Chapter 22: Earthfall

The battlestar Pegasus burst into existence in a corona of light. The massive colonial warship, the last of her kind in the whole universe, flew through the void with unearned grace and speed for such a leviathan vessel. Combat Air Patrol vipers shot out of her launch bays and assumed patrol duties. Their DRADIS arrays repeated the same thing that the main sensor array on the Pegasus said.

"Jump complete!" Lt. Hoshi called out. "Getting light interference from jamming but nothing we can't handle."

"What are the long range sensors telling us?" Commander Helena Cain asked.

"Long range scopes show one planet in the habitable zone," Colonel Jurgen Belzen reported. "Lots of debris and jamming clouding our eyes."

"Where is the Valkyrie?" Commander Cain asked.

"I'm picking up a signal," Lt. Hoshi said. "Colonial transponder. It's the Valkyrie! She's surrounded by other ships. No Cylon transponders though, so maybe they're 13th Tribe ships?"

Cain said, "Open up the Wireless and hail the Admiral."

A minute of pregnant silence passed as Lt. Hoshi attempted to raise the Valkyrie. No response. Cain was starting to get a bad feeling about this when Hoshi spoke up.

"Sir," said the young lieutenant," I can't raise the Valkyrie, but I am getting a signal on the emergency frequency. It's the auto-distress beacon."

Colonel Belzen, who had been speaking to Ensign Davis, suddenly spoke up. "Commander, you should see this."

The main DRADIS display was replaced with a picture feed from the long-ranged telescopes. It was the wrecked hull of the Valkyrie, broken in two with fires raging in the interior. She was surrounded by the wreckage of Cylon ships and a small fleet of 13th Tribe ships and shuttles.

Two months later, Commander Cain stood with Admiral William Adama and President Wallace Gray in a newly commissioned cemetery. Standing with them, wearing a cast around his left arm, was Space Marshal Bjorn Bolforskin of the Terran Space Force and Prime Minister Freyja Torskin of the Terran Federation. The five of them stood in the center of the cemetery, facing the statue that dominated the field the cemetery was built upon. It carried the visage of the man who had once served as Fleet Admiral and Commander of the battlestar Valkyrie. The man stood tall and looked forward into the distance with a steely glint in his eyes. It was missing the slight hunch in the shoulders the real Admiral had once carried and the slightly nervous expression, as well as the heavy bags that were eternally under his eyes.

"Thank you," President Gray said to the Prime Minister. "You don't know what this means to our people."

"It's us who should be thanking you, Mister President," Prime Minister Torskin said. Their conversation was made possible by a small device created by the Cylon defector known as Simon that sat on their shoulders, translating Caprican to Terran and back. "Without his sacrifice I don't think any of us would be standing here."

A sad silence held over the group as they beheld the statue of Admiral Aleksander Wolfkill.

"It's not over yet," Commander Cain said. "The Cylons are still out there. They won't give up until we're dead."

"Maybe," Admiral Adama said, "but at least we can stop running."

"They won't get us like they did two months ago," Space Marshal Bolforskin declared. "Next time they jump in-system we'll drown them in nukes and fighters."

"So say we all," Adama said. He was the first to leave. The rest of the party continued leaving until only Commander Helena Cain was left.

"I don't know if you can hear me," Cain said, "but you should know it paid off. The Thirteenth Tribe welcomed up with mostly open arms. We've got a long way to go but we're not on the run anymore. Your heroic last stand saved the terrans. We got about thirty percent of your crew off the wreckage of the Valkyrie."

Cain sighed and then said, "For what it's worth, I wasn't sold on the idea of you being Admiral until I heard what you did to save the Thirteenth Tribe. They're probably going to name a few schools after you for that. If I was the child having kind I'd probably name my firstborn after you. As is you'll just have to settle for the schools. Rest easy, Admiral. We'll take it from here."