Part 2: Battlestar Galactica, Dawn: Collision

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

FOUR MONTHS LATER

Kara was flying the President in a Raptor towards Honolulu. It was serving as the temporary home of the UED while San Diego was being rebuilt. It hadn't suffered a nuclear attack, but she had been pretty well turned to rubble. It would be long, slow work, but San Diego and many cities like her around the globe were coming to grips with the monumental task ahead of them.

The President was reading over some of the latest intelligence of the war's aftermath. The numbers were staggering: 151 cities worldwide destroyed by nuclear weapons. Thousands of other destroyed with conventional weapons. The monetary amount of the damage was incalculable, and may never be added up to any degree.

But the numbers that had sickened him were the number of the dead and wounded. By the latest reckoning, three billion had been wounded in some form or another during the conflict. Most would survive. Some would succumb. And by latest count, the planet had lost 2.7 billion of its citizens. The first time the President had been given the preliminary numbers, he had had to excuse himself, as he had to run to the bathroom to vomit. He had known the cost would be high, but hearing the figures shattered him.

Earth had gone from 7.4 billion inhabitants to 4.7 billion. A third of the population of the planet. He had told the people of the planet the price would be high. It was, with a vengeance.

He pulled out that piece of paper he had written on just before leaving the now-destroyed White House. He had pulled it out more than several times during the conflict and afterward, adding more words to those few words first scribbled at The Resolute Desk. It was no longer a simple thought, and it was no longer a few words: it was a call to action that would sweep mankind in a new direction if mankind accepted his challenge. He would present it the next day at the UED meetings that were taking place over the next week.

The trip was uneventful. Both he and Kara were quiet and lost in thought. Kara was now a Commander, and soon to be in charge of all Earth Raptor, Falcon, and Viper forces. She would be responsible for training, recruiting, and even research and development on future Raptors. She was as at peace as she ever had been in her entire life. The war, as destructive as it was, and with as much as had been lost, had been a personal salvation for her, and she knew it. She was a new person. And she intended to live a life that would live up to the miracle that she had been given. She knew she'd push future Nuggets hard, but she knew she would also instill in them a sense of humanity that had taken her two wars to find.

She had reluctantly resigned her post as the President's Military Liaison. But both knew that the gift she had received in return was far more important.

The first meeting came at 9 am the following morning. This first discussion would be on the future of Pegasus and Galactica, and the Raptor "Pickets" that would be Earth's early-warning network. No one had gone beyond those parameters. No one had really thought further than that. And Justin Bond fully understood that. The toll of the war was about all anyone could process right now. They just haven't had a lot of time to think far into the future.

No one but the American President, that is.

The conference would last several hours on this subject. Questions and comments had been welcome and would get a hearing with UED brass. Most nations had sent at least one delegate to this get-together. And everyone would probably have their own ideas, some being accepted, some discarded, as the flow of time and events meandered on.

As expected, the meeting began predictably. Admiral Wheeler updated the throng on the repairs to both ships. Pegasus had landed, and, after about three weeks, had been fully repaired and sent back into her orbit. Then Victory had come down for minor repairs. Her "VICTORY" nameplate finally was removed but would be enshrined eventually, and the name "GALACTICA", finally went up on the new girl. She didn't have a lot of repairs that were needed, but her cosmetics were finally finished, and what few repairs she needed were completed, and in two weeks she was back on station.