Disclaimers:  'Battlestar Galactica', Adama, Tigh, Starbuck. Apollo, Cassiopeia and the others are owned by Universal City Studios, USA.  Jason, Bri, Aaron and Cronus are mine.

The Emperor

By

AJ Marks

Apollo and Starbuck walked down the short hallway to the ready room to begin their patrol. Their wing mates were already in the room and they both were hoping that things went smoothly. They knew the wing mates that they would have, Aaron and Jason. The two were promising recruits and they reminded Starbuck of him and Apollo when they were going through training.

Aaron was a cool calm person who took things rationally while Jason was the more loose cannon of the group. Cronus was also part of the group and reminded them of Boomer. He would get dragged along in whatever scheme Jason thought up.

Starbuck went and sat down while Colonel Zikku began the patrol briefing. They were to scout on ahead of the fleet to see what they might be encountering. They had not seen any of the Eastern Alliance lately and wondered if they were now beyond their boarders.

"Hello Starbuck, Apollo," Zikku said as the two pilots sat down. He would be able to begin the briefing. "I am pairing you up with each other, Starbuck with Aaron and Jason with Apollo."

Apollo figured that was how they would be paired. They did not want to pair Starbuck up with Jason as to hotshots would not be good news. A combination was always a good idea when it came to the patrols.

"Apollo, you and Jason will be patrolling in sector five a, Starbuck and Aaron will be patrolling sector six b," Zikku said while showing them where they would be going. This information was also going to be on board their ships as well.

After the briefing they made their way down the elevators to their vipers. They would be launching from the Agamemnon today and Starbuck would be transferred to the Hyperion until the Galactica made it back when he would be paired up with Apollo again. One thing was they had not changed vipers yet. They still had their same vipers.

The deck crew handed the pilots their helmets after they climbed into the viper and made sure that the canopies sealed properly. They then made sure that the flight information had been properly received by the ship and displayed on their screen. They heard the flight officer giving them permission to launch and seconds later all four had launched.

Starbuck and Apollo took the lead of their patrols and with their respective wing mates headed off to their patrol zone. They only hoped that they would not encounter any trouble.

A couple of centars later Apollo and Jason were continuing on their patrol. So far they had encountered nothing out of the ordinary.

Jason noticed something on his scanner that seemed to be worth investigating. He quickly notified Apollo that there appeared to be some planets that might have life on them. After a quick decision Apollo decided that they would investigate the planet. Flying closer to the planet they paid attention to their scanners to see if there were any signs of an advanced civilization that might inhabit the planet.

They got closer to the planet and still nothing out of the ordinary. Apollo wondered if there were any life signs on the planet. His curiosity was confirmed a minute later when the scanner confirmed human life forms on the planet.

"There are humans inhabiting this planet Jason," Apollo said to his wing mate.

"What's the call captain," Jason asked. He wanted to head to the planet's surface and feel the dirt beneath one's feet and smell the fresh air of a planet once more. He had gotten tired of the recycled air aboard the fleet.

Apollo was about to say no when his scanner indicated that there was an abundant supply of charcoal easily able to mine. A brief struggle within himself as he knew that the fleet could use that to replace the supply they had for the air recyclers. He finally decided that if might help to see I they could mine it with an agreement with the locals.

"Lets head on down and see what the locals are like," Apollo said.

"Yes sir," Jason replied as they headed down to the planet's surface.

The two vipers flew downward through the thick atmosphere down to the surface. Apollo glanced around as they flew through the dark side of the planet to hopefully avoid anyone seeing them come down.

The surrounding surface was full of trees and very little sign of civilization. Just before they landed he saw a group of what appeared to be lights nearby. He would have to head there to see what was going on. He also checked on where the charcoal was. He had already decided that he and Jason would split up. Jason would check out the deposits while he went to check out the locals.

They landed in a small clearing that Apollo hoped no one would notice. But if he had his way they would not be gone too long. Climbing down from his viper he noticed that Jason was doing the same thing. The air seemed to be breathable and looking about Apollo was amazed to see an abundance of life all around them.

"Jason, I'm going to see about a settlement I saw. I need you to check out the deposit of charcoal just a bit that way," Apollo said handing Jason the hand scanner.

Jason nodded his head and took the scanner and walked off in the direction of the charcoal deposit that hey had found. Apollo watched for a second then took off in the opposite direction.

Starbuck and Aaron made their way back to the battlestar Agamemnon to complete their flight. He was looking forward to a relaxing trip back to the battlestar Galactica. It was going to be approaching the fleet in the next couple of centars. He and Cassiopeia would be stationed on board while Aaron would be staying on board the Agamemnon.

Stepping down he noticed that Apollo was not back yet by the fact that his viper was not there. He thought that was a bit strange as his friend should have been back before he got back. He would have to talk with the commander to see what was going on. It was unlike Apollo to get into trouble without him and he did not want to miss anything.

"What's wrong," Aaron asked seeing the look on Starbuck's face.

"Hopefully nothing," Starbuck replied turning to face the younger man. "Apollo and Jason were supposed to be back before we were that all."

"Maybe they encountered something and went to investigate," Jason said reasonably.

"I know, that's just what bothers me," Starbuck said as he headed to the bridge leaving behind a confused Aaron who scrambled to catch up with him.

It was a quiet ride up to the bridge as Starbuck was lost in own thoughts. Aaron did not want to interrupt him on the ride and figured he would find out in a little bit once they reached the bridge. The door opened to reveal little activity which to Starbuck meant that it was a good sign.

"Commander Tigh, what's up," Starbuck asked wondering what was going on. The causal attitude eased him a bit.

"Starbuck, Apollo reported in that he was going to check out a planet that had a high amount of charcoal that we might be able to use," Tigh replied knowing that Starbuck would want to know.

"But nothing else," Starbuck asked.

"Nope, but we are monitoring the situation just in case," Tigh replied.

"Let me know if anything happens," Starbuck said.

"I will," Tigh replied know that Starbuck would be the first person to volunteer in case anything was wrong. Tigh also knew that Starbuck would be the one who would bring Apollo back if anyone could.

Jason walked through the trees heading towards the deposit of charcoal that would help the fleet's air circulators keep the air fresher. It was something that was often overlooked until too late but vitally important to the survival of the fleet, almost as much as the addition of two more battlestars. He just hoped that the charcoal was near the top of the surface.

Glancing down at his scanner he noticed that he was getting closer to the spot. When he was there he would be able to get a better reading and see if it was feasible to mine or not. The surface scans usually told if there was a deposit, his reading would get a better idea of the quality and how easy it would be to mine.

It did not take too long for him to reach the spot. He gathered the reading from several locations of the area to gain a better picture of what was below him so if they came back the miners would have an easier time with their job. He was finally satisfied with the job and the reading indicated that they would be able to mine it easily.

Jason walked back to his viper wondering how long it would take Apollo to finish his task. He hoped that Apollo could strike a deal for some fresh food for the fleet. It would be nice that was for sure. The food on board the fleet was not bad but he did miss a good meal. As he approached the vipers he noticed that Apollo was not yet back yet. Not that it was unusual but he did wonder how long he would have to wait.

There had been no specific timeline as to how long he should have to wait until he went looking for his captain. The one thing that he did know was the general location that Apollo went. He would wait a half centar and Apollo was not back he would head toward the city and find out what happened after leaving a message at his ship for Apollo.

Starbuck walked in on the smaller briefing room on the Agamemnon. Cronus and Boomer were there talking and going over what they had discovered. Since the attack on Commander Adama they had been going over what records had survived from the colonies to see if there was anything unusual in them.

"Find anything," Starbuck said as he sat down across from them. The table was littered with papers and other files as well as two computer screens full of information.

"Not much," Boomer replied looking up from what he was reading. "Cass was in here looking for you."

"Right, she wants to go over some ideas she had for our joining," Starbuck said as he remembered that she had asked him before he left to meet him here.

"We can handle this for a bit longer," Cronus said from where he was sitting. The young man felt honored to be part of such an elite group so quickly. There was a comradely between them that was growing that he could sense was already between the group. The attack on Adama only made it grow quicker.

"Are you sure," Starbuck said not wanting to leave the two of them to go over the information alone.

"We can handle it Starbuck," Boomer replied. "Besides, when Apollo gets back we'll have you two go over this and see if we missed anything."

"Might be a while, he decided to stop and check out a nearby planet. Seems that he picked up something on the scanner and went to investigate it," Starbuck said as he turned around and walked out to find Cassiopeia.

A grumble came from Cronus' stomach announcing that they had missed lunch. They glanced at each other before coming to a mutual agreement.

"Let's go grab something to eat then we can finish up a bit later on," Boomer said.

"What about all of this," Cronus said pointing out all the stuff that was on the table.

"Aaron will look after it," Boomer said pointing to Aaron who had just walked in the room.

"I missed something," Aaron said not sure what it was. He walked in only to have Boomer point at him and say something about watching over something else.

"Great idea," Cronus said with a smile making Aaron even more curious about what was going on.

"What's going on," Aaron finally said as the other two did not seem to be giving out any answers real soon.

"We need you to keep an eye on this while we get something to eat," Boomer said.

"Oh, bring me back something when you go," Aaron said a bit relieved. He was thinking that they had something else in mind for him.

"Deal," Cronus said as they walked out of the room heading for the cafeteria.

Jason was not getting worried about Apollo. He had not shown back up yet and the half centar was now over. Jason quickly walked over to his ship and recorded a message in case Apollo came back. Then he went off towards the village that Apollo was headed to.

There were not many signs that a civilization was nearby making Jason wonder about the technology that the people had. They were either really advanced or primitive people. If they were advanced then they probably already knew that they were there. It would mean they were watching him right now. That was a scary thought.

He approached more cautiously when he saw light coming from in front of him. He knew that he was getting close to the village that Apollo had gone to.

There seemed to be a lot more activity than usual as he could now see torches burning in the night air and a crowd had seemed to gather. He decided to get closer and see if he could find anything out about where Apollo was. He quietly worked his way to where he could finally hear what was going on yet there was still no sigh of Apollo anywhere.

Jason listened closely to the crowd to see if there was a clue to what was gong on. There appeared to be only a few men talking so it made it easy to listen.

"I'm telling you, I saw him," one of the men was saying.

"And I'm telling you he's dead," another man said. For a moment Jason wondered if Apollo had been killed.

"And remember what he said when he died, he'd be back," still another voice said adding to the confusion. Jason was now not sure what was going on.

"I just saw him in the town less than a candlemark ago," the first voice said again.

"And you've been drinking too much Malica," the second voice said.

"I haven't had a think Derrik and you know it," the voice that belonged to Malica said. "He's back, I saw him."

"He's dead and everyone knows it," a female voice said over the crowd which seemed to silence everyone.

"You are just protecting him. We all know that you were in love with him," the voice identified with Derrik replied to the woman.

Jason was still listening when movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. It was Apollo who seemed to be trying to make his way out of the city without being observed. He could see that Apollo was almost completely surrounded and waited to see what would happen. His communicator surprised him as he jumped a bit.

"Jason, come in Jason," he could hear the hushed voice of Apollo say.

"Captain, what's going on," Jason replied equally as hushed hoping that no one would hear his voice.

"I'm not sure, but," Apollo's voice was cut off by shouts of 'there he is' and the running of men. "I'm going to need some help," Apollo yelled into the communicator.

Jason watched as a group of men overwhelmed Apollo and dragged him out into the courtyard.

"See I told you, the emperor is back," Malic's voice said over the crowd as a young woman fainted.

End of The Emperor

Next: Crystal

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