Part 3 Battlestar Galactica: Back To The Colonies: Kepler 452b

Chapter 4

IV

Two Weeks Later

Admiral Baltar and Gaius had taken a small unit of Raptors around the planet in search of Deanna's remains. Like Kara going to the Raptor site, if she could find Deanna, it would give her a sense of closure to this dark chapter for the Cylons and Humans who had arrived here more than 25 Earth years before.

They had naturally started out within the area where the teams from Galactica and the Rebel Baseship had dropped their scout teams years ago, but there's no doubt that Deanna could have wandered anywhere on the planet. Gaius had estimated that with the radiation levels as they were on the planet, she couldn't have survived very long. Admiral Adama had left Deanna some food supplies and fresh water, but even with that, Doctor Baltar estimated that she could have only lasted no more than three years.

But the search went on. Admiral Lee Adama had informed her that the survey mission was about seventy-five percent complete and that he felt they would be wrapped up in about six days' time. If she was going to find out about Deanna, it would have to be quick.

One afternoon on the planet, she was piloting a Raptor with a Lieutenant from the William Adama. They were scouting an area that was about twenty-five kilometers Southeast of where the parties had been dropped a quarter century ago. They were near a much smaller city, which had probably been akin to a suburb on Earth-well, the Earth she had lived on for years, she corrected herself. It was still fairly large, but they criss-crossed it several times.

After about fifteen minutes, the Lieutenant driving with her looked down and saw something that didn't quite belong in the ruins of a nuclear blast.

"Admiral!", she said urgently, but not loudly, "about four O'clock, do you see that?"

"That" was a structure that looked to be made of wood, which seemed out-of-place in the ruins of alabaster and concrete. "I see it, Lieutenant Farrell. It looks like wood?" she traded glances with the other female flying the Raptor, "I may not be the smartest person ever, Lieutenant, but I can't see a wooden structure like that surviving a nuclear blast."

"I think you're plenty smart, Admiral", the young woman smiled, "that had to be built after the war by someone."

Admiral Baltar paused for a moment, then depressed the transmitter on her headset, "Raptor 327, Adama"

"Adama Actual, go ahead 327". It was Lee.

"Admiral, this is Caprica, we're about twenty-five clicks Southeast of the original landing zone, and have spotted something that looks like investigating." She knew after a moment that had been kind of vague, but it was too late to take it back.

"What exactly is it, Admiral?", Lee answered back.

"It is a wooden structure that looks like it's been attached to the remains of a concrete building", she said, still looking at the site, "there's no way that could have survived a nuclear blast".

Within minutes, Lee had informed Gaius and Admiral Tyrol, who were both currently on the Roslin. He had instructed Caprica to observe only until they could get there in about forty minutes.

When Galen had radioed that they were approaching her position, Caprica had Lieutenant Farrell put their bird down. They both took their radiation shots, and watched Galen and Gaius land a short way to their right.

Gaius was the first to reach them, "You're right, Caprica", Gaius intoned. He had been glancing at the structure since before landing, "That had to be built long after the Holocaust down here."

"I'm not trying to dash your hopes, Caprica", Galen said delicately, "but there could have been a few survivors after the war ended, and they could have built it", he again surveyed the structure, that looked to be about fifteen feet by fifteen feet, "But looking at the structure, I'd have to guess it isn't two-thousand years old", he said with dripping sarcasm.