Second Face of Evil – Part 8

Second Face of Evil

by AJ Marks

Part 8

The small group walked up to the President’s office and while Boxey and Terrance stopped the woman continued walking right on by and into the office. Boxey looked over at Terrance than at the secretary who merely shrugged before they both followed her into the room.

“Hey Uncle Steve,” Renee said to the President who was working at his desk.

“Well, look who walked in and dragged a couple of strays,” Hiller said. “You know your father is tolerant of you bringing strays home, but this is the President’s office.”

“But this one is cute, can I keep him,” Renee said, grabbing Boxey as Terrance stifled a laugh.

“That’s between you and your father,” Hiller said, before turning to look at Boxey and Terrance. “What brings you to my office?”

“Mr. President, I don’t know if you remember me, but my name is Terrance, from the Battlestar Galactica,” Terrance said hoping the man did remember him.

“Of course,” Hillar replied. “Are you following her around, or is there something I need to be aware of?”

“Well, actually I was hoping you could help us,” Terrance said. “I’m afraid that we’ve lost one of our pilots, Captain Starbuck.”

“Lost him?” Hillar repeated, unsure if he heard it correctly.

“Yeah, lost him,” Terrance stated.

“He was headed off to investigate something,” Boxey said speaking up.

“I think it had something to do with Senator Celco, I saw him a while ago looking at Kevy Grotto and Jim Thope,” Renee stated.

“Yes, Senator Celco, never liked him much,” Hillar stated plainly.

“Senator Celco?” Terrance asked, not familiar with the name.

“He’s the one whose most against us keeping the military the size it is. He doesn’t speak outright about it, but everyone figures he’s the main person behind the opposition to any growth to the military,” Hillar replied.  “Now it seems like a lot of people were listening to him.”

“What’s his goal?” Terrance asked, knowing everyone had an agenda.

“Don’t know. Probably thinks you can win all wars with words.  He forgets that when the aliens attacked they did so without warning or any communications,” Hillar stated.

“So what did they want?” Boxey asked.

“For us to die,” Renee answered. “My father talked to one.  He said they go from planet to planet destroying everything and consuming everything.”

“Nice people,” Terrance said, glad they had not met up with anyone like that on their journey.

“I guess I need to tell my dad,” Boxey said.

“I’ll talk with Senator Celco as well, see if he knows anything,” Hillar said. They headed out hoping to find the missing pilot.

*****

Apollo sat in the command chair of the Pegasus thinking about the fact so many commanders had been in the same position as he was right now. It was the same chair that some of the legendary commanders had sat in, like Commander Cain.  Of course the first commander, Terris, sat here as well a long time ago.  He wondered what they might think about all of this now.

“Commander, message coming in for you,” the deck officer said.

“Put it up here,” Apollo said, swinging his chair towards the monitor.

“Commander, sorry to disturb you,” Terrance said. He wasn’t the person Apollo was expecting to see but the tone in his voice indicate something had happened.

“What’s wrong?” Apollo asked, sitting up.

“Well, we’ve lost Starbuck,” Terrance said.

“Lost him?” Apollo repeated, then wondered how Cassiopeia would handle that news. “What do you mean lost him?”

“We can’t find him anywhere,” Terrance replied. “Last we saw he was headed off to talk with a senator here on Earth.”

“And he hasn’t been seen since I take it,” Apollo said wondering what trouble Starbuck had discovered.

“Correct,” Terrance said. “I’ve already spoken with President Hillar about it, and he’s agreed to help us out.”

“Starbuck had a way of finding trouble, and getting out of it, so I’m not worried about him yet,” Apollo said. “I just wonder what he found and what type of information he has found.”

“There is something else,” Terrance said.

“And what would that be,” Apollo asked, hoping it wasn’t anything bad.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on your son,’ Terrance stated.

“Good, with Starbuck as a role model I was worried about him,” Apollo stated.

“Well, he’s met a girl down here,” Marcus said. “I think they like each other.”

“Really, that’s a bit interesting,” Apollo said. “He’s not chasing two or three of them, is he?”

“No, she’s actually dragging him around,” Terrance said.

“That’s serious, then again it sounds very much like what happened to Starbuck,” Apollo stated chuckling a bit. “I recall Cassiopeia doing the same thing with Starbuck.  It’s a wonder she didn’t get a steam burn as well.”

“What?” Terrance asked and Apollo knew he said too much.

“Ah, nothing,” Apollo replied. “Keep me informed and let me know when he shows up.”

“I will,” Terrance said.

“How are things going?” Apollo asked, changing the subject.

“About as well as expected,” Marcus replied. “They have their factions as well, but I think we’ll work things out.”

“Good,” Apollo sad.

They ended the conversation and Apollo went over what facts had been told to him. Starbuck was missing, Boxy seemed to have found someone he likes and the diplomacy was going about as well as expected.  He really hoped nothing else would happen.

*****

Ziers walked towards the President’s office for a meeting. He only had to get the President to the proper place and the Senator’s men would do everything else.  He had a feeling that what he was doing was wrong, but he ignored that for now as he walked up to the office seeing the secretary sitting at her desk and looking at him.

“May I help you?” she asked.

“I need to see the President,” Ziers said hoping he had enough clout.

“I’m sorry, he’s in a meeting now and is not to be disturbed,” she replied to him.

“So you know when I can see him?” Ziers asked, knowing this changed a lot of things.

She looked down at the schedule for several seconds before back up at him to reply. “Normally he would be free after this, but with everything going on, its hard to say what will happen next,” she told him.

“All right, I’ll wait,” Ziers said.

“I’ll let him know that you’re waiting senator,” she picking up the phone and letting the President know he was waiting outside.

Ziers sat down and resigned himself to waiting, wondering how this would affect everything.

*****

David walked into the Mars base, summoned by someone who seemed to think he needed to see something. There was a lot of activity going on and he walked over to Kelly who was in charge at the moment.

“Hey David, glad you’re back,” she said to him.

“What’s been going on?” he asked.

“What hasn’t, we managed to get some more information,” she said pointing down at the screen.

David looked at it, feeling a chill at what he saw. It reminded him so very much of what he had seen twenty years ago, even though the characters on the screen were different.

“What?” Kelly asked.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he finally said. “Get me the President, level one emergency.”

*****

Ziers sat quickly in the waiting room for the secretary to announce he could go in. So far he had been there an hour before the phone buzzed.  He watched as she spoke quickly then looked over at him.

“The President has a few minutes, he can see you now,” she said to him.

“Thank you,” Ziers replied, getting up and walking into the Presidential office.

Hillar was sitting down behind the desk, stacked with papers which he appeared to be looking over. He paused looking up at Zier and waited to hear what he had to say.

“I hear that your time is short Mr. President,” Ziers said.

“Things have be crazy around here considering everything that’s going on,” Hillar replied back to him.

“Then I probably won’t bring anything to lessen the burden. I wanted to let you know that several members in the council are looking to take advantage of the situation,” Ziers said.  “With your attention divided between the aliens, Cylons and this Colonial group, they feel they can take power from you.”

“And you would know this how?” Hillar asked.

“They were hoping I could help,” Ziers replied.

“And from what I’ve seen lately, I would think you’re on their side,” Hillar said evenly.

“Normally yes, but they don’t seem to be taking this Cylon threat seriously,” Ziers said.

“Okay, say I take your warning, what can I do about it?” Hillar asked.

“They are holding a meeting with several others, hoping to sway them to our side. They believe a peace can be made with the different groups and they would be the supreme leaders when its all done,” Ziers said, waiting.

“Sounds like a bunch of BS,” Hillar finally said.

“Might be, but people are listening to them,” Zier told him.

“There will always be groups that think this way, are they organized?” Hillar asked.

“More than you know,” Ziers said.

Hillar started to reply when the phone buzzed and he answered it.

Yes, who, all right, connect me,” Hillar stated.

Ziers could only hear one side of the conversation and had no idea who was on the other side and it took several seconds before the line was connected.

“What’s going on?” Hillar said. “What!” he shouted seconds later.

Ziers jumped slightly at the tone Hillar used, not expected it but the look of the President’s body language and tone indicated something major had happened. He hoped his new friends had not gone and done something stupid without him.

“Are you sure?” Hillar asked. “That positive.  All right, no, stay there for now.  Leave if you think you’re in danger but try and get me as much information as possible.  I’ll be a meeting of the defense committee and involve our new allies, they might help out,” Hillar said confusing Ziers as he hung up.  “This is going to have to wait, there appears to be a new development.  I need you to attend a meeting though now.”

“Now?” Zier asked, unsure about this.

“Yeah, something occurred on Mars which requires our immediate attention,” Hillar said.

Ziers looked on wondering what had happened now.

*****

Tigh stood on the bridge of the Galactica which was still with the fleet and the Pegasus was with the Earth fleet.

“Commander,” Omega said, gaining Tigh’s attention. He looked over wondering what had happened now.

“What is it?” Tigh asked, making his way over to where Omega was.

“Long range scanners have picked up two Cylon basestars approaching,” Omega said to him.

“Great, just great,” Tigh muttered. “Aliens attacking Earth, Cylons approaching, what else can go wrong?”

The bridge crew remained silent to Tigh’s question.  No one wanted to know what might happen next.

*****

Starbuck slowly came to, a dull headache towards the back of his skull indicated where he had been hit. He tried to recall the last thing he could remember, which was trying to get a closer look at a council man to figure out what was going on.  Now it appeared he was a prisoner somewhere by someone he didn’t know.

He heard footsteps coming down the hallway and pushed himself into a seated position. Looking at the door as it opened and looked upon the person standing there.  Now that he was closer he was able to make out the features of the man.

“You!”

“Hello Starbuck.”

*****

A small quake shook the surface of Mars. The base shook as people looked around concerned, hoping that the structures wouldn’t fail but also at their information.  The computers they found were bringing forth even more information than they expected.

“David?” Kelly said.

“I’m about to talk with the President and his advisors,” David replied, noting her concern.

“I know, but you should see this,” Kelly said, looking at a screen.

Daive walked over and looked down. “What in the name of God is going on?” he said.  On one of the monitors of the surface he noticed a large crack forming.  “This doesn’t look good.”

End Second Face of Evil