The Milsian Princess
by AJ Marks
Part 3
Adama walked to the shuttle along with Admiral Jurez. So far there had been some headway with the talks. The greatest problem seemed to be the war with the Alliance. It could be a major stumbling block that Adama did not see any way around.
Beside him Apollo and Starbuck, the pilots of the shuttle, Boomer piloted the viper escort they had insisted Adama take. Now Adama had to head back to the council with this latest information and figure out what to do next. It appeared they had found Earth, or at least the civilization it had spawned.
“So commander, what will you do next?” Jurez asked.
“I’m not sure,” Adama answered honestly. “I will need to talk to the council and see what they recommend.”
“You do not strike me as one who bows to anyone,” Jurez said.
“I respect the wish of the council most times. I have learned from experience that sometimes patience is required, and rushing into some things can be very disastrous,” Adama said, thinking back to the peace treaty with the Cylons. Baltar had rushed that through very quickly.
“Do they respect you back?” Jurez replied. “I’ve got an emperor who respects power commander, we cannot afford to have a weak ally in this war. The Alliance will attack if you show any sign of weakness. It’s how we have survived for so long.”
Adama did not say much about that. “Then the Alliance and the Cylons have something in common then.”
“I think the Cylons will find an enemy they do not wish to tangle with commander,” Jurez stated.
“I wish I had your confidence, but if they come, they will not show you any mercy,” Adama said, stopping in front of the shuttle. Apollo and Starbuck went on inside to prepare the shuttle for launch. “I will contact you after I have talked with the council.”
“Then I look forward to seeing you again commander,” Jurez said.
Adama walked onto the shuttle a bit glad to be heading back to the Galactica. The Kitakkim’s crew seemed very tense to him. He wondered exactly what else was going on.
*****
Tony glanced at the incoming reports from all the military commands. He smiled knowing almost everything appeared to be in place. The biggest problem now had been the unexpected arrival of a strange group of people.
“Sire, you wanted this report,” one of his aides said, handing Tony the paper.
“Yes,” Tony said, reading through the report. He sent a long-range patrol in the direction of where the unknown group came from. Now he frowned at what he read, a large fleet of ships slowly heading straight for the home planet of the Milsian Empire.
He read further along where the ships were not recognized as anything the Alliance used. There also appeared to be one very large ship, possibly a warship near the center of the fleet.
“Have this sent to intelligence to analysis at once,” he ordered.
“At once sire,” the aide said, quickly racing off to carry out the order.
He paused alone in the room looking at the situation. This unknown fleet could still be an Alliance fleet. It could house hundreds of thousands of soldiers for an invasion of the empire. He needed more information about that fleet.
“Problems,” a child’s voice said drifting over to where he stood. He turned to see his daughter emerge from the shadows.
“No, nothing that concerns you,” Tony replied. “Go back to your playing.”
“All right,” she said, disappearing again. He would have to talk with security to make sure she did not overhear any more important discussions. Her habit of being able to appear and disappear was getting on his nerves. When he made her he should have modified her slightly. She might look seven years old, but had his mind. And he knew that he was not much older when he began planning his path to the throne. He could only imagine she would be doing the same thing.
A slight smile came to his lips at that. At least she really would be like him, cunning to the end, but he was just as cunning as she was, after all she was a child. He returned his attention back to the reports knowing that soon he would have a new position in the universe, complete emperor of the human race.
*****
Mark walked onto the bridge as alarms sounded all over the ship. He glanced right at Kim wondering what had happened in the short time he had gone to bed.
“Captain, unknown ship approaching,” Kim said to him.
“Damn,” Mark swore. He had hoped nothing else would happen. “A Milsian fleet, great! How many and of what type?”
“That’s just it, it doesn’t register as a Milsian warship, or any other type of ship captain,” Kim replied.
“Captain, incoming transmission from HQ,” Hans said.
“Put it though up here,” Mark said, not surprised at all when Admiral Pappas’ face appeared.
“Captain, I take it your aware of the situation unfolding right now,” Corey said.
“Aware of it yes, know what to do, no,’ Mark replied to the admiral.
“Take the Nevada out and meet the unknown ship as far away from Pacifica as possible,” Corey said. “I want you to treat this as both first contact and a Milsian trap.”
“Great,” Mark replied, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He felt the two orders were completely opposite of each other and had no real idea exactly how to do it.
“Keep the line open in case anything happens,” Cory said.
“I will,” Mark said, turning to the crew. “All right, set an intercept course and engage and maintain yellow alert. I want all fighters manned ready to launch in a seconds notice,” Mark told them.
He watched the group race around and pushed the intercom button waiting for John to answer.
“What’s up skip,” John’s voice said.
“We have an unusual situation here, an unknown ship heading towards Pacifica,” Mark said to him. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be ready to go if there’s a problem,” John said.
“Good,” Mark said. “I knew I can count on you.”
He heard the Nevada’s engines power up moving the giant ship towards the unknown ship. Minutes passed as the two ships closed in on each other. Mark felt the tense atmosphere of the bridge and wished he could do something to ease the tension but had to admit he had no idea what was going happen either.
“Captain, incoming transmission,” Hans said.
“Put it though,” Mark said.
“Greetings, I am Commander Baltar, of the Cylon Empire.”
*****
Baltar walked out of his raider onto the deck of the hangar of the Nevada. A strange name he thought but it made no difference. It became obvious to him that whoever he was talking to had not spoken to Adama or he would know who the Cylons were. He hid a smile as he walked over to who he assumed the commander of the ship.
“I am Commander Baltar,” he said, introducing himself allowing the smile to come out
“I’m Captain Mark Cave,” the man replied. The man seemed a bit young to be in charge, all the better Baltar thought to himself. “I greet you in behalf of the Alliance.”
That caught Baltar off guard for a second. “The Alliance?”
“Um, yes,” Mark replied. “Have you heard of us before?”
“You’re not any relation to the Eastern Alliance?” Baltar asked, looking closer at the uniforms. The uniforms they wore were very different than anything he had seen from his former allies. He also knew by judging the look he got they had not heard of them.
“Um, no, allies of yours?” Mark asked.
“They helped me out in a few sticky spots,” Baltar replied. “I take it your surprised to see a human.”
“Um, something like that,” Mark replied.
“Well, it’s a bit of a long story, and one full of tragedy,” Baltar stated to them.
“Then can I show you to our meeting room,” Mark said.
“That would be most pleasant,” Baltar replied, as the group left the hanger heading deeper into the ship.
“Impressive ship captain,” Baltar said, as they were in the elevator.
“Thank you, yours is impressive as well commander,” Mark replied. “I take it it’s a warship.”
Baltar heard the statement was not a question, but a comment indicating they at least had good scanners. “Yes, unfortunately the Cylon Empire has several enemies which they are at war with right now, including a group of renegade humans,” Baltar replied.
“Renegade?” Mark asked.
“Yes, they fear change, will tell you any story, even to the point that we have destroyed humanity, which of course if entirely untrue,” Baltar said. “They will state that the Cylon Empire broke promises and treaties, which is a way for them to gain your confidence, and to hide behind.”
“So what do they want?”
“To start a new war,” Baltar said. They think that only they are smart enough to rule humanity, and will do anything to reach that goal.”
Baltar smiled to himself watching the people in front of him think that over for a while.
“And you are chasing them?” Mark asked finally.
“They are dangerous. We’ve encountered other human tribes that are at full war because they came by. One is the Eastern Alliance. If it wasn’t for some intervention they would have been destroyed in a mutual nuclear exchange,” Baltar said.
“We’ll…”
Alarms cut of any reply that Mark would have made. Baltar glanced over wondering exactly what was going on.
“Bridge, what’s going on?” Mark asked.
“A Milsian warfleet approaching captain,” a voice replied.
“Well, I would like to continue this, but you might want to leave before things get messy,” Mark said.
“If you think so,” Baltar said, actually eager to leave. He would rather watch the upcoming encounter on board the Cylon basestar than this ship.
“I’ll let Victor here escort you down, if you’ll excuse me I’m needed on the bridge,” Mark said, quickly leaving heading down the corridor.
“If you’ll follow me sir,” Victor said.
“Of course,” Baltar said, walking along with the man. “So, the Milsians, who are they?”
Baltar watched Victor look back at him with shock on his face.
“Who are they? You live out in the boon-docks or something, only a group that’s been trying to take over the Alliance for the past three hundred years,” Victor said.
“I see,” Baltar replied. He filed that away for later. “I haven’t been around, we left some time ago and well things are complicated where I come from already.”
“If you say so,” Victor said as they reached the hanger. Baltar quickly climbed up into the raider with the two waiting Centurions who waited for his orders.
“Launch and head back to the basestar,” Baltar said.
“By your command,” one centurion replied.
Baltar reached over pushing the communications button waiting for Lucifer to reply.
“Lucifer, what’s going on?”Baltar asked.
“A fleet of ten ships came into the system very quickly, faster than anything we’ve ever seen Baltar. They decreased speed a short time ago and are now approaching the planet at speeds under light speed. Our scanners do show the ships to be warships, with two as large as a battlestar,” Lucifer said.
“Keep an eye on everything that happens, I want a detailed report when I get back,” Baltar said.
“By your command,” Lucifer replied.
*****
Mark ran onto the bridge where everything appeared calm, if one could call it that. He quickly looked over at Kim waiting to hear what the full problem was.
“Two Milsian battle-cruisers and eight supporting ships heading towards Pacifica,” Kim said.
“Captain, I have Admiral Pappas on the line,” Hans said.
Mark nodded motioning for the communications to be transferred to his console. Corey’s face appeared on the screen right away.
“Captain, I take it you are aware of the current situation,” Corey said.
“Yes admiral, we’re about to enter weapons range,” Mark said, his ship being the furthest out would enter combat quicker, if that’s what they were there for.
“I’m getting a lot of political pressure from the senate to communicate with them,” Corey said. “Now I do have a few people working on that, but if you are attacked you have full permission to retaliate. For now retreat back to the planet, you are outnumbered far too much.”
“Fighter launch,” Kim’s voice said.
“Damn,” Mark replied. “In combat and short on pilots.”
“We all are, the training was slashed last budget cuts,” Corey said.
Mark rocked slightly as the Nevada was struck. “Damage report?”
“Stopped by armor and shields captain,” Kim said.
“Admiral, I’m afraid I’m going to have to end this conversation, I’ll talk with you later, I hope,” Mark finally said.
“Understood, good luck, and I’m putting you in overall charge of the fleet in orbit,” Corey said.
“Great,” Mark said, then ended the call. “Launch fighters,” he ordered taking a look at the scanners for the overall situation. The Ark Royal and Musashi were already making their way to their position. He glanced briefly over at the Cylon ship seeing that it appeared to be backing away slightly away from the battle.
“Fighters launched,” Kim replied.
“The Ark Royal and Musashi have launched fighters as well,” Hans said.
Mark nodded taking a hard look at where the fighters would do the most good. He heard Kim’s voice even as he watched a flood of fighters leave a third ship.
“Captain, I think we have a carrier in the Milsian fleet,” Kim said.
“That means bombers,” Mark said frowning. It could prove a critical weapon in the battle. He needed to have some of his fighters engage those bombers, quickly.
*****
Crystal blinked her eyes open at the rocking of the ship. She no longer felt dizzy, but still had a lot of conflicting dreams and memories. The most conflicting regarding her mother. Several conversations blurred together and in many cases she remembered two different versions.
She finally glanced around looking at the med lab. She noticed the doctor seemed to be involved in a serious discussion with an aide. She glanced around noticing the fact the ship appeared to be on alert. If the ship was under attack they would need her to defend the ship, she was after all one of the pilots. She climbed out of bed disconnecting the medical hook-ups sending alarms to the doctor’s desk who looked over.
Crystal watched him approach her. He had an interesting look on his face and Crystal hoped he dismissed her quickly so she could get into her fighter and help out.
“Ah, I see our patient has recovered enough,” he said. “What is the last thing you remember?”
Crystal thought about that before recalling the attack on the Alliance battle-cruiser. “We were attacking the Alliance battle-cruiser. What happened?”
“Is that the last thing you remember, you were awake before this,” the doctor replied.
Crystal frowned trying to remember but nothing came to her. Instead a memory of when she was four came to her mind. Her mother arguing with a man at the door. Neither seemed to realize that Crystal could hear what they said.
“You’ve told others who your daughter is,” a male voice said.
“… whether you like it or not, she is Boris’ daughter. But risk her life, no, I wouldn’t tell anyone that secret,” her mother replied quietly.
“Don’t lie to me you scum. You were never worth Boris’ attentions,” the man said, almost yelled.
“And you’ll be telling everyone if you keep that up,” her mother replied in a much softer tone.
“Makes no difference, and you know it,” the man said.
Crystal saw her mother’s shoulders slump slightly at his words.
The memory ended as Crystal could not remember much after that. She frowned at the name, Boris. It sounded familiar to her, but she could not think of it. She glanced at the doctor as the ship rocked again.
“Causalities coming in doc,” one nurse said, she was setting up a table quickly.
“Be right there, stay here, you’ll be safer,” the doctor said, as he walked over to the table to help out.
Crystal thought it rather strange he would say that. Then another vision came to her. She was attacking the Alliance battle-cruiser and she was attacked, by one of her own!
*****
Mark glanced at the scanners once more knowing his fighters would be outnumbered. He wished that the planet had fighter defenses, but due to recent cuts and pressure from the press the starbase had been decommissioned a year ago.
The Nevada had taken a few hits, only one had caused any damage at all. He also noticed the Cylon ship had retreated back even more to avoid any combat. Mark wondered why the Milsian commander did not go after the Cylon ship, or were the two working together. Nah, he thought to himself, the Cylon ship was a warship. They had scanned it seeing the weapon mounts and hangers for fighters.
“Captain, unauthorized fighter launch,” Kim reported.
“What?” Mark said, turning his head to Kim wondering what she meant by that.
“Someone launched Skull-seven,” Kim said.
Mark blinked at the news not sure what was going on. “Reports from the hangar?”
“Um, hang on, oh, incoming message from med-lab. Doctor Weaver states the Milsian pilot has escaped,” Kim said.
Mark groaned at that. “Great, just great, see if anyone on the hanger recalls seeing a small blonde near the ship, and how the hell did she manage this?”
“No idea sir,” Kim replied. “Reports from the hanger, an unknown woman took the fighter.”
“Inform John we might have a rogue in Skull-seven,” Mark said. He knew the pilots already had enough problems without dealing with an enemy pilot in one of their own fighters.
Mark quickly pulled up the scanner looking for Skull-seven. He wanted to know what she was doing and where she was.
“She’s heading into sector eight-five,” Mark called out. He noticed it was a heavily contested area.
*****
John turned his fighter again taking out another enemy fighter when the report of the enemy pilot came in. John mirrored Mark’s thoughts about the problems it could cause. John also knew this was a reason of why they needed better security on the fighters.
He had no idea exactly which fighter it might be, only that it was headed into his sector of fighting. So far he had no trouble yet in taking care of any enemy fighters. The biggest problem, there were so many and the bombers were slowly approaching attack range.
“Look aware skull-nine,” John said, destroying another enemy fighter. “Still with me back there Pam?”
“Watching your six,” Pam replied.
“Yeah, you would,” John bantered back at her.
“Heads up, new bogies,” Pam said. John looked down seeing an additional six enter the battle zone. Even as he watched one Starcat head into the fray. He did not think much of it as he lined up another fighter. He only hoped that whoever was flying the Starcat could hold on until he could send some reinforcements to him.
John finally eliminated the third enemy fighter before glancing over to see how the fight was going. He noticed that the one pilot had eliminated three fighters while he had destroyed one. He frowned slightly taking a look at the fighter ID. He noticed it was Skull-seven the same one which had been hijacked by the enemy pilot.
“Let’s get the bombers,” he said to Pam.
“What about the pilot fighting off the six Vengeance fighters?” Pam asked.
“Doing fine,” John said. “Besides, those bombers poise a greater threat to our ships than anything else.”
“On it,” Pam replied.
They headed off towards the bombers which would be starting their attack run any second now.
*****
“Report Lucifer,” Baltar said watching the IL series Cylon walk into the command room.
“By your command Baltar. It appears the two groups are fighting among themselves. We have identified two groups of fighters, and a second group which appear to be bombers,” Lucifer stated. “Their ships are heavily armed and perhaps have the firepower equivalent to a battlestar.”
Baltar thought about that for a few seconds. If they had that much firepower then his one basestar would be no match for what he had seen already.
“Shall we order an attack?” Lucifer asked.
“Hmm,” Baltar said, thinking about that for a second. “Yes, that would be just the thing we might need. We’ll help out those at the planet.”
“Baltar?” Lucifer asked. Baltar knew the Cylon was now confused. “This Alliance, the group here,” Baltar said, pointing to one group. “We’ll help them, it will make them more friendly towards us.”
“Would it not be easier to just destroy them both?” Lucifer asked.
“No, they have the advantage in firepower at the moment. If they join forces we won’t stand a chance. In this case we’ll divide and conquer,” Baltar said, smiling. “Carry out my order, and they are not to harm any Alliance ships. And send a report back to the Cylon empire of what we’ve found.”
“By your command Baltar,” Lucifer replied.
Baltar smiled knowing that his name would be enhanced with the Imperious Leader. The Cylons would be glad they had spared him.
End Part 3
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