Disclaimers: See Part 1
To Stop Running
by
AJ Marks
Part 2
"I heard there was a new contact Commander Tigh?" An older gentleman said walking onto the bridge of the Galactica.
"That is correct Councilman, Captain Starbuck and his wingman are checking it out. Commander Apollo is taking the Pegasus in for a better look." Tigh replied already knowing what was to come.
"And who approved this action?" He said accusingly.
"I did, there wasn't time to notify the council." Tigh said, knowing it was not the full truth. Starbuck had taken it upon himself to make the judgment call, even though he knew just about everything went through the council for approval.
Shortly after Adama died the council decided that the military was to powerful, and revoked the martial law status that had been dominant since leaving their colonies. There was simply no one strong enough to challenge Councilman Zeirs. Now just about everything the Galactica or Pegasus did had to be approved by a council member.
"So you deliberately disobeyed the council?" He said accusingly. Neither man liked each other and Ziers was always looking for an opportunity to try and force Tigh to retire. "The council will hear about this Commander!"
'Great just what I needed today." Tigh thought to himself as he watched Ziers walk off the bridge.
"Admiral White to the bridge, Admiral White to the bridge!"
A few minutes later a man in his upper forties, with short salt and pepper hair stepped onto the bridge. "Report!" He said.
"Incoming message from Commander Johnson sir!"
"Put it through." Admiral White said turning to face the screen. A second later Commander Johnson's face appeared on the screen. "Report Commander!"
"Admiral, we are currently tracking three inbound ships coming from beyond our system." Johnson said. "We've identified the leading two as fighters, the third appears to be a large capital ship."
"Are they the same ones that attacked and destroyed our outpost?"
"Unknown sir!"
"Put your ship on 'war status' and keep up your reports Commander."
"Yes sir!" Johnson said signing off.
Admiral White took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Get me the president." He told the communication officer.
"Yes sir!" The communication officer replied busily trying to carry out the admiral's order.
"Captain," the admiral said turning towards a younger man. "Put the fleet on yellow alert, and increase the patrols. All shore leaves are cancelled. If they're not part of the celebrations then recall them. I don't want to be caught like we were twenty years ago."
"Yes sir!" The captain said and rushed off to complete his orders.
Starbuck and Boxey continued towards the signal they had intercepted, hoping that they would find something of interest for the fleet. Starbuck figured that Apollo would take the Pegasus and follow the two of them into the system. He did not mind, in fact it would just mean a shorter trip back to the battlestar. He glanced back down at his control panel to verify that they were indeed headed toward the signal. The signal direction had not changed, it had however increased in intensity meaning that they were getting closer to the source.
"Hey Starbuck, are you picking up something else, around one of the large gas planets?" Boxey said to Starbuck.
Starbuck took a look at his scanners before answering him. "Yeah, we're still to far away to make an ID on it yet, but I'd say its a ship." Starbuck tensed with anticipation of an unknown ship. The idea that it was out there and not knowing whether it was an allied or enemy was exciting. "I'm going to contact the Pegasus."
"That sounds like a good idea." Boxey replied feeling a bit of nervousness run through him. He had never fought against a Cylon raider like his father had and he was not sure he ever wanted to.
"Commander Apollo, incoming message from our patrol." The communications officer said to Apollo.
"They must have found something." Apollo muttered to himself. "Put him through."
"Apollo, there might be some trouble." Starbuck said, he could not see Apollo's raised eyebrows as Starbuck continued. "We've picked up a ship on our scanners, and its probably a good bet that they have us on their scanners as well."
"Cylon?"
"I don't know. We're going to take a closer look for identification, but I don't think so. We haven't seen any aggressive moves yet." Starbuck told his friend. "We're going to see if we can identify who is out there."
"Ok, but at the first sign of trouble you get out of there." Apollo said, then added. "Keep in communication Starbuck." What was left unsaid was the remembrance of Zac's death in a nearly identical situation.
"Don't worry, I will." Starbuck told his friend as they approached the planet and the unidentified ship.
"Any sign of them being hostile?" Boxey asked.
"Not yet kiddo, but let's keep our eyes open." Starbuck replied.
Commander Johnson watched on the bridge as the fighters and the large capital ship closed in on their position. The scanner operator was still trying to identify the ships and exactly how large the larger ship was.
"Sir, I have it. It is a very large ship, but nowhere as large as any of the ships that attacked us twenty years ago. The ship is approximately one mile long." She reported to him.
"One mile long, that's more than what we can handle." Johnson whispered to himself. His ship had a few weapons and one squadron of fighters on board. "Get Admiral White again."
The two vipers continued toward their target to get a better look at it. So far the war scanners were not able to identify the ship. To make matters worse it looked like that it knew that they were coming and had started to retreat toward the center of the system.
""Commander Apollo, come in." Starbuck said as they continued in their pursuit of the ship.
"What's up Starbuck?" Apollo asked wondering what was wrong.
"I think that they have spotted us, but I still don't have any confirmation if their cylon or not." Starbuck said over the radio.
"Find out Starbuck, but be careful." Apollo said.
"You got it." Starbuck said. "Boxy, let's go, hit your thrusters."
Both vipers suddenly accelerated to their fastest speed and quickly started to gain on their fleeing quarry.
"Captain, the approaching fighters are gaining on us, we estimate twenty minute until contact." The scanner operator said.
"How long until we meet up with the fleet?" Johnson asked.
"Twenty-five minute at current speed." Came the reply.
"Increase speed to flank speed, let's see if we can get them in an unfavorable position." Johnson said and felt the ship speed up.
Starbuck and Boxey noticed that the ship was increasing speed and both knew that this was not a good sign. This meant only one thing, that they had for sure been spotted and that the ship knew that they were pursuing them.
"What do you think Starbuck?" Boxey asked Starbuck as he looked at his scanners.
"It doesn't feel like there is a Cylon ship out there. The tactics are not right, they usually sent a couple of ships in to attack to scout around." Starbuck replied to his wing mate. "Whoever is out there is a bit more intelligent than the Cylons are, so let's be cautious."
"Apollo, do you have the ship on your scanners yet?" Starbuck said over the radio.
"Yes, we've noted that it increased speed, something that the Cylons did not do, but it could be a new tactic." Apollo said and Starbuck had to agree with him on that note.
"We'll keep closing the distance, you might want to alert the fleet about this development." Starbuck said back to Apollo.
Apollo turned back around to the communication operator and within a few seconds Commander Tigh appeared on the screen in front of Apollo.
"What's going on Apollo?" Tigh said, his voice full of questions.
"Apparently the contact has spotted us and is trying to make a run for it, we are going to try to intercept them. Starbuck says that it seems unusual for a Cylon tactic, and I am inclined to agree with him on this." Apollo said watching Tigh's reaction to the news. "This might be a first contact situation."
"If that's the case be careful, they could have some supplies that we could use." Tigh replied knowing that Apollo already thought of that. "Oh, one other thing, I had Councilman Ziers on the bridge just a short while ago, and he's going to the council to report us."
"Great, just great." Apollo replied with a knowing look.
"You may not have much time before the council decides to bring their impute on to your actions Apollo, be careful either way." Tigh told him.
"Thanks, I will be." Apollo replied. He groaned after the transmission ended and he wondered how long he had before he heard from the council about his recent actions. Apollo and the council had not been getting along to well in the past couple of weeks and lately it only seemed to be getting worse.
Admiral White had run his fleet ragged but they were finally in position and the incoming ships were headed right for his trap. He had ordered Commander Johnson to run straight for the Pacifica and her escorts while several other ships had used the planets and comets to maneuver around and behind the incoming ship.
A few minutes later the he watched as Commander Johnson's ship same into view and he knew that the two trailing fighter were close behind him. And just behind the two fighters was the large ship that they still had not yet identified.
"Sir, the incoming fighters are coming into range, they don't match any known ships that we've encounter at all." The scanner operator said.
"Sir, they are now within the trap and the large ship is also within the perimeters of our trap." Another officer said.
"Execute the trap." Admiral White said. "And see if you can identify them."
Starbuck was the first one to notice that something was wrong when there were ships powering up all around them.
"Boxey, we've got real trouble here!" He said as they watched, as there were a lot of fighters being launched.
"Apollo, there is some sort of trap set up for us, we are surrounded by ships, and I can only guess tat they are military warships." Starbuck said over the communications.
"We know Starbuck, we are also caught in the same trap." Apollo said having been warned by his scanner operators that there were ships all around the Pegasus.
"Hey Starbuck, look at your scanner, I don't think that your going to believe this." Boxey said not really believing it himself.
Starbuck looked down at his scanner and noticed what Boxey was talking about. The pilots of the ships coming at them were human. They had not seen a human colony in over ten yehrens, and there was a theory that they had overshot the colony know as Earth. But if they were really human then they were still on the right track.
"Apollo their human." Starbuck told Apollo who had to look for himself to confirm the readings.
"Starbuck, don't fire on them and slowly make your way back to the Pegasus, we're going to try to establish communications with them." Apollo told them and watched as the two fighters turned around and made their way back to the Pegasus.
"Sir, we're being hailed by the unknown ships." The communications operator said to Apollo who told him to put it through.
"Unknown ships, you are ordered to surrender and be prepared to be boarded." The voice said repeating the message several times.
This was not good Apollo thought to himself, at that moment the Alpha One line came up and Council member Ziers appeared on the screen.
End Part 2
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