Lieutenant Joe \u201cSquirrel\u201d Davis was 40 years old and still a lieutenant. This was not due to a lack of skill as a Viper pilot, it was due to misbehavior off duty. He was in fact an exceptional pilot who held a type rating on different types of raptor, as well as every Viper ever flown, with the exception of the Mark I which was too old to be flown any longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hard landing and a sore back had relegated him to piloting a raptor. Every pilot on the casualty reduced flight team had performed many more landings than were required to retain their type rating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So due to the crew shortage, he had drawn a bus flight that was going to be jumping around the Colonies and surrounding sectors. The mission was to locate natural resources from which to sustain this small fleet. Tylium, water and several metal ore\u2019s were on the search list for todays mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More often than not, this was the most boring of possible duties. You jumped, you tried to pay attention to the DRADIS display, took some reading and then moved on to the next jump point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rookies and insane people were the only ones who craved action these days. You did not want action, you wanted boring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today\u2019s exploration route took them into the Promar sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was way beyond the red line, beyond which non-networked navigation computers could not calculate jump coordinates for a single jump. It was about a dozen plotted jumps away from where the Mercury was hiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was time for another jump They had found nothing. Hardly a surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the white flash of light and disorientation they scene ahead came into focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a thud as some kind of debris impacted on the Raptor\u2019s hull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A couple of quick control moves avoided an even more dangerous collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLooks like battle debris,\u201d Spirit, the attractive RIO officer reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After pulling a few more levers Squirrel stopped the raptor dead in space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBring up a scan will you Spirit?\u201d Lieutenant Davis asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn nav 1,\u201d she replied after a few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLets pick a few pieces,\u201d Squirrel suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRoger that,\u201d Spirit said, looking unhappy at the way this operation had turned out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The debris was laid out on the floor of a cargo bay. The paint job was distinctive, it was the color of the Mark VII Viper. Commander Lawson was walking stiffly as if she had exercising recently. Perhaps she had worked out and overdone things a bit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She looked at the array of debris pieces on the floor and feigned mild interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat am I looking at XO?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major Ramirez \u201cBattle debris from the Battlestar Galactica. The Science geek\u2019s say it is about a month old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawson walked slowly along the edge of the samples knowing this represented another dead Colonial pilot. She came to a stop in front of a burned-out box shaped device. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs that the,\u201d Lawson paused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe voice data recorder,\u201d Major Ramirez acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnything good on there?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramirez handed over a paper transcript.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis looks like a page turner,\u201d Lawson yawned sleepily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s mostly scuttlebutt. Take a look at page six,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJolly and Green bean,\u201d nice call signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She furrowed her brow as she concentrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jolly: \u201cCan you believe it the secretary of education is now President of the Colonies?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green bean: \u201c I heart she was sleeping with the president.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jolly: \u201cHow the frack does that matter now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green bean: \u201cNothing. I just don\u2019t understand how a school teacher is going to lead us to earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jolly: \u201cI don\u2019t think there is an earth. I think the old man just made it up to give us a purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green bean: \u201cI\u2019ve been flying for Commander Adama for seven years and he\u2019s always stood up for his men and he\u2019s never lied to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jolly: \u201cI wonder when we are going to get a break. Every thirty-three minutes the Cylons attack. You can set your watch by them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green bean: \u201cI just hope we don\u2019t draw this patrol too often. Our asses are hanging out here, trying to set up an electronic scan of the toasters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were warning beeps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unknown: \u201cContact right on top of us. Cylon base ship launching raiders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Green bean: \u201cBreak right we\u2019re on a collision course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jolly: \u201cTaking fire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eva Lawson looked up from the transcript. \u201cDid you find bodies?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNegative,\u201d Ramirez replied. \u201cEither the Cylons or the Colonial fleet picked them up. They may be alive. Damage to the raptor was not complete. A larger piece might have been salvaged by the Galactica.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat does it mean to us?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWell,\u201d Major Ramirez said. \u201cA couple of things. There is a civilian command authority. Laura Roselyn is president as per succession rules. If we happen upon her, we will have to follow her orders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commander Adama is a proper commander and is senior to you Commander Lawson. You would have to follow his orders if we were to happen upon him. The difficult part is the information we received about the Pegasus. Rear Admiral Cain committed a war crime and must be removed from command.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe diary is enough to make that claim stick?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAccording to the code of military justice, Admiral Cain must be removed from command pending a court-martial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf course if she happens to meet Adama and he\u2019s not aware of this situation, he will be required to follow her orders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll right,\u201d Lawson said decisively. \u201cWe have to prepare documentation and we should be on the lookout for more information. Any idea on where the Galactica was headed?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEarth,\u201d Ramirez replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no earth,\u201d Lawson answered. Adama made it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lieutenant Joe \u201cSquirrel\u201d Davis was 40 years old and still a lieutenant. This was not due to a lack of skill as a Viper pilot, it was due to misbehavior off duty. He was in fact an exceptional pilot who held a type rating on different types of raptor, as well as every Viper ever flown, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-1085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book1","tag-book1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1085"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5098,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085\/revisions\/5098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}