Commander Evans kept ships time as it was back on Tauron. That, of course, was not actually very precise. The planet rotated, therefore, it had 24 different time zones. Evans however, maintained it as the time in the largest city on the planet. He was not a native of the planet, but his father and mother were so that’s what he considered home away from home now.
So when he woke at 3 AM ships time, his body knew it was not time to wake up. They had, however, been away from home, they’re due mobile home for nearly 30 days. This was enough time for his body to pick up the routine.
On the other two mercury class, battle stars, the commander slept alone. And we’re lost, and had not had company since were captured by the Cylons nearly a year before.
Commander Ramirez, still just passed her 30th birthday was a bit more active. She chose, however, to have her meetings happen outside the commanders quarters. With a Marine guard posted at the door there was no ability to preserve privacy.
Having started up this war as an information, technology specialist, Commander, Ramirez was well aware of the gossip networks that seem to run throughout any warship. She was intensely loyal to the Admiral yet she knew that it was past was talked about frequently by most members of the military.
So when Maria Ramirez wanted to be with another human being, she did so away from her quarters.
Pre-war regulations made commander, Evans living situation in violation of the military code of conduct. His quarters snapped his wife, a direct subordinate, executive officer of the story ship. She was good at her job, a bookworm who is learning the specifications of this battlestar in her sleep.
Though she was frail, physically, about two months pregnant, she continue to work 18 hour days. She took her now encyclopedic knowledge of the Athena and held seminars every day for the various departments.
Now that it was a believe the network of the ship was secure, and internal wiki page was set up. The operations manuals of the ship were scanned in and corrected. Every department had coursework that they needed to do. For example, the weapons control was generally automatic. However, the specifications concerning firing rates and such we’re actually under how the ship actually performed.
Every day that was not a battle, she met with the CAG, and various departments. But some people thought it was ridiculous to memorize specifications that were printed in a book, it did come in handy. In battle, you didn’t want to have to open a manual to get something done. It was much better to call the procedure out of your head.
So when Commander Evans woke up, he was trying to be very quiet. He knew his wife was not 100%. She had not told him why. She’s been sleeping for hours and he wanted to make sure she got one more hours. Very quietly on tiptoes, he padded it in the bathroom.
After brushing his teeth, and splashing some water in his face, he walks stealthily from the residential portion of the commanders, quarters to the office section. Very little soundproof on the battle star, but the store was supposed to be quiet.
There was various metal knocking sounds, from parts of the ship. They were always hatches that were stuck and needed to be duplicated. There was always overhaul that need to be done on equipment. It’s been a few days since the last battle, so there was not anything too concerning metal damage in battle damage repair was quite noisy on any ship, and the agreement was no exception.
The commander opened up a paper, briefing book, remembered that he’s been made electronic. The tablet computer had two biometric checks to make sure nobody else got into it. With his finger, he flipped through the reports made by various reconnaissance missions that have been conducted overnight.
There were a number of points that looks good for quick hit and run raids. The further they went into the Cylon direction, the older, the ships were in the less ready were the enemy forces.
Latest electronic intelligence coming in from headquarters, raised an eyebrow. They were reports of a superhub. Something larger with much greater data transmission capabilities than what they had encountered previously.
Flash traffic: CINC, Fleet
Commander Athena. Ordered to recon, waypoint, Delta
Suspect enemy super computing hub at location, Delta. Recon and destroy if possible.
The report indicated that monitoring showed 12 fuel ships had come into the station and left within the past 24 hours. The count of ammunition ships was eight. You’re not of electronic noise coming out of this location was an order of magnitude larger than the previous hubs.
The enemy had a communications network that used faster than light technology. Somehow the signal was jumped from place to place. The colonial fleet was preparing for its own network of satellites, which would do the same thing. Cylon communications involved jumping specially modified raiders from point to point.
The living fighters were actually stuffed full of communications and storage gear. They flew in pairs and jumped using their longer-range jump drive. It was a secondary technology as well that involved, jumping high density data devices from place to place. This pathways communications hub to communications hub.
The colonial Fleet had developed, no encryption technology. Part of it was physical, having to deal with the half-life of certain metals contained in the ship. The other half was a dynamic encryption that happened to vote for the gossip networks. After admiral Lawson had suggested her IT guru had hired two teenagers that had managed to build an anonymous and completely secure network throughout the entire Colonial fleet for gossip and sexting and such now had high paying jobs for HG.
There was some concern, however, about establishing a series of stationary satellites. It was theoretically possible if the enemy captured enough of them, they might be able to listen in on communications. The fear, wrought by the CNP program was still present, and widespread.
HG’s assistant and second in command a Cylon model #3 not yet discovered by this fleet, pretended to have a poor memory. This enabled her to write everything down. If she could escape with her computer she could crack this communications network in a few hours.
She had not, however, found a way to defeat the biometric lock on the computer itself. If she walked out on the lab with the laptop in hand, it would automatically encrypt it self. She tried to alter the operating system to stop that from happening. Each time she absent mindedly walked out of the Lab with her laptop, the encryption happened.
After this, it took three biometric keys to unlock the laptop again. The third key was the commander, the executive officer, or the chief engineer for the ship. If they were lost, the laptop could be opened up by more senior officers. The bottom line is Deanna was not able to get away with a laptop.
HG was too good at his job.
The ultimate solution was to die within range of the resurrection ship. If she correctly memorized what she had input into the computer, cracking the system would be theoretically possible. It would take weeks. The list of metals that were aboard battlestars and other fleet numbered 51. The encryption systems physical portion relied on the metal of the day that HG picked out.
He was annoying about that, picking the metal and its corresponding half life, at random. If there was a list it was in his mind.
That was, in fact exactly how HG chose the metal. He picked up a snippet of civilian, gossip. Went first names, and last names were mentioned, he picked one of the other. Somehow he made the leap from this to the elements number on the periodic table.
Diana was frustrated. She could not take the laptop, she could not rely on the resurrection. The only thought occurred to her, was taking the commander, and executive officer of the ship she was on as hostage. Since information technology was actually based on the Mercury, that meant Admiral Lawson.
Everywhere she went, she was accompanied by two heavily, armed Marines. Not a soft target at all.
Cutting off one of the Admiral’s fingers was a great way to get killed. HG was working on a retina scanner. The model #3 mused on this, hoping for a solution. None came. Stalemate.
At 5 o’clock in the morning ships time, commander, Evans called in the air wing and change the strike orders to jump in on waypoint, Delta. It was time for another audible. Some day they might pay a high price. Hopefully that day was not today.
Flash traffic: CINC, Fleet
Commander Athena. Ordered to recon, waypoint, Delta
Suspect enemy super computing hub at location, Delta. Recon and destroy if possible.
When Commander Evans walked into CIC, major Evans was standing, straight and tall and ready to report. “We have run new recon, and checked out the coordinates. All ships report ready for combat jump. All birds are in the tubes. We are with your order to jump and launch on the other side”
With firm conviction in his voice, commander Evans gave the order. “Commence, combat jump”
DRADIS: “No hostiles!”
There was suddenly a lot of noise on the air wings channel.s
CAG: “Fighters Taking fire. Source unknown”
CIC: “detecting Cylon, FTL signature. Ships jumping in within 30 seconds”
CIC: “Contact! Five enemy ships watching fighters. Launching missiles all ships engage.”
“This is Athena actual: all fighters all batteries. All guns engage closest Cylon target.”
CAG: “Solaria just took a massive missile salvo forward starboard flight pod.”
That was a serious issue for a 50 year old ship that had jumped many times in the first war. Some of the ships seized from the boneyard showed signs of micro fractures in the structural beams. These are all ships that’s on the wind large numbers of faster than light jumps. There was some intellectual work out there about the long-term impact of fashion like jumps on the structures of metals.
This war would permit more detailed studies, if anyone were alive to do the work.
Unknown pilot: “Subtract one toaster, base star!”
“This is red squadron, that must be a super hub. Every time we go near it, our systems go crazy. Lookout! Two new Cylon base stars jumped into our kill slot!”
CIC Athena: “Civilian ships are scanning the hub data collection should take 40-45 seconds.”
“This is Athena actual: Cylon base Stars are history. All ships carrying missiles. Concentrate on that hub and fire immediately!”
“This is the XO. Guns target the hub. Any ship with missiles is ordered to target. All birds RTB. Spool up FTL and prepare to jump to our next supply…”
Screaming: “The XO is down. The XO is down. Major Evans has collapsed!”
Chapter 7 video(limited story information)