Black Alpha One
by AJ Marks
Part 2
President Angelia Series waited patiently, listening to the senators from the Middle East providence complain again. They always complained and today proved no different than any other day. They currently complained about the military expenditures, a favorite target of theirs, aside from snide remarks about her being a woman.
“Its not right, the military takes up too much of the budget and must be decreased, even you, a woman, must see that. After all you said it in your election speeches,” Aymil said, the biggest opponent to military spending.
“You know I normally don’t agree with him, but I do on this issue. That’s why we’re making this joint protest to you directly,” Jarah said to her. “The military is weakening our economy and stunting any growth we might have gotten due to technology over the event.”
Angie sighed, taking a deep breath and praying to God to give her patience to deal with them. “Gentlemen, what if another asteroid is spotted heading towards Earth? The last one almost completely devastated the planet. We cannot afford another such problem wiping us out. Compared to that the economy is a trivial thing,” she said to them using the standard argument which she knew as wearing thin over the years. Talking points only got one so far, she knew it very well and had used many in her political career.
“And we have more than enough ships in case that happened,” Aymil replied.
Angie brushed back a lock of her auburn hair wondering what she might be able to say which might placate these two. Even as she pondered her situation Admiral Jack Cave walked into the room causing her to pause and feel some relief he finally showed up. Of course his appearance would mean either an increase in hostility or decrease, she would have to wait to see.
“Sorry I’m late Madam President,” Jack said respectfully, something he always was to her as he made his way over pulling out his tablet and looking at the others. “I was going over the latest intel.”
“And what intel is that admiral? More information on boring planets with no life on them. We are alone in the universe, any intelligent person knows that,” Jarah stated.
“We have no proof, and we have picked up strange signals in the direction of the black zone,” Jack replied back to them.
Angie knew differently but waited to see how this battle would go down.
“And while you’re out chasing ghost signals our economy is suffering, badly. The military spending is outrageous and we request that we decrease the size of the military to three battleships orbiting Earth. That should be more than sufficient to deflect any asteroid.”
“Is that what you’re proposing?” Angie asked hoping to get down to the heart of the subject.
“Among other things, yes. The rest of the fleet will be mothballed, or broken up on the docks,” Aymil stated.
Angie gave the statement some thought before looking over at Jack who wore a closed expression. She knew at this moment the truth might actually help in this discussion but also understood the psychologists stated the population wasn’t ready for the truth.
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Angie finally said hoping it would appease them for now. “You’ll have the budget numbers by the end of the week.”
The two senators stood and walked out, barely glancing at Jack and not even looking at her. She brushed back another lock of hair out of her face before focusing her attention back on the admiral waiting for his report.
“The Kiev and Seydlitz left to patrol the Black Zone, they’ll be there for the next month,” Jack said to her.
“I take it still nothing?” Angie asked.
“Nope, we continue to push further away from Earth,” Jack said back to her.
“Still no idea how long that ship was floating in space before crashing on Earth?” Angie asked.
“No.”
“Perhaps its time we told the public the truth, there are already too many conspiracies out there, I get bombarded by a hundred requests a day to release information about it,” Angie stated.
“And how did you react when you found out?” Jack asked her. Angie frowned knowing how she reacted.
“Thought you were kidding, a way to get me to back off my election promises,” Angie stated. It had taken a while before she had finally understood the real truth and he wasn’t kidding her.
“Exactly, and don’t forget there is an enemy of humanity out there who we don’t know how far away they are,” Jack said to her.
“Add in the fact conspiracy groups would have a field say with this, along with the entire thing of another group of humans out there, a mess,” Angie said unsure how people would react to that.
“No one would believe that, except the crazy nut jobs,” Jack said, even though they both knew the real truth.
I just get the feeling the longer this goes on, the less people will believe it when the truth comes,” Angie said, thinking back to when she ran for office.
“I’ll keep you informed if anything else happens,” Jack said standing up.
“Nothing’s happened before, what makes you think something will happen this time? Some divine insight you wish to share?” Angie asked.
“I’m always prepared, boy scout motto,” Jack replied to her. “Its better to be ready than caught with your pants down, seen too many times in history where that happened. Besides, we might never know in our lifetime, or we might know in the next hour.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that,” Angie said standing up as well. “How about something to eat?”
“Your husband won’t mind?”
“No, and it’ll give the press something to talk about instead of what I’m wearing,” Angie replied back to him. “They’ve already got me cheating on him with every senator in Congress already.”
“All right, let’s go,” Jack replied to her.
They walked out of the room leaving the worries about Cylons and other pockets of humanity behind for another day.
*****
Two centurions stood in front of the basestar commander awaiting orders.
“Report centurion.”
“By your command,” one of the two replied. “Our patrols have discovered a large fleet of humans close by.”
“The Battlestar Galactica and the lost human fleet, we’ve found them at last,” the basestar commander replied, almost sounding excited about the situation. “Alert the other commanders nearby, we’ll coordinate an attack and eliminate the Galactica and this human threat once and for all.”
“By your command,” the centurions said turning to carry out the orders.
The commander watched the centurions walk out feeling a sense of completion to a mission on a long journey. Once the humans were finally destroyed they would no longer have to worry about them. They had proved to be a cunning adversary, more so than the Imperious Leader liked to saw. It had taken a final bluff to defeat them, but the resources proved exhausting. Even now the Empire spent a lot trying to find the Galactica and destroy it.
The fact the single battlestar was still considered a threat signified the importance of how dangerous humans were. One single battlestar was impressive, but the commander knew it would be no match for three basestars. Once it was destroyed, he would be considered a hero of the Empire.
He knew that there were another two basestars nearby, with such firepower he could easily overwhelm the Galactica and its defenses. Victory was all but assured.
*****
Starbuck sat down next to Apollo, looking over at Sheba as they sat in the pilot’s rec room. Everything had been quiet lately despite the persistent rumors going around in the fleet about how things were breaking down. Things were not that good.
“Still nothing I take it,” Starbuck stated looking at the other two.
“Nope, last patrol came back with nothing interesting,” Apollo said to him and they all knew what that meant, a combination of good and bad news.
“That’s good to me,’ Starbuck said finally seeing two sets of eyes look back at him in disbelief and he quickly continued his train of thought. “I mean as long as I hear nothing of the Cylons, that’s good news to me.”
“Cylons, yes,” Sheba said quietly. “Maybe we’ve finally shaken them at last. Wish we could find my father though.”
“If anyone could have survived that battle, it would be Commander Cain,” Apollo stated after several seconds of silence. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he showed up one day when we least expect it.”
“It’d be nice, but the longer times goes on the less hope I have,” Sheba replied back to him obviously thinking logically. “I had some hope after meeting Count iblis, he said I’d see him again.”
“I think he was toying with your emotions,” Starbuck said watching Sheba look back at her.
“Yeah, you’re probably right about that,” she replied back to him.
“I doubt Ilbis and Cain would have gotten along,” Starbuck said thinking about the two of and what a clash of personalities it might have been. Adama and Ilbis didn’t get along either but Adama was more subtle in the political game the two played.
“I don’t think so either,” Sheba said giving a half chuckle at the thought before turning serious. “Don’t you two have a patrol coming up?”
“Yeah, getting close to time to leave,” Apollo stated looking over at Starbuck.
“Recon, want to take my spot?” Starbuck asked looking back at Sheba.
“Already been on patrol this week, you can handle one day,” Sheba replied back to him.
“Just asking, seeing if you and Apollo wanted to spend some alone time together,” Starbuck said.
“A patrol, how romantic,” Sheba replied back to him. “And he’s so talkative during a patrol.”
“We’re under orders to limit communications,” Apollo said looking at the two of them. “Where’s Cassie?” he asked.
“Had a medical case come in before she got off, and the doctor needed her for the operation,” Starbuck replied as they knew such things were almost common on board now.
“We should probably go over the pre-flight list,” Apollo said, standing up and stretching.
They said bye to Sheba and headed out of the pilots room and towards the flight deck and their vipers. Starbuck hoped for another boring patrol with no sign of the Cylons. The commander hoped they might find some supplies, a top priority of the patrol, even more than the Cylons now.
*****
Nick Pappas made his way over to the fighter, the Tomcat II, its name taken from the old F-14 fighters of the US Navy. Inspecting the fighter everything looked good to him as he patted the wing, which had the skill and crossbones on it, part of the squadron FX-101S, or Skull squadron as everyone else called it. It was what everyone used, sounded better and easier to say.
“Everything look good?” the crew chief, Ben, asked him.
“Of course, your usual high standards,” Nick replied climbing up and into the tomcat as Ben handed him the helmet which helped him interface with the ships computer.
“Hey slim,” a voice said, causing him to turn slightly to see James ‘Twitch’ Vanderis standing there looking up at him.
“You my wingmate this time Twitch?” Nick called out.
“Of course, you expecting someone else?” Twitch asked.
“Nope, didn’t tell me when I came down,” Nick replied back to him. “Come on. I’ll buy you a beer when we’re done.”
“You’re on Slim,” James replied heading to his tomcat.
The engines powered up as everything disconnected from the fighter. Beside him James had climbed into his fighter and it was powering up as well. Seconds later the flight plan was downloaded from control and after acknowledging it he had clearance for launch.
Pressing down on the thruster button he felt the familiar g-forces as the fighter accelerated out of the hanger and he found himself in space. Seconds later James followed him out and lined up with him. Turning their vipers they headed out on their patrol, another day and another paycheck in his mind.
End part 2