HunTrib Chpt 4

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=Hunted Tribes=
==Chapter 4==
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“After several accidents, or should I say incidents with the wildlife introduced to this world by our hosts can I please ask the ladies and gentlemen of the press to once again impress on our people that they are not all as friendly as the Surat creatures a few of our citizens have already taken as pets. In particular please do not approach the Wolverines you may encounter in the forests, they can be extremely territorial, ill-tempered and vicious... this also applies to the furry ones with claws.”Laura Roslin – President of the Colonial Independent City-State - 3046 
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===Presidential Tour===
City of McEvedy – New Circe – 3045 CE
The little blond girl who met her at the stone steps leading to the entrance to the building had butchered the welcome she had rehearsed in Caprican but it was still extremely cute to be greeted to the school by the eight-year-old who then went to hand Roslin a small bouquet of flowers and then blushed and became all shy in front of the press. Roslin dropped down to the girl's level to take the flowers and gave her a smile as both local and colonial film crews and photographers captured the moment.
The tour of the school had obviously been choreographed as well as it could be by the staff and authorities but when dealing with hundreds of children it guaranteed not everything was going to go exactly as planned. The boys performing a scene from an ancient piece of literature called the Iliad got terribly carried away with the mock-sword-fighting and had to be separated before they hurt themselves for example, and the less said about the harmony of the school choir the better, but Roslin enjoyed herself immensely despite it all, or perhaps because of it. Lord Protector Jennifer Vaun had learned of Laura Roslin's former career and had decided this might be a good choice of visit, certainly better on the hearts and minds front than a visit to the planet's main battlemech factory at least, the Colonials didn't like them.
‘If it wasn't for the language I could almost be back in a school back home.’ Roslin whispered to Tory as they stood at the back of a class where children were reciting their multiplication tables written on a blackboard.
‘I hope you're not thinking about quitting and going back to your old job after I worked so hard to get you elected.’ Tory Foster whispered back.
‘Teaching is a lot more fun and children behave less childishly than Quorum members.’ Roslin told her as their chaperone, a young woman who spoke passable Caprican, told them it was time to move onto the next class.
When recess came Roslin found herself outside watching children play on swings and climbing frames and hoped that soon the children of the colonies would be doing so as well. The fleet had jumped into the system two days before, and now orbited the planet, but so far only a few doctors, scientists, political dignitaries and military personnel had thus set down on New Circe. The local government had agreed for civilians to land, but only in relatively small and controllable numbers at once, and preparations were being made for the first lucky few to be able to set down and breath real air under a blue sky once again. ‘You look agitated, Captain Apollo’ Roslin told her military escort, who was looking upwards himself.
Lee Adama complained. decided not to once again jokingly remind the president that Apollo was his call-sign not his name and that he had been promoted too and instead he sighed. ‘Somewhere up there Pegasus and Galactica are under the guns of another ship and I'm down here’ he complained.
‘Playing nursemaid you mean?’ Roslin replied with a smile. ‘I don't think that our battlestars are under great risk of being fired upon by our hosts.’ she supposed.
‘It just makes me anxious’ Lee replied honestly, he hadn't been the commanding officer of the Pegasus long but it was his ship damn it.
‘Would we have allowed foreign warships to orbit Caprica without having ours there to guarantee the security of the people below?’ Roslin asked rhetorically. ‘If the situation were reversed and that battlestar with the odd name...’
‘Zughoffer Weir and they call it a battleship not a battlestar’ Lee interjected.
‘If the Zug-whatever was over one of the pre-war colonies wouldn't it be under our guns?’ the President continued her point.
Lee nodded. ‘It would,’ he conceded, ‘it just bothers me that the ship is hundreds of kilometers from ours and could still deliver a broadside into them at any time from beyond the effective range of our own weapons’ he said. ‘By the time our cannon and railgun projectiles traveled that far they could just move out of the way’ he noted.
‘And you think their laser and particle-beam weaponry is powerful enough to damage or destroy our ships?’ Roslin asked.
‘Severely damage certainly, those particle cannon in particular chew through armor’ Lee confirmed. ‘And they have a larger arsenal of nuclear anti-ship missiles than we do as well’ he reminded her.
‘Ah but now ask yourself what could those amazing weapons do to a Cylon Basestar.’ Roslin told him. told him.
Lee Adama couldn't help but now grin. ‘Our warships are far more heavily armored than Cylon capital vessels’ he responded. ‘It would be a sight to see’ he declared, imaging the beams slicing through the Cylon hulls.
‘Then just stick to thinking about that’ Roslin advised. ‘I'm sure the other Adama on Galactica is keeping a close eye on the warships of the Thirteenth right this second’ she suggested.
Lee Adama checked his watch. ‘No, right now he'll be in his quarters eating lunch and reading reports.’ he told her. ‘The XO on Galactica will be the one on the bridge fretting just like mine will be.’ he said with certainty.
A small ball that was being thrown around by some boys went loose when one missed his catch and rolled to a stop nearby. One of the boys called to Lee and guessing correctly the boy wanted it returned he picked it up and threw it back, one of the boys caught it and after saying something to his friends he then threw it back to Lee who caught it. ‘I think they want you to join in.’ Roslin told him with a chuckle.
‘I'm on duty and acting as escort to the President of the Twelve Colonies.’ Lee replied professionally. ‘My commanding officer would take a dim view and seeing as how that's also my father I'd never hear the last of it.’
‘Would it help if you were acting under orders from the Commander-In-Chief?’ Roslin asked him.
‘Couldn't hurt.’ Lee replied, smiling.
‘Five minutes and don't get your uniform dirty.’ Roslin told him, laughing out loud when he grinned turned and cannoned back the ball so the boys had to work to catch it.
Tory Foster had been talking to their assigned translator about their planned visit to the New Circe Parliament later in the afternoon. They watched the younger Adama enthusiastically playing with the boys for a while. ‘Men never grow up, query affirmative?’ the translator opined, adopting her normal speech patterns even in another language.
‘Always seemed that way to me’ Tory agreed. ‘Do you have children?’ she asked.
‘Not yet but I plan to get married next year’ the translator replied. ‘Three of my sisters have children and two of my brothers’ she said.
‘You have big families here’ Tory noted.
‘We have a world to populate, it's considered a duty’ the young woman replied, ‘and there are tax incentives which helps’ she added.
Tory nodded, they had visited a government-run kindergarten earlier that day, or rather a “Sibling Company” as the locals inexplicably called them. ‘So, are all of your family... what do you call them “Instants” is it?’ she asked.
The translator smiled. ‘No I am, and so was my father, but Mom and most of my brothers and sisters were conceived and carried naturally like you’ she replied. ‘Who told you they called people from the Iron Wombs “Instants” anyway?’ she queried.
‘The Lord-Protector's secretary’ Tory replied. ‘It's not an insult is it?’ she checked, hoping she hadn't been rude.
‘Very mild, more like a very old joke’ the translator told her. ‘To make an “Instant” you put mommy and daddy in a cup and just add water’ she explained with a chuckle. ‘We call people like you “Accidents” because you're not planned the same way we are, you just happen’ she said.
‘Instants and Accidents’ Tory responded, ‘funny’ she said, amused.
The translator leaned closer. ‘Seeing as how we're in a school I'll tell you the one about the Sex Education class’ she whispered. ‘The teacher has just explained to the Accidents how babies are made their way and then an Instant puts his hand up and asks where he comes from’ she said. ‘So the teacher thinks about it and says “Well Johnny when a gene-resequencer and an Iron Womb love each other very much...’
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===Fighter Pilot's Tour===
At the military base on the outskirts of town Kara Thrace and Louanne Katrine pilots were demonstrating their Vipers to a few New Circe fighter pilots. They had hurtled around the sky for twenty minutes easily out-flying the less agile aerospace fighters of the SLDF and were now stood next to there machines in front of a hanger and a semi-circle of around twenty local fighter-jocks. ‘This is the Viper Mark II.’ Kara began. ‘It's as maneuverable as a Jackrabbit' and can flip end for end in .35 seconds’ she declared, waiting for the translator with her to catch up before continuing. The man spoke lousy Caprican like they all did but he had been a pilot himself, transport shuttles rather than fighters as it happens, but he was nonetheless the best man available and had been learning the additional Caprican words related to aircraft etc. not featured in Ancient Greek.
One of the Wolverine pilots said something which caused the others to burst out laughing. Kara turned to the translator who had laughed himself. ‘He said a jackrabbit is about as tough and more heavily armed too and asked if you were maybe part of some aerobatic display team’ the man translated.
Kara turned and fixed the comedian with a glare. ‘Tell him I was offered a place on one, because I'm so good but I got thrown in the brig for decking a smart-ass instead’ she responded, it was even true on both counts. If it wasn't for her temper and attitude she really could have been an instructor at the best flight-schools in the Twelve Colonies. Of course if it had panned out that way she would most likely be dead by now so that wasn't much of a source of regret.
The Wolverine pilot who had made the crack about the Viper took a few steps forward and returned her glare. ‘Hey Starbuck, are you sure your mouth isn't making promises your ass can't keep?’ Kat warned. The other pilot was much taller than Thrace and looked muscular under the form-fitting flight-suit he was wearing.
‘Wouldn't be the first time.’ Starbuck muttered to herself under her breath as she stared down the wolverine, the seconds dragged on until eventually she adopted a frown. ‘Just for the record you big genetically-engineered assholes do still have to blink don't you?’ she asked. ‘I'm not just standing here letting my eyeballs dry out for no good reason am I?’ she checked, still maintaining eye-contact with the other pilot.
‘We blink’ the translator confirmed before telling the others what she had asked provoking more laughter and a grin from the one she was glaring at who winked at her and said something. ‘He says if you want to find out what else has been enhanced he's free later.’
Starbuck rolled her eyes. ‘You could hit him but he might just take that as foreplay.’ Kat advised.
‘You might be right.’ Starbuck agreed as both she and the wolverine backed off. ‘Think I could have taken him?’ she asked, turning to Kat.
‘They do say the bigger they are the harder they fall’ Kat replied without committing herself on that one.
‘I once sparred with Helo’ Starbuck responded flatly. ‘The bigger they are the harder they hit you’ she told her fellow pilot sagely, walking back towards the Viper. ‘Twin thirty-millimetre kinetic-energy-weapons’ she said, explaining the armament. ‘You call them autocannon’ she noted. ‘We fire a mix of tracer, high-explosive and armor-piercing which will take out most Cylon Raiders or Heavy Raiders in a few hits’ she continued. ‘The Cylons use the same caliber, we've fired our ammunition through their guns before so performance wise you can judge their gear on ours’ Starbuck told them. ‘The Viper is a better ship than the Raider, and our pilots are usually a lot better than the thing they've got wired into the cockpits, but they’ve always got numbers on their side and some of them are pretty good.’
The wolverine pilots talked among themselves, one eventually directed a question via the translator. ‘Have we fired these autocannon against an equivalent thickness of the ferro-aluminium plates our heavy fighters are armoured with?’
‘Yeah’ Starbuck confirmed. ‘The high-explosives ruined the paintwork and the armor-piercing gave it a matt finish after we bounced around a hundred rounds off it’ she said her words provoking much mirth when relayed in English. ‘Just remember that your engines aren't as tough and you couldn’t out-turn a Cylon Raider to save your life, which is what might be at stake at the time’ she continued more seriously. ‘And also think about how much tougher that armour is than your cockpit canopy’ she reminded them, reaching over to tap the clear composite of the Vipers. ‘Now I guess your plexiglass is better than ours but how many hits can it take before cracking and the next round leaving you a smear in the cockpit?’ she asked rhetorically. ‘You start thinking you're invulnerable and acting like it and I guarantee that eventually either your luck will run out or some Cylon Ace, and they do have aces, will kill you.’
Kat decided to join in. ‘Starbuck and me once hunted down and killed a Raider Ace we called Scar’ she said. ‘Slippery son-of-a-toaster, great moves and tricky too’ she told them. ‘They're smart, they learn fast and they'll soon find out the best way to fight you.’
Starbuck nodded. ‘The Cylons say they're not chasing us any more, but I don't buy it.’ she said. ‘Before too long we'll be fighting them again and if any of you are going to be flying with me then I am going to teach you just how to deal with far more agile opponents than you've ever seen before’ she said, then paused. ‘And you're going to show me where the frakking bar is around here.’ she added, looking around.
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===Interrogations with human Cylon===
Battlestar Galactica – Colonial Fleet – 3045 CEE
Sharon Valerii slammed her fist down on the table that separated her from the man sat opposite her. ‘What do you want from me?’ she demanded to know as the two Colonial Marines stood ready in the cell with them began raising their weapons until then man indicated they should lower them again. ‘I've told you everything I know’ she said. ‘Just leave me alone’ she requested.
Commander Thorpe began tapping his fingers on the table. They were both sat on plain, uncovered metal chairs in the brig and after an hour he was starting to get uncomfortable. ‘I know you're pissed at the Colonials, you think they killed your baby, but we haven't done anything to you have we?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘It was my government that requested the other two Cylons not be put out of an airlock and be placed in our custody instead.’
‘For all I know you've dissected them’ Sharon responded. ‘Or at least one of them’ she added.
‘Would you like to talk to them both on the radio?’ Thorpe suggested. ‘They're not much happier for just being in one of our cells on New Circe instead of behind bars up here but at least they're both very much alive’ he said.
Sharon shook her head. ‘I don't want to talk to them either’ she replied. ‘I don't want to talk to anyone’ she declared, staring blankly at the far wall.
‘Including Karl Agathon’ Thorpe noted, ‘or so you say.’
Sharon redirected her eyes to look directly into Thorpe's. ‘I don't care about him’ she said, ‘I don't care about anything any more’ she stated flatly.
‘Liar’ Thorpe replied.
‘I could be over this table and snapping your neck before those Marines could pull the trigger’ Sharon declared.
‘I'm probably stronger and faster than you think but let's say that's true’ Thorpe offered, ‘why haven't you?’ he asked.
‘What would be the point?’ Sharon replied. ‘You'd be dead and then I would.’
‘But if you don't care about anything what’s the point of going on?’ Thorpe queried, ‘Suicide by Marine is just a snapped neck away right?’ he continued, ‘You must still have some reason not just to give up?’
‘Suicide is a sin.’ Sharon told him.
‘Faith, well that's something you've still got then.’ Thorpe replied with clear amusement.
Sharon glared at him. ‘Are you mocking me?’ she asked. ‘Look at the silly machine that's got religion, oh isn't it funny?’ she hissed. ‘Frak you’ she swore at him.
Thorpe leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms and smiled. ‘It's more the case that I'm trying to confirm to my own satisfaction what the psychologists we had talk to you before had to say.’ he replied. ‘Whether it's just programming or genuine emotions they really do seem to be real to you, it's not simulation you can turn on and off is it?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘If it was I doubt you'd be living with all that grief and frustration, you would just flip a switch and be a happy content automaton.’
‘It would be easier for me and easier for you if I was just a frakking calculator.’ Sharon replied. ‘Not that the fact we're just as self-aware as you are ever stopped my kind getting dumped into vacuum’ she said. ‘Dying that way really hurts you know’ she told him, ‘it's not nearly as quick as people might think, it takes a while for your blood to start boiling because of the lack of pressure.’
‘You've been spaced?’ Thorpe asked curiously, ‘I mean an earlier you that was resurrected?’
‘Not personally but I've talked to other Cylons that have’ Sharon replied, ‘we compare notes, some say drowning or being burned alive is worse’ she told him. ‘Don't tell, Roslin, she might decide to change her preferred method of execution.’ she added with a wry laugh.
‘Gallows humor too, very human’ Thorpe remarked.
‘Now you're just getting insulting’ Sharon responded, crossing her own arms and leaning back in a mirror of his pose.
Thorpe considered what he was about to say. ‘The Colonials don't want you’ he said, ‘they think you're a security threat just like the other two’ he said.
‘Neither side thinks I'm loyal to them and they're both right’ Sharon replied.
‘If you had something to live for, if we maybe had a hold over you I think that would change’ Thorpe told her, uncrossing his arms and leaning forward putting his hands on the table.
‘If you think you can threaten me and get cooperation, beat some submission into me... maybe rape me into a nice docile pet then you're dead wrong’ Sharon told him forcefully.
‘Actually we'd be more likely to try drugs but not when we've go something better available’ Thorpe replied. ‘Let me tell you a little story’ he began, ‘ever since we met the Colonials we've been taking blood samples, checking DNA, looking for any diseases they were carrying all that kind of thing’ he said. ‘Now initially we couldn't see anything much different between ourselves and the Colonials, well nothing that a few thousand years of genetic drift couldn't explain, but as we tested more and more of the people among the fleet we noticed something completely bizarre’ he said.
‘What?’ Sharon queried.
‘People from Earth have the basic Blood Groups we call A, B, AB and O, these can be rhesus positive or negative’ Thorpe replied. ‘About forty percent of people have Type O Blood, it's the most common group, which is why we were utterly mystified when we didn't find a single person with it among the Colonials’ he said. ‘Then we found out that Doctor Cottle was surprised that we did have people with Type O Blood and then the question was why the hell he recognised it like he did anyway.’
Sharon looked confused. ‘I don't understand.’
‘Type O Blood has no antigens like the others, it means that people with it are universal donors’ Thorpe told her, ‘after some pressure was exerted for answers by our Lord Protector it emerged that a child with Type O Blood had been born in the fleet, just one, and with a very interesting parentage.’
Sharon blinked. ‘Hera’ she said.
‘Weird isn’t it’ Thorpe observed. ‘In any case this initially caused yet another bout of short-lived paranoia that we were Cylons but once that went away we found out something else that we thought you might be even more interested in’ he said then paused for effect. ‘Your daughter isn't dead’ he told her seriously.
For a few seconds the Cylon prisoner said nothing then she sprang up from her chair, once again causing the Marines to scramble for their weapons. ‘She's what?’ Sharon exclaimed.
‘She's alive, breathing, doing the usual things babies do’ Thorpe replied. ‘You thought they killed her, they didn't, they just took her away and pretended she had died’ he said. ‘They were too scared of what the revelation of a successful human/cylon hybrid would mean’ he said. ‘Given what we’ve learned of the Colonials they might have been right, it could have caused chaos amongst all those religious whackjobs and luddites you have around here’ he opined, his views slightly coloured by a few run-ins with people from the more fundamentalist colonies like Gemenon and Sagittaron.
Sharon sank back into her chair, limp. ‘Hera's alive’ she said, her voice barely above a whisper. It was hard to believe or accept it.
‘Right’ Thorpe confirmed, ‘and now she is under the guardianship of the Star League in Exile’ he told her. ‘President Roslin agreed she would be safer with us’ he said, not mentioning the exact circumstances under which she had done so and that the agreement had been made under considerable duress.
‘I want to see her’ Sharon demanded, sitting bolt upright.
‘Tricky, what with her being down on New Circe and you being up here’ Thorpe replied.
Sharon fixed him with a glare. ‘Take me to her now’ she growled.
‘No, you've got to earn it’ Thorpe told her, getting up from his chair.
‘I'll tell you anything you want to know’ Sharon told him. ‘Please, let me see my baby’ she pleaded.
‘Oh you'll tell us everything we want to know I'm sure but that's not how you have to earn it’ Thorpe replied as the door opened and two men and a woman wearing what Sharon recognised as SLDF uniforms entered, the Colonial Marines leaving as they were replaced.
Sharon looked at the three newcomers, even the woman was much taller and more muscular than she was. ‘What the frak is going on?’ she asked.
‘We're testing the limits of your strength, finding out how tough you are’ Thorpe told her. ‘You beat these three members of our Special Forces company in unarmed combat, without killing any of them though, and you get your daughter’ he said, backing off. ‘They'll put the furniture to one side before you start, wouldn't want to damage any of it’ he said with a smirk.
‘You bastard’ Sharon hissed at him. ‘How do I know you aren't lying?’ she asked reasonably.
‘You don't’ Thorpe told her flatly. ‘Can you take the chance I'm not?’
As the furniture was moved away clearing the centre of the room Sharon sized up her opponents. ‘I'm doing this’ she said, ‘I've got to do this’ she told herself.
‘Go’ Thorpe said, leaning back against a wall to watch.
She was strong and fast, faster and with far more power in her slender form than she should have, but up against three genetically enhanced soldiers from the elite of the 331st Division the Cylon known as Sharon Valerii was outclassed. She broke two noses, several ribs but in the end they beat her down with punches and kicks only for her to drag herself to her feet and fight on. Blood streaming down her face, covered in bruises she kept fighting, managing to knock one of the men unconscious with a right cross that broke half the knuckles on her right hand.
Sharon went down in a heap a second time but screaming she somehow forced herself up once again only to be floored within seconds although only after shattering the kneecap of the other man with a kick she put everything she had left behind. He hit the deck when she did, howling in pain as she coughed up blood and tried to stand again herself.
The female soldier kicked her in the ribs. ‘Stay down’ Thorpe advised.
‘No’ Sharon replied only to be kicked again in the gut hard enough to leave her gasping for breath.
‘You're done’ Thorpe told her, ‘game over, you lose the Trial of Possession for your daughter’ he declared, walking over and kneeling down beside her. ‘Damn impressive fight you put up though’ he continued admiringly. ‘I'd bet that two to one you could have won easily’ he said, reaching down to take her arm and pulling it towards him.
‘What the frak are you doing?’ Sharon coughed out.
Commander Thorpe put something around her wrist. ‘We don't do this very often’ he told her. ‘Last time was a load of pirates we ran into on a supply run back to the Inner Sphere’ he said. ‘Sharon Valerii’ he said in a grand tone of voice. ‘You are now a Bondswoman of Clan Wolverine’ he declared. ‘The bondcord around your wrist signifies you were defeated in battle and are now property of the Clan’ he told her.
‘I'm a slave?’ Sharon asked, ‘you can't make me a frakking slave??’ she declared, trying to stand but failing.
‘Not so much an actual slave as more like a Prisoner of War that has to earn their keep’ Thorpe explained, ‘and it's not necessarily permanent either, you can be freed later’ he advised her. ‘In the meantime in the other clans you would be treated much like one of the Labor Caste so I guess we need to find an appropriate job for you’ he said, rising to his feet.
‘Kiss my ass.’ Sharon snarled up at him.
Thorpe laughed. ‘You probably won’t mind the job I have in mind too much.’ he responded. ‘Bondswoman, there is a small child that needs looking after.’ he told her. ‘You will do so to the best of your ability in the service of the Clan.’ he ordered.
Sharon stared at him. ‘Hera?’ she asked in shock and disbelief.
‘We're bastards, but we're not complete bastards.’ Thorpe told her, it felt good to do something nice for someone, he decided, a warm sense of satisfaction in his heart that he had done his good deed for the day as he looked down at the beaten, bleeding young mother. ‘It's a good thing we’ve got first-rate medical technology’ he noted, now looking now at the state of the three soldiers instead. ‘Damn, I promised that Army Major I'd give them back in good condition when I borrowed them.’ he recalled with a grimace.
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===Legal Custody of a Child===
Colonial One – New Circe Orbit – 3045CE
‘This is only a preliminary offer that the Lord Protector instructed me to make’ Commander Thorpe told the Colonial President and her legal advisor, the State Prosecutor Didi Cassidy, ‘but she doesn't think it likely that our Parliament would veto any move towards not only allowing settlement of the refugees on the Twelve Colonies on New Circe but also granting you independence’ he said. ‘An area in excess of ten thousand square kilometers would be ceded by our government to your ownership and sole control as an independent nation’ he told her. ‘We suggest this region north of our capital’ he said, indicating it on the map he had spread out on the table where the Quorum usually sat. ‘Once you clear some of the forest you should be able to support your own population through farming, there are several rivers and you have access to the sea’ he noted. He had his own legal advisor beside him, a colonial his government had hired to help them understand the intricacies of the legal system of the Twelve Colonies but so far Romo Lampkin hadn’t said much, he seemed to be mainly sizing up Roslin and Cassidy from behind his shades.
Roslin looked at the map. ‘Ten thousand square kilometres’ she repeated. ‘It sounds generous until you realise that this continent is approximately sixty million square kilometres in size’ she replied.
‘Yes but it's ours’ Thorpe responded. ‘There's only fifty thousand or so of you’ he pointed out, you could all fit comfortably in a small city less than five kilometres across and not even be particularly packed in’ he continued. ‘We're offering you four-hundred times that much land and we'll help you get yourselves established.’
‘This really amounts to not much more than a City-State’ Roslin said, pointing at the map.
‘Your people won't be penned in, if they want to live or work outside your borders they can, it's just that if they do then they'll be bound by the laws of our society not yours’ Thorpe told her. ‘In the same way any citizen of New Circe will become subject to your laws if they enter your territory’ he said. ‘We would however insist that where our people are involved that you do stick to your own laws and don't start ignoring them at whim’ he added seriously, knowing that Roslin would know what he was getting at. ‘We would expect due process under the Articles of Colonisation to be adhered to at all times or else we would have little compunction in intervening’ he declared.
‘Intervening?’ Cassidy queried.
‘We'd have battlemechs and infantry marching over your border before the day was out’ Thorpe explained without a hint of obfuscation, he was a soldier not a diplomat or lawyer.
Laura Roslin was starting to wonder if she had badly misjudged these people, at first glance they were outwardly so civilised, a society that clearly loved its children, that revered public service and intellectualism, but scratch the surface and it was becoming apparent there was something else very different underneath. A violent, aggressive martial culture with its own rules of conduct seemed to quietly coexist with mainstream New Circe society in parallel, overlapping yet still distinct. It was almost schizophrenic in a way she decided. ‘You talk of laws and due process?’ she responded incredulously. ‘According to Doctor Cottle you half-beat that woman... I mean Cylon to death’ she stated.
Thorpe reached for a glass of water. ‘We were acting fully within our laws’ he replied. ‘Which is, I have to remind you, more than you did where her child was concerned’ he noted. That was why the Lord Protector was so strident regarding the Colonials actually holding to their own legal principles if they were going to settle on New Circe, she and nobody else would accept the selective application of laws decided upon by politicians.
‘I never accepted that piece of third-rate legal argument you had this damn lawyer you hired present the day before yesterday’ Roslin responded, glaring at the shyster Lampkin sat beside Thorpe. ‘I only agreed to turn over the Cylon and her child to you because of the possible repercussions to the fleet if the story got out without being properly managed’ she said.
‘Colonial Statute Law and Precedent fully supported our position’ Lampkin responded drily, ‘as I'm sure your own counsel confirmed’ he said, directing a smile in the direction of the State Prosecutor. The four of them were otherwise alone, Roslin having sent Tory to organise some food, it looked like it could be a long evening.
Cassidy turned to Roslin. ‘It could be interpreted that way’ she confirmed grudgingly as she had done before in a written opinion when asked to look over Lampkin’s arguments.
‘And what other way could it be?’ Lampkin asked in amusement, ever since he had been approached by that Academic Sundquist saying the Government of New Circe was looking for independent legal advice related to Colonial Law he had been enjoying the limelight immensely. They had put him on retainer for what he hoped was a generous sum although no exchange rate between Colonial and New Circe currency had yet been established. ‘We freely accept that the Cylon Known as Sharon Valerii is not a Colonial Citizen and hence has no rights as such’ he said, ‘however the state had no right to arbitrarily take her from her father without due process.’
‘The legal status of the child Hera is by no means clear cut’ Cassidy responded quickly.
Lampkin removed his usually ever-present sunglasses for effect. ‘Prior to the Articles of Colonization and the unification of the Twelve Colonies under one government the citizens of one world were already having children with people from others’ he replied. ‘There are several legal precedents that confirm that citizenship was automatically bestowed on the offspring of any such pairing, if a man from Caprica had a child with a woman from Tauron then that child was deemed a Caprican citizen in law even if her mother wasn't’ he said. ‘The fact that Sharon Valerii was not a citizen has no bearing whatsoever, Karl Agathon is one which automatically means his child is too’ he declared. ‘Now I respect you very much, Madam President’ he told Roslin, ‘I actually voted for you’ he continued, ‘but you grossly violated the rights of two citizens of the Twelve Colonies and you'd find it hard to find argue a convincing case in law otherwise’ he said confidently.
‘Genetic testing confirms that Hera is the biological daughter of both of them.’ Thorpe pointed out, ‘Your testing as well as ours’ he added.
Romo Lampkin looked Roslin in the eyes. ‘You've never had children have you?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘I have’ he told her. ‘I had two daughters myself, they were on Gemenon when the bombs fell’ he continued in a surprisingly dispassionate manner, ‘and I will tell you honestly that taking someone's child away from them is the most heinous crime I can imagine and if you think I couldn't have made a jury feel the same way then you must be taking Chamalla again.’ he stated, putting his sunglasses back on.
‘This is all beside the point’ Thorpe interjected. ‘Hera is now on New Circe and the admittedly battered Bondswoman Sharon Valerii will be reunited with her very soon.’ he said. ‘The Lord Protector suggests that if you don't want to end up involved in a very messy situation you might want to transfer a Colonial Officer into a temporary assignment with the SLDF, an exchange program with one of our military posted to Galactica in return’ he said. ‘We thought one Karl Agathon might be an ideal candidate from your side.’
‘Be honest do you want him around when he finds out anyway, because I think I can guarantee he will’ Lampkin told the President. ‘I'm prepared to treat this all as a matter of client confidentiality and never mention any of it.’ he said. ‘If a father gets his daughter back’ he added.
Laura Roslin narrowed her eyes. ‘I don't like being pushed into things,’ she said. ‘I tend to start pushing back’ she declared with more than a little venom.
‘In politics like the law, things don't run smoothly’ Lampkin remarked.
‘And talking of laws we think yours are insane’ Cassidy told Thorpe. ‘I read through a translation of one of your lawbooks’ she said.
‘Something clan related no doubt’ Thorpe replied, ‘I can see how an outsider might think so’ he conceded. ‘For that matter my wife told me if I went ahead with that Trial of Grievance with my neighbour over him moving that boundary fence she'd divorce me so they're not exactly considered immutable Holy Writ among my people either’ he told them with a chuckle. ‘It's mainly a regular military thing these days, we're more traditional, very few civilians use anything but the normal courts under Star League Law.’
‘You settle disputes in what amounts to Trial by Combat’ Cassidy said, still amazed that any advanced society would do anything so primitive. ‘Nobody has done anything like that in any of the Twelve Colonies in centuries.’
‘It hardly ever happens on New Circe either, it's just sometimes you want to take matters into your own hands’ Thorpe replied. ‘You know for a while we abandoned clan traditions and rules entirely’ he told them, ‘Sarah McEvedy wanted us to’ he said, ‘but then we later learned that the other clans believed they had wiped us out, they made it a crime to even speak our name and would have us erased from history entirely’ he continued, ‘well we weren't going to oblige so after a referendum it was decided we would once again be a clan and that we wouldn’t allow ourselves to ever forget who we are’ he said. ‘Now every day is a little victory against Nicolas Kerensky and his brain-dead worshippers because their Trial of Annihilation failed and Clan Wolverine lives on.’
‘But they don't even know’ Roslin pointed out.
‘Not yet’ Thorpe replied with a grin, ‘but they'll find out the hard way in time’ he added with certainty.
‘Can I ask a question that’s been bothering me?’ Lampkin now addressed Thorpe. ‘If somehow the cylon had won that fight would you have really given her the child?’ he asked curiously.
‘Yes.’ Thorpe replied, ‘We obey our laws, live by a code’ he said. ‘If you let that slip even a little for expediencies sake then what are you?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘Principles might have to be elastic sometimes by necessity, if you try and live by absolutes the result can be absurdity, but we would have never done what you did Madam President, even if the Lord Protector herself ordered it’ he said.
‘I'm not getting lectured on ethics by you or anyone’ Roslin told him angrily. ‘I did what I had to do under the circumstances.’
‘Because being the last survivors of your people pursued by a genocidal enemy excuses playing fast and loose with your laws and morals does it?’ Thorpe asked. ‘Sorry, that might wash with other people you might have run into instead but for us it doesn't’ he said. ‘Been there done that, stayed true to our core beliefs’ he stated. ‘We can sympathize and we do, we've been the hunted tribe, and we don't even ask you to live like we do to stay on our world but we don't think it's unreasonable to expect you to live as your own moral standards and legal traditions dictate.’
Romo Lampkin sighed. ‘If we can't do that then we're doomed regardless of whether the Cylons wipe us out or not.’ he said.
‘We know you'll have to discuss this with the Quorum and your own military’ Thorpe told Roslin, he suspected it would take an age to thrash out the specifics, politicians were like that. ‘As for the latter the Lord Protector fully accepts that your nation will have its own armed forces based on and above New Circe although she formally requests cooperation between us at all levels because we both have enemies and I doubt any of them would discriminate if they ran into us both here together’ he said.
The rest of the discussion went smoothly enough by comparison, Tory Foster returning shortly having arranged refreshments, at the end the two lawyers left but Roslin asked Thorpe to stay behind a little longer to discuss another matter. As well as the proposal for the survivors of the Twelve Colonies to settle on New Circe Jennifer Vaun had also suggested another scheme which needed to be agreed, one that could be put into practice much sooner. New Circe wanted to mount a joint expedition back along the path the refugees had come, first to Kobol and then onto the Twelve Colonies themselves. The Cylons claimed to have left but that needed to be verified, there might conceivably even be other survivors to be rescued and there was certainly a massive amount of technology and priceless resources to be salvaged.
It could simply be a trap of course, the Cylons waiting to spring it on any large group of humans that returned home with the Colonies as the bait. The only saving grace to the situation was that the mice tempted by the cheese definitely wouldn't be expected to be toting Particle Projection Cannon.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Chapter Note from the Author :The Wolverines don't want the Colonials to leave in case they lead the Cylons closer towards the Inner Sphere so they're trying a charm offensive. As a former teacher having Laura Roslin visit a school would look good among the fleet and hopefully demonstrate that New Circe isn't such a bad place despite the big robots and the lab-created freaks. The Zughoffer Weir is a McKenna Class Battleship roughly the same size as Galactica (they're both just over 1400 meters long). It mounts a lot of heavy anti-capital-ship hardware which drastically outranges the two colonial battlestars, you can see what one looks like on the prologue page of this fic along with a rendering of a Kirghiz Fighter. In the mainstream clans those who come from the Iron Wombs are called "Trueborns" and those born naturally are "Freeborns" (Trashborns and Freebirths being the respective pejoratives). The Wolverines don't have quite the same divisive attitudes but I thought they would have equivalent labels hence "Instants" and "Accidents" telling jokes about each other. Louanne Katraine was trained by Starbuck eventually becoming her wingman. I thought they'd make an interesting pair to be assigned the job of showing the wolverine aerospace fighter pilots Colonial and Cylon air-combat tactics and capabilities.They wanted to see just how much fight was in a humanform Cylon and found out that it was a lot with the right motivation. In the Clans you can fight a Trial of Possession and it this case it was for Hera. Sharon lost but as a defeated foe she could now be taken as a Bondswoman, the symbol of this is a woven bracelet placed around the wrist. The New Circe Wolverines still use some Clan Customs, although some they have abandoned utterly, others they have modified. Hera having a Blood Type which is unique amongst the Colonials comes from the show. It's describes as being strange but the reasons given for it being so actually describe Type O Blood which is the most common in fact.Didi Cassidy was the prosecutor in Baltar's trial. I made the assumption that she must have been one of the top government lawyers in the fleet to get that job so having her brought in as a legal advisor by Roslin after the New Circe government hired Lampkin didn't seem too unlikely. Between the clanner attitude to law and tradition and the Star League idealism I see New Circe as being a society that is very law-abiding even if some of their laws (the clan holdovers) would seem more than a little strange or barbaric to others. I really doubt that what Roslin did regarding Hera was legal, Colonial Law and Politics from what we saw of it wasn't all that authoritarian and the President couldn't legally ignore due process (if she had that level of unquestioned overriding legal authority Baltar wouldn't have gotten a trial, he would have gotten a quick trip out of the airlock). Giving the Colonials their own small country actually relieves New Circe of quite a headache in terms of dealing with all the people with weird ideas and beliefs. The planet is incredibly underpopulated anyway so why not hand over a few thousand square kilometres of trees? I couldn't see the two societies smoothly and seemlessly integrating, they're too different, so here they'll co-exist instead.
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