startrek76

Footsteps approached the open door of the transmat alcove and the boys dashed back into the cover behind some bushes where they could still see the transmat portal. Wes could hardly sit still as more trolleys were lined up. A pair of technicians emerged from the Enterprise side and reached for the trolleys close to where Wesley had been. The other reached for the crates. The boys used the
rattling as cover for their frantic scramble for cover. Another pair of technicians entered from the Galactica side, making the room far too crowded for comfort. The boys used the added distraction to dash from consealment and head down the open corridor. They assumed a casual pace among the few
others out at the unusual hour. It was not unheard of to see children in the axial core at evening time, so they were not stopped as they might have been if they'd been about during school hours, or after ship-dark. Wesley was like a tourist, rubber necking as they passed groups of people. It was absolutely amazing how human the Kobalites looked, and it was entirely fascinating to know that
these humans claimed to be related to his own Earth-born branch. The divergence must have happened in Earth-human prehistory.

As the boys walked through a spacious arboretum, that Boxey called the Core, Wesley observed the
striking similarity between the plants there and some of those which were currently thriving in
Enterprise's counterpart. These too, had more than one plausible explanation, but the one the adults were whispering about seemed to gain potential.

Boxey led him across the over one hundred meter wide expanse of the huge battlestar's Life Support forest and through an unmarked blast door into the bowels of the Galactica. A medtech passed them as they entered the three meter wide corridor, and eyed Wesley's clothing muttering a curse under her breath at the insensible choices the youth had made when dressing himself.

Forgetting himself, Wesley met the woman's gaze and she blushed, knowing he'd heard what she'd said. Likewise, Wesley reminded himself, this was NOT his ship, and he would do well to keep his thirst for attention under control. His trip would be cut severely short and with worse consequences than a sour look if he wasn't more careful. It was definitely clear that his playsuit was substantially
different from anything Boxey was wearing, and didn't seem to have any hint of Galactica origin, despite what Wesley had originally thought. Perhaps it was better to be seen as an impudent teenager for the time being?

Wesley sighed and resigned himself to the misbegotten designation and focused his attention on the ship, not her passengers. And this was a fabulous ship. The technology was unlike that of any other culture Wesley had studied or personally explored, it was almost gothic in the maze of pipes and conduits lining the ceilings and even the walls of most corridors. On Enterprise, the conduits of
the ODN and the pipes of the fluidic network were all hidden behind the smooth photoplastic of the hall that gave the ship its interior luminance. Chief O'Brian and the maintenance crews would love Galactica -- no scrunching into tiny crawl ways or jefferies tubes to reach a defective EPS or
ODN node.

"I'll take you to our landing bays!" Boxey paused, "Well, Beta is closed...It'll have to be Alpha, but there's no difference really, except that my adoptive father's viper lands on Beta."

"Your father pilots a Viper?" Wesley breathed. "I watched them against the Cylon pilots. They were amazing! I'd love to try some of those moves in the simulator, but the program doesn't allow it. Wow!"

Boxey paused, "Hey! You know? If we did go to Beta, we'd be able to see a few things... and there might be less security since it's closed..." The boy puzzled it out. "And I know just how to do it!" He tucked Muffet under his arm, "C'mon Wesley! We won't be able to stay long, but it'll be nuclear, I promise!"

The boys squeezed through a service conduit barely wide enough to slide through sideways -- if they didn't inhale while they moved. It opened into a space large enough for them to stand together. The clear-sealed slit windows were smeared with fire-control solution, but it had solidified into an opaque shell over the outside surface.

"Perfect! The fire-out is airtight, so we don't have to worry about exposure."

He tapped on the wall and the coating fractured and fell away from the slits like dust off an abandoned Bajoran artifact. Wesley was surprised to see the landing bay was in such good condition.
There were crews cleaning the walls and deck with something akin to a giant vacuum cleaner. The hoses snaked around the stowed shuttles and vipers, making the place look more like a living spider web wrapped around robotic bugs. Wesley silently chided his imaginative analysis.

The shuttles could probably carry fifty people apiece, Wesley thought, though they seemed deceptively small. Perhaps a hundred people could fit into the largest in a crunch. The Vipers, though...

Those were...

"Cool!" Wesley studied the closest one centimeter by centimeter, not leaving any tile unmeasured. "Your father flies that?" he asked with awe.

"Yup!" Boxey bounced on his toes, "He's the best pilot we have. I'm going to be on the ride-along when he brings his Viper back, tomorrow, too. My grandpa promised. I'm not sure how I'm going to do it now that he's on Enterprise, but I AM going to do it!"

Wesley caught the determination in his voice and admired it. It was clear from the awe in his voice that Boxey had worked awhile to earn this ride-along.

Indeed, Wesley had to twist more than a few arms for his first shuttle ride, but a fully armored and battle-ready Viper? Cool!

Smoke stained and dirty as it was, the Viper was far more than Wesley had hoped to glimpse on his covert visit to the battleship. He did take a moment to study the launch tubes and their miniaturized mass driver systems as well as the general layout of the bay, which was looking less like it had just been burning with every second they stared through their peepholes. Wesley
glanced around him, "What is this closet for, anyway?"

Boxey smiled, and pointed to the hooks hanging from the wall beside them. "This is where they keep the hoses for general maintenance." He gestured to the workers, "The ones they're using out there. Since they'd have closed the hatch behind them, I thought it was the perfect place to get a good
view. We'd see them coming, easy."

Boxey headed back through the narrow entryway, "This is on the blueprints in the library." He stopped talking to stuff himself through, then continued "I know other's have found it, but I've never been caught and none of my friends have mentioned it, either." He shrugged, "Guess I won't have to remember to search here for my own sons someday, since we've found you." He smiled
broadly, "Then again, we won't have to worry so much about the Cylons, either! I'll take that trade for certain!"

Wesley glanced at his chrono. "Whew! I'd better be getting back! I told my mother I'd be in engineering with Lieutenant Broccoli!"

Boxey grimaced, "Lieutenant what?"

Wesley laughed, "It's Barkley, really, but he's a little... shy. I shouldn't call him that, really. He's a great guy, and very smart. He helped me with my science project last term. I got an 'A'!"

Boxey frowned, "You have school, too." He sighed, "Too good to be true, wishing for no more school." The sly smile belied his true affinity it despite the resistance he put up.

Wesley nodded, "I know what you mean. It's my guess that every kid in the galaxy feels the same way." Glancing back toward the Beta Launch Bay, he continued "Now, if school was a more hands-on kinda thing ..."

Boxey raised his hand in a high-five gesture, faltered, then laughed as Wesley returned it. "We do have a lot in common."

Wesley led the way back to the transmat room, with Boxey's approving support. It was not often that he met someone with whom he could have such an easy camaraderie. Being Adama's grandson was hard enough, but being so smart too? It was one of the reasons he'd been so lazy at his schoolwork.
Nothing at school was actually hard, but by getting just passing grades, he fit in more with his
peers. The Viper trip had been a strong enough motivation, but it had cost him with his friends, who teased him about being favored in the first place. Now that he was making top marks and excelling far past his own expectations, he had no shelter from the accusations of favoritism and of being a
smart-ass from his classmates.

An idea occurred to Wesley as they entered the currently unoccupied transmat room. "You wanna come back with me? I hear the dinner will be at 2000 hours." He looked down, "My chrono says that's an hour from now. You could come over after the dinner starts, and I could show you around while the
grown-ups are eating. With luck, ALL the senior staff will be there and we'll only have to duck those unlucky enough to be on shift."

To Be Continued