startrek76

There was jubilation in Core Control on the Battlestar Galactica.

"Did you see that?" Tigh asked Adama who was sitting in the Galactica's command chair studying the tactical readouts from the sensors.

"The last basestars ... I was looking at the sensor screen when it's icon just vanished. Well, never mind, I'm positive IFN got it on 3D - it was spectacular! The larger alien ship -- Enterprise -- had been firing their
phased energy weapon at the basestar, one beam after the other, wham! wham! Wham! The gunner must have concentrated on a single section on the command core and punched right through to the solium reactors."

Adama grinned at his Executive Officer. "Calm down 'cadet'Tigh," Adama teased his friend. "We've seen basestars destroyed before."

"Ohhhh, but not like this ... it was sweet!"

"Commander Adama, Commander Cain of the Pegasus is making contact." Athena said turning from her communications and sensor panel. The main screen showed the last vestiges of Cylon jamming; the image was in black and white and
interspersed with a liberal amount of "snow".

"That's two down and one to go, Adama. I TOLD you we'd bag three of them today! The third basestar is badly damaged and trying to disengage from the alien and withdraw. Two thirds of Silver Spar Squadron is refueled and rearmed. They want ... HELL! I want ... to chase down that last basestar."

Adama was in a truly relaxed mood, it had been a yahren since he felt this good.

"Would you even obey an order not to pursue the basestar?"

"What's that Adama? Cylon jamming has picked up a lot on this end. Say again all after 'would'..."

What a transparent ruse. Cain was even smiling openly, well it was not as though he had not used the same dodge on numerous occasions during the war before having to shoulder the responsibilities of the supreme commander.

"All right, Cain. I'll save you the disgrace of a courts martial for disobeying orders under fire...go kill the basestar. Give the alien the first shot at it, they've worked hard for it --but if they fails, finish it."

"Now that's the Adama I remember from the battle of Cor'ul-vahta Nebula," Cain said and the screen returned to forward scan mode.

"Omega," Adam sighed, "Bring the Galactica to full stop and prepare to recover Vipers."

"It shall be done," Omega said - his hands moving swiftly and expertly over the banked helm and maneuvering controls in front of him. Slowly, ponderously the six and a half million tons of Colonial Battlestar arrested its
forward momentum and stopped dead in space to give its landing bay ILS systems a stable "horizon" to broadcast to the tiny Viper flight computers allowing nearly automatic landings of the Viper fighters, a big plus when there might be a wounded or dead pilot aboard a fighter.

Adama leaned back in the command chair and striated his long legs out in front. It was good to be alive after battle with a totally evil foe. On the armrest of his command chair a tiny LED winked in rhythm to a low volume
beeping from his private comm-line. He punched the accept transmission button and a small 9 inch screen on the armrest illuminated with the image of a small brown haired boy badly in need of a hair cut.

"Grandpa, is my dad back yet?"

"Not yet, Boxey. But he's okay, so are the Starbucks and the others. We took very light causalities today because of the intervention by the aliens."

"Whew," the eleven-yarhen-old boy let out a gusty sigh of relief. This had become a ritual after each mission. Boxey would wait until the "all-clear" had sounded, and then called Core Control to check on the status of his adopted father, Squadron Captain Apollo, Adama's son. So far neither of them had gotten bad news for which Adama daily thanked the Lords of Kobal and the All-High.

"When will he be home?" the boy asked.

"I don't know exactly. You probably heard on IFN that the beta flight bay is closed because of a large solium fire. He might have to land on the Pegasus tonight and then shuttle his Viper across tomorrow..."

"Oh boy!" Boxey shouted. "REMEMBER YOUR PROMISE!"

"Now wait a centon, Boxey..."

The boy had been extremely ill with a fever three months ago and Adama had been willing to even deal with Count Iblis if it would save Boxey. The boy in a deep fever had extracted a promise that he could "ride along" the
next time Apollo's Viper had a fleet shuttling operation, either to the Maintenance barge, or between Battlestars as now. Adama had expected Boxey would remember none of it. He'd been dead wrong of course and Boxey remembered every word. Twice before Apollo, Cassiopeia and he had combined to throw auxiliary requirements into the deal which had stopped him, but he'd dutifully met all of these and Adama could see from the set of his jawline that the 11-yarhen-old would not be put off this time. Besides with three Cylon basestars destroyed in a single day there would
be no Cylon menace for months to come. Adama found himself reluctantly agreeing that if ever this was to happen, now was the right time.

"You P-R-O-M-I-S-E-D !" the boy repeated.

Rubbing his chin, Adama smiled widely at Boxey. "Yes, I did. If you can get your Dad to agree and get Cassiopeia to take you over, I can see no reason to delay this any more..."

"YEEHAH!" Boxey shouted at the top of his lungs. "I've gotta go find Cassiopeia so I can tell her." The screen darkened.

Adama knew Cassiopeia would also try to persuade Boxey to put off this "mission" ... he wished her more luck than he'd had.

"Commander Adama, the commander of the Enterprise is making contact." Athena said. "The alien vessel is maneuvering to within 40 kilocubits of us.

Adama quickly sat up strait and attempted to look like the supreme commander of the Colonial Military and member of the Council of Twelve. The main viewer showed the Core Command sector of the alien vessel and its rather sparse crew.

Adama's command center was large to be sure, but it was close and crowded with the instrumentation of the battlestar's command, control and communications systems and required a crew of 17 to run it efficiently; the
Enterprise's Core Command was open and airy, its relatively low density of instrumentation hinted at a fantastic level of cybernetic control; only six of the humanoid crew were visible.

"Admiral Adama," the bald alien smiled widely, "I am Captain Jean Luc Picard, of the United Federation of Planets starship U.S.S. Enterprise. We had an opportunity to meet briefly a few hours ago, and now I really would like to sit down with you and ask about a thousand questions."

"I feel the same way, Captain. And my rank is Commander, I've never been officially confirmed as an Admiral."

"'Admiral' is the term we use to refer to a fleet commander, and in that you certainly qualify. I've had a chance to briefly scan the data that you sent on your conflict with the Cylons. In that you mention that you are searching for a lost thirteenth tribe of your people who settled on a planet called 'Earth'?"

"Yes, that is correct. We've been following this course for five yarhens as it is suppose to lead to Earth."

"Well, I can't speak to the possibility of any '13th Tribe', but I come from a planet who's name is Earth, so do the majority of my crew."

"Praise the Lords of Kobal. We've finally found you. Thousands of yarhens ago your people were the 13th Tribe. It appears you've forgotten your heritage -- but we can remedy that."

"Commander, I'd like to invite you and your senior officers, especially the senior pilots of your fighter squadron, to dinner on the Enterprise. I'd like for them to brief our tactical people on the tactics you normally use against
these Cylons."

"That's very kind of you, we accept. My pilots are still flying, we had a serious fire in one of our landing bays. With your permission, I'll instruct my three top pilots to rendezvous with your ship -- you do have some kind of
landing bay, don't you?"

"Yes, the Enterprise has a hangar deck, we can accommodate three of your Vipers easily."

"And the rest of my staff and I will take a shuttle across."

"Well, if you'll permit one of my engineering crews to come aboard I think we can dispense with the shuttle."

Adama frowned, confused, "I'm sorry, Captain, I don't know what you mean."

"The reason that our ship has so few shuttles is that our main mode of transportation between surface and orbit or between vessels is via transmat."

"Transmat?"

"Yes, its a form of transport similar to teleportation. It will involve one of my engineering crews setting up a portable transmat link on your ship. Then passing between our vessels will be as simple as walking through a door."

"Wheweeee," Adama whistled "Your technical achievements certainly have surpassed ours..."

"May I send the engineering crew onboard one of our shuttles?"

"Uh...Yes, yes, of course. Please use the starboard landing bay."