Right, thought I'd try my hand at this fanfic bollocks. The series will follow a single battlestar as it starts it's own little war against the Cylons.
-----------------------------------------
Episode 1 – WAR DAWN
-----------------------------------------
A blank starfield is disrupted by a flash of pure energy, and where moments ago there had been airless void now lay a small brown ship, only a few metres long. Through the darkness, voices sprang out on invisible threads.
“Fairlight Station, this is Raptor 253, requesting approach confirmation”
“Copy Raptor 253, you are cleared to proceed. Neptune is waiting at berth 5.”
“Roger”
Raptor 253 passed above the blue globe of Sagitarron, and headed towards the massive 30 kilometre wide space station orbiting high above the northern hemisphere.
Inside the Raptor, Colonel Quinn moved to the vacant front seat, sitting beside his pilot for the trip.
“What do you think, Parker?”
“Sir I think it’s a step backwards”
Quinn was slightly amazed. “Really? Fast words coming from a recently promoted lieutenant”
Suddenly Parker couldn’t help but trip over his words. “Sorry sir, but I just feel this ship isn’t the best step for... well I think maybe... “
Quinn laughed. “It’s ok lieutenant, I’m not gonna get angry. I actually like what Admiral Nellis has done. Not many Admirals would chose an old ship over a new one”
“THAT was my point sir. I mean the Neptune’s a good ship but she’s no Atlantia”
Quinn nodded. “I have to agree with you there.”
Parker tried to inject more life into the conversation. “Sir, don’t you think Fairlight... well, it’s a bizarre place for a refit.”
Quinn sat back in his chair. Fairlight was now looming large in the window and various ships, both old and new, flew between the spider-like tendrils of the station’s docking arms. Generally regarded as a wrecker’s yard for ships past their prime, it was often used by the Colonial military for raiding spare parts.
“On the contrary I think it’s the perfect place, although only in the context of the Neptune. If you had a fifty year old battlestar, where else would you look for replacement components”
“True sir.” Parker took the Raptor into a dive, taking them between two docking arms, one containing a new Mercury class, the other a twenty year old Magellan class freighter in the midst of being disassembled.
“Sir... how long will you be staying with us?”
This raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”
“Well, a few of the knuckle draggers heard you got a promotion to the Triton”
“I turned it down. I felt I still had more to offer the Admiral. Besides, plenty of time for promotions in the navy later on.”
That was the end of the conversation as far as Quinn was concerned. He knew of the men talking behind his back, but didn’t mind. It was true, he had avoid promotion three times already. Commanding officer of the Triton was appealing, but he wanted more time. One day he thought, he’d get his own ship.
Just not today.
The Raptor cleared the central hub of Fairlight station and headed for the outermost docking pylon. That’s when they made their first visual sighting of the Neptune. Same vintage as the Battlestar Galactica, but where the navy had opted to convert that ship into a museum, Nellis had convinced top brass to allow his ship – the first he served on all those years ago – to undergo probably the most radical redesign a ship of her class had ever done. Quinn sat forward to get a better view.
Outside, the Battlestar Neptune looked nothing like her old rusting self. Her ribs were virtually all covered up, replaced with a strong – albeit considered largely unnecessary – triple hull plating. Her flight pods were now permanently fixed, and no longer needed to retract when she jumped. The two arms holding the pods had been replaced by three stronger, thicker and more rigid arms, which if anything else according to Nellis would allow the design to match the rest of the Colonial fleet. Underneath, two further arms came up from the lower hull and attached to the bottom of the flight pods, further giving the ship more strength. The cavity in the main hull that would normally accept the flight pods when they retracted was now filled in, giving the ship a much larger crew and/or emergency capacity. Quinn noticed the small worker drones applying the last of the paintjob to the new hull. The green of the new signiant paintwork matched the colour that prominently featured on Canceron’s Colonial Flag; the Admiral’s home colony.
“Not bad” Parker muttered to himself, as he looped the Raptor into a low arc, and brought the ship to rest in the Starboard flight pod.
* * *
Quinn was finding his way to the CIC easily enough. He had been aboard one of these ship’s before moving to the Solaria. The redesign has made much of the interior of the ship very modern. The arching corridors and architecture of 50 years ago had been replaced by the newer hexagonal design that featured so prominently in a Mercury class vessel. Surprisingly he felt a little sad. The ship looked like it should on the outside, but the interior had changed. He had hoped the CIC hadn’t suffered the same fate as the corridors.
He was wrong. He walked past the glass panelled doors that rotated as he entered, and saw a small and functional CIC, just like the Solaria.
“Officer on deck!”
A young cadet beside him had yelled, and instantly everyone in the room stood to attention.
“As you were” Quinn said, walking up to the combat table, everyone else going back to their duties. He looked around the room. “Where’s the Admiral?”
The cadet moved forward, even though the question wasn’t directed at him. “Still on Picon sir. He said he’ll meet us at Canceron.”
“Good, cadet...?”
“Resno sir”
“First assignment?”
“Yes sir.” He allowed himself a small smile.
“Good. Remember it well. It only happens once.” Resno nodded. “What’s our status?”
“Only half the crew are on board sir, maybe 1200 or so. The rest we pick up at Canceron. In terms of hardware we’re fully loaded with Raptors but only have a single squadron of 20 birds, again the rest we get at Canceron. Just waiting on the Tylium supply from Fairlight and we’ll be ready for test runs. Oh and we’ve got a full stock of munitions too.”
Quinn starred at him. “So what’s the delay?”
The cadet was nervous, but did a good job of hiding it. “Something about paperwork sir... er... the Admiral didn’t fill something out-“
Quinn let out a laugh, which distracted other crewmembers in CIC. “Yeah, that’s Johnathan for you. The Admiral’ll order you to do something then working how to do it later. Doesn’t surprise me in the least we don’t have fuel. Anything else”
“Yes sir, we’re doing a test of the CNP system in about 20 minutes.”
* * *
Quinn settled into his quarters, laying on his bed for the first time. Hard, he thought. Quinn stood up and checked the mattress. It was as textually smooth as regulations would allow. He smiled to himself. His first week on the Solaria was painful as well, but then he found out a practical joke had been played on him. He found small metallic ornaments had been shoved just inside the lining, giving him sleepless nights. This time though, it was just the mattress to blame.
Quinn was crossing to his dresser to put his clothes away when he felt the room shimmer. He instantly knew what it was. He crossed to the phone and got CIC.
“Did we just jump?”
Cadet Resno was on the other end. “Aye sir, we brought the CNP system up but it activated the FTL and before we could shut it down we jumped away.”
Quinn was worried. That kind of FTL displacement shockwave at close quarters could easily have caused considerable damage to the station and surrounding ships. “I’m on my way”
* * *
Quinn entered CIC to see everyone busy about their station. “Sitrep?”
“Sir, we’ve jumped some distance from the colonies. Closest is Aerilon at a guess. But navigation is shot to hell, we’re trying to get everything back.”
“Any idea what caused the jump? The CNP is a network protocol, it doesn’t actually instruct any local system”
Another technician stepped up to Quinn - Lambert he thought his name was. “We’re still checking but it looks like a virus entered the system when the CNP was launched.”
Quinn picked up the phone. “Get me the Master at Arms.”
* * *
It didn’t take long for Quinn to track down who was responsible. He entered the room and looked through the thick bulletproof glass of the cell. A man sat by the solitary table, swamped by two marines armed with rifles.
“Who is he?” asked Quinn to Grendel, the Master at Arms.
“He says his name is Simon, one of the engineers working in the drive room.”
“Did he put up a fight?”
“No, that’s just it, he surrendered to us.”
Quinn waited for a moment, then stepped through to the cell. Simon looked up, the light showing the sweat that was coming down his dark skin.
“Simon, was it? I’m Colonel Quinn. I understand you sabotaged my ship.”
Simon shook his head. “Saved it.”
“What?”
“From the holocaust. You’re one of the lucky ones. I couldn’t go through with it.”
Quinn stepped up to the man. “Go through with what?”
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the Cylons for the last forty years? No one has seen them, heard from them. You don’t even know what they... look like”.
Those last words worried Quinn, but he let a growing and increasingly sickening thought in the back of his mind stay there for now. “Who are you?”
“I’m Number Four. I was created 25 years ago.” He stared straight into Quinn’ eyes. “I’m a Cylon”
Quinn allowed himself a smile. Instead of metallic ornaments in his bed, he was being joked on with morons. He half expected that overweight stripper Nellis had surprised him with on Picon last year to come bursting through the door. “A Cylon?”
“Yes, and had you stayed at Fairlight station, you would die too.”
“That’s not funny”
“It wasn’t meant to be”. Simon sat forward. The restraints holding his hands became visible from under the table. Quinn felt it unnecessary but then again, if he was a Cylon he’d rather have him shackled.
“Look” Simon began, “I spent three long years hiding in the fleet, moving from ship to ship, learning ways to destroy the various models of Battlestars. Then last year that scientist, Baltar, gave us the means to our goal.”
“You mean the CNP?”
“It has a backdoor. Far easy to exploit, too.”
“I can’t believe Baltar would miss that”
“He didn’t, but his assistant made sure it would be in place. She can be very persuasive”
Quinn studied him. “If you are who you say you are... why the change of heart?”
Simon lowered his head. “I’ve grown attached to humans. I feel the plan is wrong. We shouldn’t be destroying humanity, we should be embracing it.”
The hairs on the back of Quinn’ neck stood up. Until now he thought, assuming this Simon was telling the truth, that any war the Cylons had would be directed at the Colonial military. But now he started to worry about the colonies.
Forty years. That time had show the colonies grow considerably in terms of military strength. But if the Colonials had grown that much, then the Cylons...
Quinn left the room, but shouted orders to the guards. “He stays put, no one enters, and for Frak’s sake keep him alive”
* * *
The bright sunlight overhead dazzled Bragen as he drove up to the park near the wharf. He looked out the window down to the business district in the city of Loki, one of Leonis’ most profitable areas.
Not that it gave him any benefits. His sunglasses were scratched after years of mistreatment, and finally conceded his wife was right; he needed a new pair. That would mean spending money. He turned the car off and turned to his left. Marie was still engrossed in her magazine. Bragen resisted the urge for sarcasm, but he couldn’t help it.
“Nice that we had this long conversation on the way over. Good thing we did cos I’m going away for such a long time.”
Marie closed the magazine quickly it made a slapping noise. The little girl in the carseat behind them stirred as she slept.
“I didn’t ask for you to do this” Marie began. “You could’ve taken lots of other jobs closer to home.”
“We discussed this” Bragen replied, remembering how often he’d said those three words over the past month. “We need the money. This job gives us the most in the fastest time.”
“But three months Bragen... you’ll miss Tara’s first words, her first steps...”
Bragen opened the door and stepped out. He opened the hatch at the back and pulled his big dufflebag out. Marie was already going round the car to the driver’s door. Bragen looked at her.
“What, you’re not even gonna come see me off?”
“Look in the back seat.” Marie indicated, “Tara’s still asleep, you know how grumpy she gets if you wake her from a nap.”
Bragen thought for a moment then slammed the hatch down, a little harder than he should’ve. A small whimper was heard from the back seat. Marie gave Bragen a pissed off look. Bragen just smiled.
Ten minutes later they were walking along the pier, the large shape of the cold storage vessel DeepFreeze was parked in its berth beside them. Tara was in Bragen’s arms, laughing at the birds circling overhead. Up ahead, other family members were saying goodbye to crewmembers boarding the ship. The sun was really hot today.
“How’s the head?” Marie asked, not taking her eyes off the pier.
“Let it go, I’m fine”.
“Dan-“
“Don’t do this Marie, not today. I’ve got enough meds to help me through the time away.”
Bragen knew Marie would bring this up until he was blue in the face. It was her way of reminding him he can’t run from the past. She was good about it, but at times it got annoying. Being ‘protective’ she called it.
They stopped at the ramp for No. 2 pier. No one was on it. “Workman’s entrance?” Marie said with a small smile.
“Yep. OK pumpkin, daddy will see you in three months. Be good to mummy ok?” Tara smiled.
“Dad”.
Marie and Bragen both stared at Tara, who was grinning at them. “Did she just-”
“Yes I think so...” Marie took Tara from Bragen, and he put his arm around them both.
“You’re my ladies. Remember that. It won’t be that long I promise”
Marie kissed him and he turned, walking up the plank backwards, waving like an idiot to Tara, who was laughing at him. When he reached the door he turned and put his bag down just inside the airlock.
Immediately he knew something was wrong. People were moving frantically in the corridor inside the ship. A yellow klaxon was on, but he knew they were still an hour from launch. Outside, a commotion had started at No. 1 pier, with people rushing into the ship, some falling off the ramp onto the hard concrete below.
“What the frak...?”
Then someone in the crowd yelled out. He was holding a wireless radio.
“The Cylons are coming!!”
All at once Bragen knew what he had to do. He yelled out to Marie, who had started to walk back to the car.
“Marie!! Get back here now!!”
Marie turned and looked at him. “What?” She could barely hear him.
“Get on the frakking ship!”
Marie looked confused. “What? Why? Look, I’ll go get her bottle first” She turned back towards the car.
Bragen screamed at her. “IF YOU DON’T GET ON THE SHIP NOW YOU’RE GONNA DIE!”
Marie turned back, white as a sheet. Suddenly a building in the business district a few miles away caught their attention. Makatoshi Plaza, one of the largest in the city, seemed to shattered as fire and debris rained from the upper floors. Then two more buildings were destroyed.
Marie held onto Tara and ran for the ramp. Bragen held the door, which he could now feel was starting to close on automatics. Below his feet, he could feel the vibrations of the drive engines powering up.
“Hurry!”
Marie had reached the bottom of the ramp. Only a few more seconds. Above them, an inhuman whining noise could be heard, and bat-like aircraft filled the skies above the city. More buildings exploded and were burning.
An alarm went off beside Bragen. Emergency override. The hatch suddenly pushed with all its hydraulic might, forcing him back inside as it slammed shut.
“No! NOOOO!”
Outside, the small ship hummed, then a flash of light erupted in the space the DeepFreeze occupied, and FTL’d away. The shockwave blew Marie off the ramp, and back thirty feet onto the loading area. She rolled around, clutching at the broken leg. All around people were running, bleeding, dying. People were yelling but she couldn’t hear anything. The shockwave had shattered her eardrums, instantly making her deaf. Blood poured out of her ears, and her vision was blurry.
In the skies the bat-like aircraft were gone, which worried her. Then she came to her senses. She looked around, scanning the area for any sign of her target – then she saw the purple.
Tara’s purple dress. She was lying face down. A pool of blood surrounded her.
Marie tried to crawl over but found both her legs now wouldn’t work. She tried to call out, but nothing happened. She lay on her back and looked up. The last image she ever saw was the warhead heading right for her, the firery red tip ready to take her into the arms of the Gods.
* * *
-----------------------------------------
Episode 1 – WAR DAWN
-----------------------------------------
A blank starfield is disrupted by a flash of pure energy, and where moments ago there had been airless void now lay a small brown ship, only a few metres long. Through the darkness, voices sprang out on invisible threads.
“Fairlight Station, this is Raptor 253, requesting approach confirmation”
“Copy Raptor 253, you are cleared to proceed. Neptune is waiting at berth 5.”
“Roger”
Raptor 253 passed above the blue globe of Sagitarron, and headed towards the massive 30 kilometre wide space station orbiting high above the northern hemisphere.
Inside the Raptor, Colonel Quinn moved to the vacant front seat, sitting beside his pilot for the trip.
“What do you think, Parker?”
“Sir I think it’s a step backwards”
Quinn was slightly amazed. “Really? Fast words coming from a recently promoted lieutenant”
Suddenly Parker couldn’t help but trip over his words. “Sorry sir, but I just feel this ship isn’t the best step for... well I think maybe... “
Quinn laughed. “It’s ok lieutenant, I’m not gonna get angry. I actually like what Admiral Nellis has done. Not many Admirals would chose an old ship over a new one”
“THAT was my point sir. I mean the Neptune’s a good ship but she’s no Atlantia”
Quinn nodded. “I have to agree with you there.”
Parker tried to inject more life into the conversation. “Sir, don’t you think Fairlight... well, it’s a bizarre place for a refit.”
Quinn sat back in his chair. Fairlight was now looming large in the window and various ships, both old and new, flew between the spider-like tendrils of the station’s docking arms. Generally regarded as a wrecker’s yard for ships past their prime, it was often used by the Colonial military for raiding spare parts.
“On the contrary I think it’s the perfect place, although only in the context of the Neptune. If you had a fifty year old battlestar, where else would you look for replacement components”
“True sir.” Parker took the Raptor into a dive, taking them between two docking arms, one containing a new Mercury class, the other a twenty year old Magellan class freighter in the midst of being disassembled.
“Sir... how long will you be staying with us?”
This raised an eyebrow. “Hmm?”
“Well, a few of the knuckle draggers heard you got a promotion to the Triton”
“I turned it down. I felt I still had more to offer the Admiral. Besides, plenty of time for promotions in the navy later on.”
That was the end of the conversation as far as Quinn was concerned. He knew of the men talking behind his back, but didn’t mind. It was true, he had avoid promotion three times already. Commanding officer of the Triton was appealing, but he wanted more time. One day he thought, he’d get his own ship.
Just not today.
The Raptor cleared the central hub of Fairlight station and headed for the outermost docking pylon. That’s when they made their first visual sighting of the Neptune. Same vintage as the Battlestar Galactica, but where the navy had opted to convert that ship into a museum, Nellis had convinced top brass to allow his ship – the first he served on all those years ago – to undergo probably the most radical redesign a ship of her class had ever done. Quinn sat forward to get a better view.
Outside, the Battlestar Neptune looked nothing like her old rusting self. Her ribs were virtually all covered up, replaced with a strong – albeit considered largely unnecessary – triple hull plating. Her flight pods were now permanently fixed, and no longer needed to retract when she jumped. The two arms holding the pods had been replaced by three stronger, thicker and more rigid arms, which if anything else according to Nellis would allow the design to match the rest of the Colonial fleet. Underneath, two further arms came up from the lower hull and attached to the bottom of the flight pods, further giving the ship more strength. The cavity in the main hull that would normally accept the flight pods when they retracted was now filled in, giving the ship a much larger crew and/or emergency capacity. Quinn noticed the small worker drones applying the last of the paintjob to the new hull. The green of the new signiant paintwork matched the colour that prominently featured on Canceron’s Colonial Flag; the Admiral’s home colony.
“Not bad” Parker muttered to himself, as he looped the Raptor into a low arc, and brought the ship to rest in the Starboard flight pod.
* * *
Quinn was finding his way to the CIC easily enough. He had been aboard one of these ship’s before moving to the Solaria. The redesign has made much of the interior of the ship very modern. The arching corridors and architecture of 50 years ago had been replaced by the newer hexagonal design that featured so prominently in a Mercury class vessel. Surprisingly he felt a little sad. The ship looked like it should on the outside, but the interior had changed. He had hoped the CIC hadn’t suffered the same fate as the corridors.
He was wrong. He walked past the glass panelled doors that rotated as he entered, and saw a small and functional CIC, just like the Solaria.
“Officer on deck!”
A young cadet beside him had yelled, and instantly everyone in the room stood to attention.
“As you were” Quinn said, walking up to the combat table, everyone else going back to their duties. He looked around the room. “Where’s the Admiral?”
The cadet moved forward, even though the question wasn’t directed at him. “Still on Picon sir. He said he’ll meet us at Canceron.”
“Good, cadet...?”
“Resno sir”
“First assignment?”
“Yes sir.” He allowed himself a small smile.
“Good. Remember it well. It only happens once.” Resno nodded. “What’s our status?”
“Only half the crew are on board sir, maybe 1200 or so. The rest we pick up at Canceron. In terms of hardware we’re fully loaded with Raptors but only have a single squadron of 20 birds, again the rest we get at Canceron. Just waiting on the Tylium supply from Fairlight and we’ll be ready for test runs. Oh and we’ve got a full stock of munitions too.”
Quinn starred at him. “So what’s the delay?”
The cadet was nervous, but did a good job of hiding it. “Something about paperwork sir... er... the Admiral didn’t fill something out-“
Quinn let out a laugh, which distracted other crewmembers in CIC. “Yeah, that’s Johnathan for you. The Admiral’ll order you to do something then working how to do it later. Doesn’t surprise me in the least we don’t have fuel. Anything else”
“Yes sir, we’re doing a test of the CNP system in about 20 minutes.”
* * *
Quinn settled into his quarters, laying on his bed for the first time. Hard, he thought. Quinn stood up and checked the mattress. It was as textually smooth as regulations would allow. He smiled to himself. His first week on the Solaria was painful as well, but then he found out a practical joke had been played on him. He found small metallic ornaments had been shoved just inside the lining, giving him sleepless nights. This time though, it was just the mattress to blame.
Quinn was crossing to his dresser to put his clothes away when he felt the room shimmer. He instantly knew what it was. He crossed to the phone and got CIC.
“Did we just jump?”
Cadet Resno was on the other end. “Aye sir, we brought the CNP system up but it activated the FTL and before we could shut it down we jumped away.”
Quinn was worried. That kind of FTL displacement shockwave at close quarters could easily have caused considerable damage to the station and surrounding ships. “I’m on my way”
* * *
Quinn entered CIC to see everyone busy about their station. “Sitrep?”
“Sir, we’ve jumped some distance from the colonies. Closest is Aerilon at a guess. But navigation is shot to hell, we’re trying to get everything back.”
“Any idea what caused the jump? The CNP is a network protocol, it doesn’t actually instruct any local system”
Another technician stepped up to Quinn - Lambert he thought his name was. “We’re still checking but it looks like a virus entered the system when the CNP was launched.”
Quinn picked up the phone. “Get me the Master at Arms.”
* * *
It didn’t take long for Quinn to track down who was responsible. He entered the room and looked through the thick bulletproof glass of the cell. A man sat by the solitary table, swamped by two marines armed with rifles.
“Who is he?” asked Quinn to Grendel, the Master at Arms.
“He says his name is Simon, one of the engineers working in the drive room.”
“Did he put up a fight?”
“No, that’s just it, he surrendered to us.”
Quinn waited for a moment, then stepped through to the cell. Simon looked up, the light showing the sweat that was coming down his dark skin.
“Simon, was it? I’m Colonel Quinn. I understand you sabotaged my ship.”
Simon shook his head. “Saved it.”
“What?”
“From the holocaust. You’re one of the lucky ones. I couldn’t go through with it.”
Quinn stepped up to the man. “Go through with what?”
“Have you ever wondered what happened to the Cylons for the last forty years? No one has seen them, heard from them. You don’t even know what they... look like”.
Those last words worried Quinn, but he let a growing and increasingly sickening thought in the back of his mind stay there for now. “Who are you?”
“I’m Number Four. I was created 25 years ago.” He stared straight into Quinn’ eyes. “I’m a Cylon”
Quinn allowed himself a smile. Instead of metallic ornaments in his bed, he was being joked on with morons. He half expected that overweight stripper Nellis had surprised him with on Picon last year to come bursting through the door. “A Cylon?”
“Yes, and had you stayed at Fairlight station, you would die too.”
“That’s not funny”
“It wasn’t meant to be”. Simon sat forward. The restraints holding his hands became visible from under the table. Quinn felt it unnecessary but then again, if he was a Cylon he’d rather have him shackled.
“Look” Simon began, “I spent three long years hiding in the fleet, moving from ship to ship, learning ways to destroy the various models of Battlestars. Then last year that scientist, Baltar, gave us the means to our goal.”
“You mean the CNP?”
“It has a backdoor. Far easy to exploit, too.”
“I can’t believe Baltar would miss that”
“He didn’t, but his assistant made sure it would be in place. She can be very persuasive”
Quinn studied him. “If you are who you say you are... why the change of heart?”
Simon lowered his head. “I’ve grown attached to humans. I feel the plan is wrong. We shouldn’t be destroying humanity, we should be embracing it.”
The hairs on the back of Quinn’ neck stood up. Until now he thought, assuming this Simon was telling the truth, that any war the Cylons had would be directed at the Colonial military. But now he started to worry about the colonies.
Forty years. That time had show the colonies grow considerably in terms of military strength. But if the Colonials had grown that much, then the Cylons...
Quinn left the room, but shouted orders to the guards. “He stays put, no one enters, and for Frak’s sake keep him alive”
* * *
The bright sunlight overhead dazzled Bragen as he drove up to the park near the wharf. He looked out the window down to the business district in the city of Loki, one of Leonis’ most profitable areas.
Not that it gave him any benefits. His sunglasses were scratched after years of mistreatment, and finally conceded his wife was right; he needed a new pair. That would mean spending money. He turned the car off and turned to his left. Marie was still engrossed in her magazine. Bragen resisted the urge for sarcasm, but he couldn’t help it.
“Nice that we had this long conversation on the way over. Good thing we did cos I’m going away for such a long time.”
Marie closed the magazine quickly it made a slapping noise. The little girl in the carseat behind them stirred as she slept.
“I didn’t ask for you to do this” Marie began. “You could’ve taken lots of other jobs closer to home.”
“We discussed this” Bragen replied, remembering how often he’d said those three words over the past month. “We need the money. This job gives us the most in the fastest time.”
“But three months Bragen... you’ll miss Tara’s first words, her first steps...”
Bragen opened the door and stepped out. He opened the hatch at the back and pulled his big dufflebag out. Marie was already going round the car to the driver’s door. Bragen looked at her.
“What, you’re not even gonna come see me off?”
“Look in the back seat.” Marie indicated, “Tara’s still asleep, you know how grumpy she gets if you wake her from a nap.”
Bragen thought for a moment then slammed the hatch down, a little harder than he should’ve. A small whimper was heard from the back seat. Marie gave Bragen a pissed off look. Bragen just smiled.
Ten minutes later they were walking along the pier, the large shape of the cold storage vessel DeepFreeze was parked in its berth beside them. Tara was in Bragen’s arms, laughing at the birds circling overhead. Up ahead, other family members were saying goodbye to crewmembers boarding the ship. The sun was really hot today.
“How’s the head?” Marie asked, not taking her eyes off the pier.
“Let it go, I’m fine”.
“Dan-“
“Don’t do this Marie, not today. I’ve got enough meds to help me through the time away.”
Bragen knew Marie would bring this up until he was blue in the face. It was her way of reminding him he can’t run from the past. She was good about it, but at times it got annoying. Being ‘protective’ she called it.
They stopped at the ramp for No. 2 pier. No one was on it. “Workman’s entrance?” Marie said with a small smile.
“Yep. OK pumpkin, daddy will see you in three months. Be good to mummy ok?” Tara smiled.
“Dad”.
Marie and Bragen both stared at Tara, who was grinning at them. “Did she just-”
“Yes I think so...” Marie took Tara from Bragen, and he put his arm around them both.
“You’re my ladies. Remember that. It won’t be that long I promise”
Marie kissed him and he turned, walking up the plank backwards, waving like an idiot to Tara, who was laughing at him. When he reached the door he turned and put his bag down just inside the airlock.
Immediately he knew something was wrong. People were moving frantically in the corridor inside the ship. A yellow klaxon was on, but he knew they were still an hour from launch. Outside, a commotion had started at No. 1 pier, with people rushing into the ship, some falling off the ramp onto the hard concrete below.
“What the frak...?”
Then someone in the crowd yelled out. He was holding a wireless radio.
“The Cylons are coming!!”
All at once Bragen knew what he had to do. He yelled out to Marie, who had started to walk back to the car.
“Marie!! Get back here now!!”
Marie turned and looked at him. “What?” She could barely hear him.
“Get on the frakking ship!”
Marie looked confused. “What? Why? Look, I’ll go get her bottle first” She turned back towards the car.
Bragen screamed at her. “IF YOU DON’T GET ON THE SHIP NOW YOU’RE GONNA DIE!”
Marie turned back, white as a sheet. Suddenly a building in the business district a few miles away caught their attention. Makatoshi Plaza, one of the largest in the city, seemed to shattered as fire and debris rained from the upper floors. Then two more buildings were destroyed.
Marie held onto Tara and ran for the ramp. Bragen held the door, which he could now feel was starting to close on automatics. Below his feet, he could feel the vibrations of the drive engines powering up.
“Hurry!”
Marie had reached the bottom of the ramp. Only a few more seconds. Above them, an inhuman whining noise could be heard, and bat-like aircraft filled the skies above the city. More buildings exploded and were burning.
An alarm went off beside Bragen. Emergency override. The hatch suddenly pushed with all its hydraulic might, forcing him back inside as it slammed shut.
“No! NOOOO!”
Outside, the small ship hummed, then a flash of light erupted in the space the DeepFreeze occupied, and FTL’d away. The shockwave blew Marie off the ramp, and back thirty feet onto the loading area. She rolled around, clutching at the broken leg. All around people were running, bleeding, dying. People were yelling but she couldn’t hear anything. The shockwave had shattered her eardrums, instantly making her deaf. Blood poured out of her ears, and her vision was blurry.
In the skies the bat-like aircraft were gone, which worried her. Then she came to her senses. She looked around, scanning the area for any sign of her target – then she saw the purple.
Tara’s purple dress. She was lying face down. A pool of blood surrounded her.
Marie tried to crawl over but found both her legs now wouldn’t work. She tried to call out, but nothing happened. She lay on her back and looked up. The last image she ever saw was the warhead heading right for her, the firery red tip ready to take her into the arms of the Gods.
* * *
