FIC: In the Northern Sky (1/25)

[bugsfic]

Author: bugs
Summary: An Alternative Universe starting with the arrival of the Pegasus.
Rating: T-MA; chapters will be marked, this chapter T
Genre: AU, Adventure, Drama, Romance, Angst
Characters: Adama/Roslin, entire cast.
Word Count: 2,500

A/N: The Pegasus/Resurrection Ship I,II arc remain my favorite episodes, so naturally I have to alternate universe them all up!


Chapter One:
“Galactica, this is Pegasus actual.” It was a strong female voice, ringing through Galactica’s open speakers with the military authority Laura was finally accustomed to after six months in space. Then the tone became more tentative. “Adama, is that you?”

Laura clung to the plot table, her eyes on the Commander.
Only his reaction would tell her if she could drop her guard. Hope was such a rare emotion these days.

Bill spoke into his handset. “Admiral Cain. What a pleasure to hear your voice.”

Cain sounded as wondrous as they felt. “Commander, I don’t know what to say. This is a miracle.”

“Took the words right out of my mouth.” Laura detected the slightest of loosening to Adama’s set features. He said to Dee, “Step down to Condition One throughout the Fleet.”

The wireless crackled and hummed and they heard Lee’s report: “Galactica, Apollo, you are not going to believe what I’m looking at out here. ” Laura heard joy in the voice of a joyless boy. “It’s like a dream.”

Then the man who didn’t seem to dream either said, “It is a dream,” in a voice just loud enough for her to hear.

Laura listened to arrangements being made for the Admiral to board Galactica. Her head went light with excitement, but she still wasn’t sure of protocol.

“May I join the greeting party?” she asked the Commander.

“Of course, Madam President.” He tucked her hand into his elbow, drawing her with him towards the hatchway.

As they hurried down the corridor, Laura leaned on his arm, trying to keep up with his long strides. She cursed this weakened body of hers; she wanted to run like all the crewmembers rushing past.

“How many crewmembers on the Pegasus, Commander?” she gasped out.

Suddenly aware of her distress, he shortened his steps and all those marching behind them were forced to slow too. Boots shuffled in discontent.

“About seventeen hundred. Unless they had heavy casualties.”

“They don’t have civilian ships with them; perhaps they’ve left their fleet behind while the Pegasus jumped ahead.” Her eyes sparkled. “I wonder how many civilians they were able to save.”

He smiled down at her as they came out on the parapet above the hangar. “Want to change that number on your whiteboard?”

She grinned back.

“Let me help you down the ladder,” he offered.

She turned herself around to descend the rungs. “No, I could float down.”

His raspy laugh followed her.

Fighter pilots dismounted from the Pegasus Raptor’s wing first, then a porcine man with colonel pips on his collar. He stood before Tigh, but didn’t meet any of the questioning gazes.

Next, a statuesque woman stepped through the hatch, surveying the crowd before hopping off the wing. Laura realized this must be Admiral Cain. Even without the designation on her uniform, her manner said she was here to lead.

Adama saluted and she returned it crisply.

“Admiral Cain, welcome aboard the Galactica.”

Cain held out her hand to shake his. “Commander Adama, it’s an honor.”

“Allow me to present to you the President of the Colonies, Laura Roslin,” Adama said, remaining stiffly at attention.

Giving a slight double-take, Cain’s hawk-like gaze fell on Laura.

Shaking her head, Laura smiled. “It’s a long story. Welcome.”

“I’m sure it was,” said Cain, turning back to the Raptor. “However, here is President Richard Adar.”

The familiar man, lithe and tall, appeared in the hatchway, looking around tentatively. He beamed when he spotted Laura.

Shocked, she wavered on her feet. Adama immediately put an arm around her waist, holding her up.

Adar leapt off the Raptor’s wing. “Are you all right, Laura?” He cradled her cheek, concern etched on his features. “You don’t look well.”

She grabbed his arm and squeezed it tight. It was solid; he was real. “I’m fine--how did you survive? We received the Case Orange signal...”

Adama pulled her away from Adar gently. He looked at the Admiral, who’d been watching the scene with a slightly bemused smirk. “Let’s go to my quarters,” he said, “We need to sort this out.”

The two battlestars’ crew mingled behind them, ragged cheering and whoops of joy breaking out above the excited babbling.

“Just rest, I’ll get you water,” said Bill, helping Laura into a chair at the table.

Adar sat beside her, taking her hand and chaffing it. “Hurry up with that water--“ He glanced up at Adama. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Commander William Adama,” said Bill tersely, giving Laura the water and sitting on her other side.

Appearing not to notice Bill’s barely contained fury, Adar smiled. “Oh, that’s right. The decommissioning of the Galactica seems a lifetime ago.”

“Yes,” agreed Laura, gently pulling her fingers free from his grip.

Her amusement now turned to irritation, Cain folded her arms and glared at them.

“Won’t you take a seat?” offered Laura, motioning toward a free chair.

Raising an eyebrow at Laura for taking the role of hostess, Cain refused. “I prefer to stand. Bad back.”

“How did you survive, Richard?” asked Laura, searching his face for signs of injury or radiation exposure. “The last thing we heard, you’d offered full surrender to the Cylons but they’d refused.”

Cain hissed behind them at the word surrender.

Ignoring the Admiral, Richard smiled at Laura. “Yes, when they continued the attacks, I went into the survival bunker, just like all those silly drills we had--remember that time they couldn’t get the door open and we were trapped overnight?” He chuckled.

Nodding, Laura returned his smile.

Bill clenched his jaw. This was his first face to face meeting with Richard Adar and his perception from only seeing him on the vid set was turning out to be true--a slick, faking prick.

“The security systems didn’t work as planned,” said Adar. “The computers were immediately fried--that’s why I wasn’t able to response to the transmissions.” He squeezed her fingers again. “The bunker didn’t seal correctly, there was radiation...” His lips tightened. “But I was able to launch my escape shuttle.”

Bill’s brow furrowed. “No one else in your staff survived?”

Adar glanced at Cain quickly. “No. No one.”

“So the Pegasus picked you up?” asked Bill.

“Yes, we did,” said Cain smoothly.

“How many other civilian ships did you save?” Laura asked impatiently.

Again Adar looked to Cain. The Admiral shook her head. “We were unable to bring any along.”

“I’m afraid my contribution is just a few hundred civilian survivors from damaged vessels we encountered,” said Adar. “Nothing like this fleet.”

He stood, vibrating with energy. “Why don’t you show me to the Presidential Suite?” he said to Laura.

She blinked up at him. “There’re no quarters aboard Galactica. I reside and govern on Colonial One. Civilian and military branches are separate.”

Chuckling, Richard patted her shoulder. “That’s good to hear. I’ve had no such luxury.”

Laura pushed up from her chair and Bill quickly pulled it the rest of the way for her. She thanked him with a warm glance.

“Why don’t I take you over and show you around?” she said.

“Yes, I’m ready to get back to work,” Adar said, his words booming around the suddenly silent room.

“What the frak?” thundered Bill, jumping up and leaning on the table. “Laura’s the president--“

She laid a hand on Adama’s chest, pushing him slightly back. “Commander, the President of the Twelve Colonials survived the attacks after all. My role is finished.”

Feeling rather than seeing Cain’s avid interest, she linked arms with Adar, leading him away from the seething Commander. “We can take my shuttle to Colonial One.”

She turned back and addressed the two officers. “Goodbye.” She intentionally didn’t meet Bill’s gaze. “I’m sure President Adar will be in touch soon.”

“Of course,” Adar said smoothly.

Cain waited until Adar and Laura had left and the hatch closed after them. Then she looked to Adama. “That’s sorted out.”

Bill crossed his arms tightly. “We’ll see.”

She rocked back on her heels and regarded him coolly. “As Ms. Roslin stated, Richard Adar is the President. I’d say that discussion is closed.”

Glancing around his quarters, she took in all the homey details. Her nose wrinkled as though she found it lacking. “President Adar reminded me. You were on the verge of retirement at the time of the attacks.”

Pulling himself up to attention, Bill clamped down his jaw again. “Yes, sir.”

“Interesting.” She gave him a non-committal smile. “As he said, it seems a long time ago. If the attacks hadn’t happened, you’d be in some retirement village by now, watching the daily pyramid game on your vid set.” She motioned around the quarters. “Instead, here you are.”

“At my duty, sir,” said Adama.

“And the Fleet is grateful,” she said soothingly.

Bill took a deep breath; he needed to calm down. “Drink, sir?”

“Thought you’d never ask.” Cain finally sank into a chair.

Moving to the drinks cart, Bill poured two tumblers full of amber liquid. “I’m curious, Admiral. How did you find us? It’s a big universe out there.”

“We were tracking the Cylon Fleet. We were trying to predict their movements, which seemed rather random initially.” She accepted the drink with a nod. “Until we realized that they were just jumping to systems with natural resources. So we began to scout those systems ourselves hoping to carry out hit and run attacks on their fleet.”

Setting the decanter between them, Bill took the chair across from her.

“But instead of finding the Cylons, we found you.”

“So you’ve been attacking their fleet?” Bill took a sip of his drink, trying to imagine those sorts of attacks, no backup, just one powerful battlestar against a massive force.

Cain tipped her head in acknowledgement. “You know what they say about a good defense.”

“How did you escape the Cylon attacks on the Colonies?” he asked.

Pushing her glass towards him, Cain said, “I’ll have another one if you don’t mind.”

Surprised to see her glass empty, Bill refilled it.

After a deep swallow, Cain continued. “We were docking at the Scorpion Fleet Shipyard.” Her eyes shifted as though she was trying to remember some long-lost memory, not recent, terrifying events. “We were getting ready to go in for a three month overhaul. Most of the crew was preparing for extended shore leave and family reunions.

XO had the deck. I was down in my quarters, wrapping up some paperwork and packing to go home to Tauron--“

Bill started at the familiar Colony name. He’d forgotten that Cain shared his heritage.

“And that’s when the Cylons attacked. They hit the shipyard with three, maybe four nukes.” Her words started to come faster, sharp-edged. “Five ships. Two of them battlestars. They were destroyed right there.

And by the time I got back to CIC, I discovered I’d lost over seven hundred men.”

Bill thought of Laura’s whiteboard. Was she asking Adar for numbers now?

“We were completely defenseless, so I ordered a jump.”

Jerked back by Cain’s words, he asked. “To where?”

She shrugged slightly. “Wherever,” she said, smiling, but her gaze far away. “Nowhere. Just jump.”

“Blind jump. Could’ve ended up anywhere. Gutsy call.” This had been Cain’s first battle experience, and she’d reacted instinctively, with bold and decisive action.

“No...desperate move,” she mused dispassionately. “Didn’t see any other choice.”

As though she felt she’d revealed too much, Cain stood quickly, pushing her glass back with one fingertip. “I’m sure you have quite a story to tell yourself. But I won’t make you go through it right this very minute.”

Bill strode with her to the hatchway.

“I’ll need to see your logs. Please have them delivered to my shuttle immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

She waited.

He saluted and she returned the gesture.

“We’ll discuss what’s next when I’ve finished reading them,” she tossed over her shoulder as she left his quarters.

He closed the hatch after her, then noticed how his hand was shaking with anger.

As she headed back to the hangar deck, Cain noticed a civilian who seemed to be talking to himself. He looked familiar and then she placed him. “Doctor Gaius Baltar?”

He jumped. “Admiral!” Recovering, he managed a weak smile. “We didn’t have an opportunity to be introduced before the Commander whisked you away.”

“But here you are.” She glanced around. “What is your function aboard this battlestar?”

“Me?” Flustered, Baltar blathered for a moment. “I am vice-president...Or am I?”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Cain. “I don’t have much interest in the civilian government.”

“I see.” Baltar pushed his long hair back and glanced over his shoulder. “Well, I’m also head of the Cylon branch and my main focus is on Cylon detection.”

Intrigued, Cain stepped closer. He shuffled backward until he hit the bulkhead. “Cylon detection?” she asked.

“Yes, Ma’am...” At her outraged glare, he quickly corrected himself. “I mean, sir. My function is very important since they can look like us.”

Astonished, Cain grabbed Baltar’s shoulders and shoved him hard, knocking his head against the steel wall. “What!?”

He stifled a squeak. “Yes! ...sir. You haven’t discovered any on your ship?”

She turned away and muttered under her breath, “Should have flushed those damn civilians out the airlock--“

Peeking over her shoulder, Baltar corrected her assumption. “One of Galactica’s own pilots turned out to be a Cylon. She shot Commander Adama and nearly killed him. We have her in the brig now.”

“It was allowed to live?” Cain pinned him with her intense gaze.

“The Commander believed more could be gained from study of the prisoner. And she is with child.”

“A Cylon offspring?” Cain hissed, curling her upper lip.

“The baby will be a hybrid. She has been impregnated by one of the ECO’s, I believe they’re called. Before he knew she was a Cylon, of course.” Baltar’s eyes rapidly darted as he tried not to look at the Six leaning on his shoulder.

“Wonder who the Pegasus infiltrators will turn out to be?” she murmured. “A familiar face? A trusted friend who suddenly turns out to be the enemy?”

Impatient, Cain called his attention back. “Did you hear what I just said?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said, although he had no idea what she’d said.

“I want to see this thing, now!” she repeated.

He wet his suddenly dry lips. “Yes, Commander.”

“Admiral.”

“Admiral. I am so sorry.” He waved a limp hand. “Anytime.”

“Now.”

Gaping like a fish, he finally nodded. “This way then.” He stopped and she nearly bumped into him. “Shall we ask Commander Adama to join us?”

Her smile was reptilian. “No, that won’t be necessary. I’m in charge now.”

Six’s delighted laughter followed them down the corridor.

~~end (1/25)

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