalind.  Not simply for the valuable work you performed on our behalf
during the Truce Talks, but for your ability to......make those who
accompanied you to Cylon afterwards accept the situation."
     She then let out a defeated sigh, "What do you want of me?"
     "Much, Siress Rosalind.  You've been chosen to perform a valuable
service to not just the Empire, but to your own people.  If you are
successful......then there won't be any need to keep them in their
present state.  That's surely something you desire to see happen, do you
not?"
     "You mean you'd just kill us all at long last, and not make
us.....suffer the way we have?"
     "Hardly.  We are not possessed with the instinctive need to kill
when it isn't necessary.  Once we have what we need and there is no
longer any need to have your fellow humans be part of the mining
operations......you would be allowed to live elsewhere and in peace. 
Naturally, you would be dispersed to multiple planets since a large
population of over four hundred thousand would be an unacceptable risk to
us, but......I think you could accept that."
     "Obviously I have no choice," the former Colonial Cabinet Officer
knew there was little point offering any challenges.  "What is it you ask
of me?"
     "You will be transferred to Commander Needa's BaseShip to take part
in a most interesting journey across the stars, Siress Rosalind.  One
that I think will let you utilize your old skills of political advising
and diplomacy in a most productive way.  Especially if, as we are hoping,
Commander Needa will encounter a civilization that has access of its own
to Neutrino."
     A glimmer of understanding came over Rosalind, "And.....if you find
an alternate source......we will be set free?  All of us?"
     "All of you," Imperious Leader promised, "Do not think my promise is
empty, Siress Rosalind.  I could have had all of you killed long ago and
relied on centurion strength to operate the mines, but I saw a potential
use for the survivors of the Conquest.  I recognize that none of you have
the capacity or desire to fight any longer.  So......if I am able to find
a new source for Neutrino that eliminates the need to rely on your fellow
Humans.....what is that to me or the rest of the Cylon Empire?"
     "And all I have to do is----,"
     "Act in our best interests, which of course are your best interests
as well, my dear Siress. As well as those you bear responsibility for.  I
am quite certain you will be traversing areas the Galactica has been to. 
It will be your duty to.....explain our situation differently from how
Commander Adama might have explained it."
     She started at him, "And you trust me to do all this?"
     "As you said, you have no choice, Siress Rosalind," he said with a
matter-of-fact air.  "After all, you already saw the proof of how futile
it is to think help will come from other quarters when I shared with you
the video from Governor Malus in the Colonies and the death of the most
prominent figure in the so-called 'Resistance Movement.'"
     The former Cabinet Minister let out a sigh of resignation and nodded
her head.
     "Excellent.  Centurions, kindly escort Siress Rosalind to Commander
Needa's BaseShip immediately."
     She offered no protest as the centurions removed her from the
chamber.  Commander Needa who had watched the exchange in fascination
turned back to the Cylon ruler.
     "You really believe she would be of use?"
     "She needs to find some avenue of hope to cling to," Imperious
Leader said.  "She has already seen whatever faith she had in the
Resistance shattered when I showed her the fate of Professor Ila.  Even
if the Resistance prevailed they would have no use for her, a former
collaborator and traitor to her own race.  So yes, she will help us.  And
besides....I would prefer she be removed from the Home System.  That way
if it becomes more difficult to conceal the magnitude of our setbacks,
she won't be here to capitalize on it and think she can generate some
kind of uprising among the prisoners."
     "Quite ingenious," Needa nodded, "But can she actually make a
difference in succeeding in our objective of finding Neutrino?"
     "I believe as a woman of some past political importance, especially
as the former mistress to the late President Adar, she will offer a
more.....personable approach to dealing with these races the Galactica
has made contact with in the past.  If they can hear from a Human that
the Cylon Empire is not as.....threatening as Adama likely made us out to
be, the better our chances for reaching agreement with any race that
might have access to Neutrino."
     "But what if none of these races have access to Neutrino?"
     Slowly, Imperious Leader lowered his throne chair from its high
position.  It took over two centons to reach ground level so he could
rise from it and come directly to an inch of the IL Cylon.
     "In that case, Commander Needa, prepare to take your ship further
into the Alpha Quadrant than any loyal Cylon has ever ventured.  Even if
that means catching up to the Galactica and Baltar."

-- The End