WE'VE GOT a problem down here," Starbuck barked to Tigh on the bridge.
"I see that, Colonel," Tigh snapped back. "You should have reserves in Bay Three. Load that. Get over to the…"
"I'm in Bay Three," Starbuck said, feeling his temples throbbing. "There's nothing here. They said it's been gone a long time. They can't even remember…"
"Starbuck, I was standing right there when Apollo ordered two dozen fuel cells allocated to Bay Three as reserves. Now, you've been known to make…"
"I'm telling you, there's…" Starbuck thought his head really would explode. Was Tigh really turning into a real bureaucrat? "Maybe it's Bay Four," Starbuck said.
"It's Bay Three," Tigh said, his voice ragged with exhaustion and sharp with irritation.
"Tigh, I'm down here and…"
Apollo rushed onto the bridge at that moment and stepped beside Tigh.
"Starbuck, why haven't you launched the Vipers to get that fuel over to the barge?" he demanded.
"I've been trying to explain to Tigh here that these reserves just aren't here. There's a bunch of empty cells and that's it. I can't dump what we've got in the Vipers, can I? It'll…"
Apollo broke in. "Starbuck, I know you're not blind. There are two dozen reserve fuel cells in Bay Three. I had them personally…"
"Apollo, listen!" Starbuck cried. "There's nothing here."
"I gave that order," Apollo said.
Starbuck tried to think of the right thing to say. He was staring straight at an empty bay, with a few old cells lying on their sides, and a bunch of engineers and part-time Viper pilots shifting from foot to foot and looking like they'd rather be anywhere but in that bay with Colonel Starbuck, listening to that conversation.
"Commander Apollo wants to know where those cells are!" Starbuck cried. He didn't want to look at the time. He knew in his blood that time was running out for those refugees. And the air, too.
"We don't know," said one of the engineers. "We never had two dozen to begin with. Not in the reserve. We put what we had in…"
The patrol's out looking for Dalton, Troy and Trays, Starbuck realized. You couldn't split yourself in two and be in two places at once, he thought. Just like you couldn't fuel a Viper with the last cell you had, and then fuel a…
"Frack!" he cried. "Did you hear…"
"I heard," Apollo said. The silence hung between them.
"I'm taking the Vipers out anyway," Starbuck said. "Maybe we can…"
"Kill yourselves and everyone on that barge, too?" Apollo asked.
"We can. I don't know, Apollo. Maybe between all of the Vipers, we can work something out. We can use inertia, slingshot off each other to get back. The Daedalus is…"
"Athena's sending Vipers, too," Apollo said. "But since we're using the sub-light speeds, there's no way they can reach them. They're much closer to us. Starbuck, where's that fuel?"
Starbuck looked around the bay; it was so empty that he felt like his ragged breaths were echoing. The others backed away from him. They might have lost track of the reserve fuel cells for some reason that nobody was willing to admit, but none of them were stupid. Anybody could have figured out that Starbuck was ready to explode.
"Starbuck, they've got about thirty centons!" Apollo said.
"I'm launching the Vipers," Starbuck said, breaking the connection.
"Starbuck!" Apollo cried, but he was already gone.
Apollo looked at Tigh, who looked back, his face full of apprehension.
. "Starbuck can buy them a few centons," Tigh said in a disheartened voice.
"Apollo," Athena's voice broke in from the bridge of the Daedalus. "I've got Vipers headed toward the barge, but their ETA is one centar, thirty centons."
"Okay, Athena," Apollo said. Again, he and Tigh looked at each other. Even if Starbuck got there and somehow transferred the Vipers' fuel to the barge. It was still half a centar too late.
Starbuck had never felt old before. It wasn't so much that he felt old right then, but his legs weren't moving right. Like his feet had gravity boots on them. Only there was nothing on them except his regular boots, the ones he wore every day.
It had been bad enough having to tell Athena that the fuel wasn't even close to enough to save that barge.
His mind couldn't deal with it. He knew what had happened. He saw it. He was there. He sat there and listened to the whole thing.
First there were cheers.
Then there was a lot of confusion.
Then there were curses, when it was obvious that the Vipers couldn't buy the barge more than a few centons of air.
It just didn't make any sense. Fuel leak, they said. The barge had been checked out before it set off from the Daedalus to that ship, Hestia. They hadn't gone off course; in fact, they'd gotten a few lucky breaks along the way, gotten there faster than they'd expected.
Twenty crew, the captain, the first officer, and two hundred from the Hestia.
Athena's friend was on that ship. Athena wanted to know right away. And they sat there and they all listened while the barge died.
The worst of it had been someone banging on the hull. The comm went down, thank the Lords of Kobol, before the last of the air went, but there was banging. Clang! Clang! Clang!
And after a few centons, even that went away.
Athena never cried. Starbuck sat there and ripped off his comm so she wouldn't hear him swearing. She didn't need that. He listened to her cry when the last of the clangs stopped and no more came. It was her friend; she said she was angry, but Starbuck knew that she was grieving, too. After all they'd been through, to have those people go like that…
Apollo wanted to talk to Starbuck. Starbuck didn't know how he felt right then. He just knew that his legs weren't moving right and he had a blank spot in his chest. It was a little bit hard to breathe.
Tigh and Apollo were on the bridge. Starbuck thought that Apollo looked about as bad as Starbuck felt.
He went up to his friend. They both stood there, facing each other. What could somebody say after something like that? Some heroes, Starbuck thought. There wasn't anything much less heroic than what had just happened.
"I'm sorry," Apollo said. He put his hand on Starbuck's shoulder. Starbuck looked into Apollo's eyes.
"No, I'm sorry," Starbuck said. "I should have been able to save them. We should have been able to…"
"It's not your fault," Apollo said. "I gave those orders for those reserves to be put in Bay Three. I don't know what went wrong," he said.
Starbuck shook his head. "I don't, either. I swear, none of those guys down there had any clue. That really was the first they'd heard of it. I'd stake a month's pay on it."
Apollo shook his head. They stepped apart. It seemed disrespectful—wrong, even—to be talking about something like this in the wake of that kind of disaster.
They both walked to the comm.
"It's Athena," Tigh said.
Athena's face appeared; she looked calm, but Apollo knew right away what she had suffered from the look in her eyes. He glanced over at Starbuck, wondering if Starbuck realized.
"This doesn't make any sense," Athena said. "I've checked the manifests for that barge. They were fully-operational and fully-fueled before they left for the Hestia."
"They said, before…" Starbuck cleared his throat. "The captain said that the monitors were showing them at 6O°/o fuel when they just stopped. He had them check manually and they were bone dry. Nothing left."
"That's insane," Athena said. "That's just about impossible."
"I agree," Tigh said. "Unless the crew was totally incompetent or out of their minds. Who could misread fuel like that?"
"I take responsibility. They launched from Daedalus," Athena said.
"No," Apollo said. "It's all my responsibility. I gave the orders for those reserves to be held. They should have been there. If they were, we could have solved the problem, no matter what the cause."
"Apollo, it was a horrible accident," Tigh said.
"We've got to investigate," Apollo told Tigh. "This makes no sense at all no matter how we look at it. Those people died for…"
"Indeed!" came a voice, low, cultured and modulated.
Apollo, Tigh and Starbuck turned to see an infrequent visitor to the bridge. Sire Aron, the most powerful of the civilians on the Council of Twelve. Aron had been on the Council since the earliest days after the fleet's escape from the destruction of Caprica, but it was only since Adama's death that he had become more influential.
"This is a horrible tragedy," Aron said. "Two hundred men, women and children, plus the crew."
"Yes," Apollo said. "We'll discover the cause."
"I hope so," Aron said. "I hope that you will come to the Council, Apollo. We would like to speak with you."
"Of course," Apollo said. Tigh looked over at him, his eyes flashing warnings, but Apollo nodded toward the council member.
"I'll investigate and report," Tigh said, stepping forward.
"I know that you will, President Tigh," Sire Aron said, smiling in a sad, forlorn way. "But at this point, the Council would like to speak with Commander Apollo."
"We have information from the Daedalus," Athena said, breaking in. The connection was still open, and she could see and hear everything. Aron's white eyebrows raised in surprise; apparently, he hadn't realized that they were speaking with her from the bridge of the Daedalus.
"Oh, of course," Aron said. "Thank you. I have heard that you knew some of the people on that barge… the evacuees."
"Yes," Athena said. "I'm sure others lost friends as well. My first officer here also lost people."
"Ah," Aron said. "This is a great tragedy."
"Yes," Athena said. "It is. Now, if you excuse me, I have a ship to run." She broke her transmission.
Briefly shaking everyone's hand, Aron turned and left as quickly as he came. As soon as the doors slid shut, Starbuck turned to Apollo.
"I don't like that guy," he said.
Apollo shook his head. "I don't know," he said. "He and my father never got along, but he's got a certain dignity. I think he's genuinely concerned."
"Apollo, let me deal with the Council," Tigh said.
"No," Apollo said, smiling gently at Tigh. "The Council needs to understand our full situation. And I need to be the one to tell them."
As soon as Apollo started off the bridge, another alarm went off.
"Frack!" Starbuck said. He was standing beside Tigh; Tigh had muttered something about the reserve fuel cells having to be somewhere, and Starbuck was burning to find out where they'd gotten off to, and thinking about what he'd do to the idiot who'd misplaced them.
It was the head of the security team on the Rising Star, and he was in the middle of a firefight.
"They've taken six of our guards prisoner. They're holding them in the casino and threatening to execute them if we don't release a secton's worth of food. They say we have real food on the Galactica, too—they don't believe it's just pellets."
Apollo ran back, standing beside Tigh and Starbuck.
"Can you hold your position, Lieutenant?" Apollo asked.
"Yeah," the man said. Then he seemed to realize whom he was talking to and said, "I mean yes, sir."
"Lieutenant, who is 'they'?" Apollo asked.
"Rebels, sir. They're everywhere. They're organized. The leader's called…" And then the transmission broke up.
Apollo waited, pounding his fist on the comm. "Come on!" he said. As if on cue, the transmission returned.
"They call him Jinkrat… plenty of weapons and they're holed up in the casino, but they're raiding… through the ship. We knew there were a lot of problems, but we never…" The transmission didn't break up, but the man stopped, and Tigh, Apollo and Starbuck listened to the whine of laser fire. Then, the Lieutenant was back.
"We can hold, sir, but I've got to go. Report back in… centons."
"Thank you," Apollo said. But the transmission went out with a fierce crackle.
"Well, that's just great," Starbuck said. "Jinkrat! What kind of name is that? I suppose they'll want some Pyramid decks to restock the casino, some dancing girls and…"
"Starbuck!" Apollo cried. He couldn't help but grin; although there wasn't anything to laugh about at all.
"Has anyone ever told you that your sense of humor is hardly appropriate, Starbuck?" Tigh growled.
"Don't get your pants in a knot just because you got President tagged onto your name," Starbuck shot back.
Apollo watched in astonishment as Tigh's brows lowered, his dark eyes flashed, and his fists balled at his side. "Starbuck," Tigh growled.
"Tigh," Starbuck said, dragging out Tigh's name and grinning.
Then Tigh suddenly laughed, short and sharp. "I should break your nose," he said.
"You could try," Starbuck replied.
Apollo grabbed both of his friends' arms and brought their hands together.
"I need you both right now," he said. "I'd rather face fifty squadrons of battle-crazed Cylons than that Council," he said.
"We have rebels, too," Tigh said.
Apollo nodded. "I know," he said. "But let's see what we can do with the Council first."
Then, Athena was back, calling them all back.
"That was quick!" Starbuck said.
"I didn't want to keep talking with Council member Aron there," Athena said.
Apollo felt waves of anxiety coming from his sister's face. "What do you mean?" he said.
"I'm probably just thrown off because of everything that's happened," she said. "I just didn't have a good feeling when he was there. And Omega had some more news about the barge."
"What's that?" Apollo asked.
"They triple-checked," Athena said. "Triple-checked the fuel before they left. I've got the records right here."
"It's just impossible," Tigh said.
"You're telling me," Athena said. "Omega's on it, though. We got the transmission from the Rising Star, too. Let me take a team over there and get this calmed down while you see to the Council. I think that Dr. Salik can spare Cassi, too, so we'll meet her from the Galactica on the way. There are already injured."
"Good," Apollo said. At least this way some people would get some help. He was still reeling from the loss of those refugees.
"Hey," Starbuck said. "Athena, are you…"
"Starbuck, don't tell me what I can and cannot do," Athena snapped.
"I didn't mean that," Starbuck said.
"Well, what did you mean?" Athena demanded.
"We can't fight," Apollo broke in. "Starbuck, cut it out. Tigh, let's get going."
"Apollo, do well," Athena told him.
Starbuck lingered, looking at her image for a moment, then he turned and followed Tigh and Apollo from the bridge.
Don't tell Athena what to do! As if he would, even if he could!
"Apollo, is it my imagination, or is Athena more on edge than usual lately?" Starbuck asked Apollo as the trio headed toward the Council chambers.
"Starbuck," Apollo said, shaking his head. Even Tigh laughed.
"I would rather fight you than Athena," Tigh said in a deadpan voice.
"I don't know about me," Starbuck snapped back, "But I'm not surprised to hear that you're scared to fight a woman."
"Cut it out!" Apollo cried. They were all three somewhat composed as they entered the Council chambers.
"You know, Apollo," Starbuck said as he entered. "I was thinking. That barge. There's no way any crew could be that confused. They had to have set out with a lot less fuel than they thought they had. They would have noticed any leak a lot sooner. I don't think there was a leak; we didn't get anything off the sensors. It's like a… plot. One of Baltar's plots."
"Baltar's under control," Apollo said. The doors were opening to the council chamber.
"Apollo," Starbuck said, but Apollo quieted him with a brief gesture.
"We can't worry about Baltar now," Apollo said. He thought of Baltar's dark, twisted face an
d deep, frightening eyes. Maybe Baltar was responsible, in some way. Maybe Apollo had been wrong to let Baltar out with just that security device around his ankle. A little premonition of danger and betrayal played up and down Apollo's spine. It wasn't like Baltar had been of any help so far—not with anything.
Maybe he should be back in the brig, chained, where not even his guards could speak to him. Talking too much to Baltar just wasn't safe.
But Apollo had freed him. The intuition that had prompted him to do that had been a sure one, a powerful conviction. But he still had doubts about it. Now that he wasn't looking straight at Baltar, Apollo wondered how he could have imagined that Baltar was anything but a poisonous snake.
As they entered the sumptuous chambers, Apollo thought about the Council, and how they'd never done anything but make trouble for Galactica and the fleet. If they had their way, they would have talked and talked until not a single ship would have escaped the Cylons back when Caprica was being destroyed, much less the carnage they'd survived since.
But the Council existed, and just like his father before him, Apollo had to shoulder the responsibility of dealing with these so-called friends who'd never acted like anything but enemies in their midst.
"Apollo!" Sire Aron cried, walking toward the three of them, smiling, his arms open wide in an expansive, gracious greeting.
Athena arrived on the Rising Star with the best squadron of warriors from the Daedalus. She wondered briefly how Apollo was faring with the Council. Cassiopeia had met the Daedalus transport halfway and she was right beside Athena, carrying her medkit.
As they entered the Rising Star, the stink was the first thing that Athena noticed. The dirty air, poorly scrubbed, the whole system under the stress of the hundreds of refugees that had been taken to the formerly beautiful recreation ship. The very walls had been torn apart, as if their formerly rich coverings had been cannibalized. It smelled of fire, sweat, and human waste. A body slumped in the docking bay; it stank so badly that there was no telling how long it had been there. It was a man, of middle age, wearing the short jacket of an agriculturalist. His dead hand clutched at the ruined deck.
They had a long way to go to reach the existing security team, two decks away, not far from the rebel's base in the casino.
Battlestar Galactica-04-Rebellion Page 5
