Jack Adama was a genius, when he was a boy while his class was reading the magic key adventures he was reading advanced applied physics, he completed high school at the tender age of seven and collage at thirteen, he even managed to go through several doctorates in engineering, chemistry, advanced robotics, physics, computer programming, electrical engineering and several others that marked him out at the greatest mind of his age, he was fifteen when his cousin Lee Adama started the academy and became a viper pilot, he never admitted it but Lee was his hero the dashing viper jockey who scored the highest in the academy since his uncle Bill, people called him the boy genius but he didn't care for that all he wanted to do was fly vipers like his hero, and when he was old enough eighteen he would join the academy. That's what he told everyone who asked him what he wanted to be, all the schooling had been at best a mild distraction for what he really wanted to do, after all you not a real man unless you become a viper pilot that's what his father Patrick Adama had always told him,

His father was a pilot at the end of the war and was deep in his older brother's shadow but never let that get to him, he had earned everything he had achieved his wings and his rank of captain, he had served proudly on the Battlestar Pegasus under the old war dagget Horatio Cain and had an impressive kill total with his squadron the silver spurs, but not many people knew of Patrick 'Crow' Adama, it was the proudest moment of his life when Jack told him he was joining the colonial military as a viper pilot, he could see the glimmer of pride in his father's eyes. The entrance exams were easy and took him a few minutes, but the point of the exam was to find what field of the military they could put you in, and his exam firmly placed him in colonial R&D but he managed to work out a compromise, he would train as a viper pilot and if he is successfully graduates he will complete one tour on a Battlestar which was negotiated to is just over one year.

So he began his education as a viper pilot completing all of the theory in the first few weeks, leaving him almost two years of total instruction on the viper, it also left him time to fiddle with things and design stuff, his instructor on vipers was one Cap Thomas 'Madman' Malone, he trained in the old Mk4 Viper, it was the first to have a combat computer and controls networked together after the Cylon war and the only viper that you could disconnect the network with a two switch combination, Cap Malone was of the old school like much of the fleets old guard and he preferred a fighter that could disconnect from its dangerous networks in case of an emergency or a Cylon hack, and Jack agreed, the Cylons were the greatest threat that the colonies had ever faced and it was foolish to believe that they were gone for good, and there skill with computers put any human to shame, but he had heard that an up and coming 'genius' named Gaius Baltar was designing a so called unhackable computer, now that brought out chuckles in him when he heard, and when asked by his peers and instructors why he was laughing he explained that there's no such thing as unhackable and if Baltar was such a genius he should know that, once he graduated he was placed on the Battlestar Atlantia and was flying with the Grimm squadron under the C.A.G or Commander Air Group Peter 'snake' Robertson, he met up with his cousin Lee who said his younger cousin Zak had said that he wanted to join the fleet, that brought a smile to him as Zak was a good kid and he though how great it was that all three Adama boys would be in the fleet tearing around the stars.

Then all too quickly his tour was up and he was reassigned to colonial fleet R&D which was an adjustment, being back on Caprica and his promotion from Lieutenant to Captain was a little overwhelming and took some time to adjust, but once he had he was in his element designing weapons and other technologies that the colonies could use if a war broke out, but one of his big breakthrough's was something that was thought to be completely imposable a jump drive small enough to fit on a viper, it brought a whole new element to fighter engagements and the fleet big wigs loved it and were going to install it on the proposed viper Mk8, and he had already manufactured a hundred units for testing , with this discovery he was promoted to the rank of Colonel and sent over to the very secretive R&D section Black.

(Raptor enroot to section black)

Jack was wearing his new fleet blues and they were uncomfortable as all frak, the collar felt like it was chocking him when he sat and rubbing when he walked but he needed it for his new rank, the fleet blues for a Captain were slightly but noticeably different around the cuffs and collar, the Captain's had a thicker silver bands and the piping was also a little thicker on the breast of the tunic along with silver instead of golden buttons. He had polished his golden wings to a perfect shine as well as his new diamond rank insignia, the patches of darker blue on the shoulders where the ship patches would be was left blank as he had not been assigned to a battlestar for a while. Conditions in a raptor were as expected cramped but not so much that you felt claustrophobic.

"Sir" said the pilot as she turned to face him she was dark skinned and very pretty with her black hair tied back and platted "we are approaching the coordinates given"

Jack nodded and came forward sitting himself in the co-pilot seat he checked the coordinates with his book making sure that they were all correct before he turned to look at her and nodded again

"Send the communication LT" as he handed her a sealed envelope, it was a simple white envelope with the colonial naval seal on the face in gold, she broke the seal and withdrew a card she read it then went back to the E.C.O position and transmitted the info on the card then came forward with it and handed it to him, at which point he pulled out a Zippo lighter and burnt the card until only ashes remained. They sat there for about an hour until the D.R.A.D.I.S beeped with an incoming signal.

Then everything went red as alert status began to blare the incoming signal was a blaring red and identified a Hades class Cylon Basestar, Jacks blood ran cold and he immediately began to run through evasion scenarios, before he knew it his hands were already a blur on the computer panel entering in coordinates and at the same time activating missiles and preparing to launch, he set the jump coordinates to above the Basestar at the blind spot discovered by his uncle during the war, he immediately dipped the nose of the raptor so the missile pods would fire down on the crest of the ship he was about to hit the fire button when he heard a the telltale click of a gun being cocked.

"That's far enough Colonel" Jack immediately stopped his right hand hovering a few centimetres above the fire button he couldn't defend himself at this angle and he didn't dare move to switch hands "you wouldn't want to damage anything now would you"

"I'm fairly sure I would" he said looking her in the eyes they were cold he noted that she seemed ready to kill him if necessary, but even a miss could spell his doom, he had forgotten to put his helmet on and he hadn't bucked himself into the seat "or would your tin plated friends take exception to that"

"This is not what you think" she said trying to placate him

"And what am I thinking traitor" he felt his lip curl up into a sinister sneer, just like his father's when he was pissed, his eyes burned into hers he was willing to die here

The com. Link beeped and a voice came over.

"Lieutenant Grayson what the frak is going on" the voice sounded old very old and not very amused, she moved her left hand to the comm. button and pressed to receive

"We have a situation here sir" she said licking her lips slightly "Col Adama has primed the missiles to fire on Bounty bace"

"Adama I am ordering you to stand down now" the voice came again

"By whose authority do you presume to give me orders Cylon?" came his reply full of venom and rage; there was no reply for a moment

"Authorisation code Delta, Zulu, 485, Epsilon Theta 2" Jacks mind raced then came to the answer

"Admiral Cain is dead and has been for the last two years"

"Don't do it sir" came the Lt's voice as his hand drifted slightly closer to the button

"You shoot me traitor and my hand falls forward hits the button and these twelve nukes launch, but these aren't your normal every day nukes I designed these myself, these have a uranium tip shaped charge that will force the full power of the explosion into that Basestar instead of on the armour" he saw her eyes widen slightly "I see you know what that means each one of these missiles are ship busters by themselves but all twelve that is a recipe for ruination"

"Col Adama what did your Father ever tell you of the mission to liberate Tauron"

"Yes"

"Flip Six three hole" Jack hesitated for a second that was the code that he had told his father in a privet meeting encase the Cylons broke the fleet codes again so that he would know that the signal came from him, he didn't tell a soul as each CAG had their own code from the commander.

"Aye aye sir standing down now" Jack raised his hands in surrender the Lt moved to disarm the missiles and bring the ship to the landing bay.

Jack left the ship with his hands up the Lt at his back waiting for them was the supposedly dead Admiral Cain. He shook his head at Jack before taking him to his office, it was a vast room covered in books and antiquated weapons from flintlock to modern hand cannons. His desk had some papers scattered around it and was a dark oak wood he sat behind it and into a leather chair.

"I don't begrudge what you did Colonel in fact I saw shades of your father and uncle in it" he said as he leant back in his chair "this won't go into your vault as it was my mistake not yours"

"Yes sir"

"I've been reading over your design schematics for these..." he paused and looked down at the paper in front of him "inertia dampeners and structural integrity shields, its ingenious stuff and will allow if correct extreme manoeuvring at high speeds for capital ships"

"Yes sir" he had written that proposal several years ago and it was shot down by conventional scientists as a fantasy

"I also liked the designs for the plasma cannon energy weapons"

Those were also thrown away as the science fiction fantasy of child.

"Yes sir"

At this point Cain looked up

"Is that all you can say"

"No sir"

"This is going to be a very one sided conversation if all you can say is yes or no son"

"What can I say sir, these designs were thrown out as fantasy by the scientific community"

"But not be the fleet son" said Cain as he got up and walked around the desk sitting on the edge with his arms crossed a slight smile on his face "my gods boy these designs could make us the most powerful navy in the known galaxy, the Cylon's would even dream of attacking us"

Jack nodded but said nothing

"And I want you to build them" Jack snapped to attention and looked at the older Admiral in the face

"What" he said in astonishment

"I want you to build these designs prototypes and prove that they work, prove the critics wrong"

That got Jack in the heart; he hated being told something was imposable or wrong it galled him that the scientist in the colonies couldn't see that he was right. It felt like a personal attack on him and his intelligence.

"Very well sir I will prove that they work"

"Good"

()

Over the next month Jack built the designs but realised that they would need more power than the tylium reactors could produce, and forced Jack to design a power core that could provide the vast amounts of energy needed, so he went through the experimental power cores that the R&D had already built or were designing, there were three possibilities the first was a fusion reactor, but that would take up too much room and it wasn't powerful enough to run both the engines and the weapons, the next was an experimental matter antimatter core ,it would provide enough energy but they were having problems stabilising the reactor and the last was an ion power core that was just in the drawing board faze.

He went to the Admiral and had the M/AM reactor brought under his umbrella, it took months to get the core stabilised but using crystallised tylium they had managed to have the core relatively stable until they found a type of crystal that could manage the power core and allow them to reach the full potential.

The first test of the weapons with the new power core was phenomenal, in two rounds the plasma cannons blasted through an asteroid half a mile wide, atomizing it and fusing the several components, but it was easily fixed by turning down the power it meant more voles but it kept the weapons from frying themselves. The admiral was ecstatic and with the new power core the integrity shields and the inertia dampeners became a reality within two years and one more thing came about actual deflector energy shields, strong enough to take multiple nuclear missile strikes.

Another man there made a metal that gets harder when an electrical current is run through it, and all too early six years had passed and he received the news that his cousin had died.

Winter in Caprica was cold but today seemed exceptionally so, he stood just away from his uncle as his father laid the last wreath on the coffin, from overhearing conversations he learned that it was an accident Zak had crashed. Though I did meet his fiancé nice woman totally distraught and from a look at her record she was an almost peerless pilot with only myself and Lee could get anywhere near her in skill, but she wasn't who I wanted to see.

"Uncle Bill"

He turned to face Jack and he looked broken though his face betrayed nothing his eyes were emotive enough for him to know

"Jack" he said in his husky baritone voice.

"It's good to see you again Uncle Bill" said Jack as he moved to hug him, he accepted albeit reluctantly they stood shoulder to shoulder looking down at the open grave and the coffin that held his cousin "I saw what Lee and Aunt Anna did and herd what they said"

"I imagine you did, I doubt anyone didn't" he said quietly

"It's not your fault"

"You are the only one besides Starbuck that says that"

"She seems a good lass"

"She would knock you head off if you called he that" he turned to Jack with a smile "how are you finding Colonial R&D Jack"

"It has its ups and downs"

"I imagine so"

"I'm designing weapons and reactors for the navy what's not to love"

Bill just grunted

"I have even found away to enhance the lethality of the Columbia class Battlestar"

"Really how"

"I have developed a new quad cannon that when installed would double the amount of weapons the class can come to bear"

"Networked I suppose" he said trying to get his mind off Zak

"Nope that's the thing I don't trust networked computers" this brought a small smile to his uncles face "I get that from you and dad"

"Good" he said

"How is the Valkyrie?"

"I wouldn't know they've moved me to the Galactica" he said looking at the young man "there going to retire the Galactica in five years" he said rubbing his eyes "and I am going to retire too"

"Started together leaving together"

"Yes"

"I could put a word in with one of the admirals make the Galactica a test bead for new technology"

"No" he said as he ran a hand through his hair "she deserves her rest, they'll make her a museum or something"

"If you need anything uncle let me know" Bill nodded and Jack left.

Upon his return to the R&D ship he threw himself into miniaturising the M/AM reactor the inertia dampeners and the shielding system he was determined to not let his cousin's death happen to any other family because of an accident.

Over the next year he spent time refining his inventions until they were ready to be put onto ships for field testing.

It would be another three years before he would see his uncle again.

(Six months before Cylon final attack on the 12 colonies)

Admiral Nagala sat and listened to the proposed retro fit for the Galactica

"So in conclusion sir, if we must turn her into a museum let us turn her into the most accurate external and internal sir, with my new construction bots we could have her done in about three months with no cost for labour and they can work night and day"

Nagala hadn't heard such an impassioned speech for years.

"Very well I will concede and approve on the retro fit for the Galactica, I also want a status on the new project Colonel Adama"

"I have checked the new system as asked sir and found this" he handed a computer pad to the Admiral; he looked at the mess of binary code and razing an eyebrow.

"What am I looking at?"

"That sir is the biggest cluster frak in recorded history in the making" the Admiral looked slightly shocked but bid him to continue "this is the largest back door into our systems since the cylons first hacked us"

"What"

"The CNP is a revolving door into our most secure networks and worst of all it's in over a third of ships in the fleet"

"My gods"

"I have had my boys in discreetly taking out what the idiots put in" he said to the Admirals relief "Picon Anchorage is fully secure as are the defence satellites, every ship that has docked has had the virus removed along with the CNP and my own program installed 82 Battlestars are safe"

"and your upgraded ships" he asked as he once again looked over the impressive offensive and defensive specifications the ships had.

"all ten ships are fully operational and no one at the ship barkers yard is any the wiser, we have, successfully tested all systems, these ships will give us the technological edge against the Cylons should they return witch I believe will be soon"

It was a pity that the only ten ships out of twelve could be upgraded.

"how soon?"

"the CNP instillation initiative was slated to take a half decade, that was four years ago, with that public announcement any Cylon spies would know that the final instillation on all Battlestars will be at the end of the year, that gives us twelve months at the most"

"if you were the Cylons when would you attack Colonel?"

"just to stick it to us humans I would attack on armistice day" he responded quickly "but then again I am an emotional human"

"that is six months away" he said as he grabbed a piece of paper "you are here by ordered to retro fit the Galactica to her original specifications, I want her battle ready at the drop of a hat, add whatever you feel you need to accomplish this" he handed the paper to Jack "get to it Commander" he said as he threw two small golden insignia, Jack stared at the golden diamonds with a star burst etched into them.

"aye aye sir" he said closing his fist around the small golden ranks

"one more thing Commander" he through a box at him it was a small like the kind of box that you would have if you were giving an engagement ring to your beloved, he saluted and left fiddling with his new insignia whilst putting the box in his pocket, taking the old ones off and pinning the new ones on. He passed saluting NCOs and crewmen; he made it back to his raptor where his pilot was waiting.

"another promotion sir" said the young man with a knowing smile

"stow it Alderman" he said as he got aboard the Lieutenant smiled slightly and bit his tong as he re-entered the ship

"Take me to these coordinates" he said as he handed over a bit of paper, the Lieutenant nodded as the ship took off, than as soon as the ship was back in the void it jumped with a flash of light.

In the back of the raptor Jack sat with an old fleet book in his hands, it was the schematics for the Columbia class Battlestar, the original schematics with all variants and there she was BSG-75 the Galactica with all 50 heavy guns and all 1000 anti-fighter guns, she was beautiful and would be again.

"Raptor 376" came a distorted voice over fleet comm. "this is Galactica CIC you are cleared for landing in starboard flight pod"

"Raptor 376 reads you Galactica"

"This is starboard flight pod to Raptor 376 you are cleared to land hands on speed 105 call the ball"

"Roger that Galactica I have the ball"

The ship glided past the Galactica upside down before flipping over and entering the pod and slowing to an easy stop, before turning about with its landing skids deployed onto a lift.

"Skids down and maglocks engaged" then the lift engaged and the Raptor was taken down into a pressurised section

"Welcome aboard 376" came the voice from the CIC

"Thanks Galactica CIC"

The Raptor was pulled by a heavy lifter into the maintenance bay, followed by two crew men and what looked to be the chief of engineers, he was a tallish man skinny too, with black hair and brown eyes he was pail and his uniform was a bright orange with luminous patches, and it was covered in grime a testament of the hard working nature of this deck chief after all not many chiefs got their hands dirty these days.

As Jack exited the Raptor the chief stood at attention and saluted when Jack saluted he stood at ease

"Good morning sir I am chief Tyrol I will be your crew chief for your stay with us"

"Good morning chief I am Commander Jack Adama" that sent a bolt through the man

"It's a pleasure to meat you sir" he said as the crew around him shuddered to a stop at hearing his name.

Jack took a moment to look around at the bay

"I must say I am impressed with your work Chief" he said with a smile, the chief stood even taller at the praise from a relative of his commander "I am to understand that you are helping the Galactica become a museum"

"Yes sir" he said with undisguised regret

"Good" he said the chief looked stunned for a moment "but as of right now all work to turn the Battlestar Galactica into a Fraking museum stops now" this stunned the crew and Tyrol couldn't help but smile slightly, Jack pulled a letter out of his pocket and began to read "the Colonial Battlestar Galactica by order of fleet Admiral Nagala is to be returned to its original specification and used as a working museum, as an example of Colonial history in action" he handed the letter to Tyrol who looked at the letter nodded and handed it back "the supplies and special equipment shall arrive in the next few days including, eight wings of Mk2 and Mk3 vipers along with one flight of the experimental Mk8 space superiority vipers" he rounded on Tyrol "I hope you are up to the challenge crew chief"

"Yes, yes sir" he stammered

"Good now if you will excuse me I need to meet with Uncle Bill" the crew seemed slightly put out that he would be so informal when addressing their commander but as he was family they let it slide.

Jack knew the layout of the Galactica like he knew the back of his hand, as he navigated the long snaking corridors leading to the CIC; he nodded to the crew man at the door who opened it for him.

"Commander on deck" he shouted making the crew of the CIC jump none more so than his Uncle who spun around to address the man that had dared to make the Commander of a Battlestar jump. He was not prepared to see his only nephew

"Commander William Adama, by order of Fleet Admiral Nagala you are here by promoted to the rank of Admiral Congratulations" he said as he pulled out the small box from his pocket and handed it to him then took his other hand and shook it, he seemed to be stunned for a moment then rallied

"Jack what are you doing here"

"Just a second Uncle I have one last duty then we can get down to family business" he said as he pulled an envelope and handed it to Admiral Adama, he opened the sealed letter and took the letter out, he then pulled his glasses out of his breast pocket and put them on his eyes danced along the page before coming to the end, he folded the letter and placed it in his pocket and then nodded.

"My office Jack" he said leading his nephew to his office just off of the CIC.

William Adama sat heavily behind his desk, for a moment he didn't move but then he grabbed his glasses and threw onto his desk lightly, he pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed before leaning back in his chair.

"Did you know what Nagala wrote in that letter?"

"No" Jack said

Bill Adama pulled the letter from his pocket; he then put his glasses back on and began to read

(The letter)

"To Admiral Adama of the Battlestar Galactica.

Well Bill it seems you were right, that nephew of yours has found a virus in our computers all our computers, if it was actually activated it they would have whipped us out in a matter of hours, but your nephew has put a pay to that, we will fight and defend our worlds against them when they come, he has predicted that they will attack us within a year I am more of the opinion that it will be sooner. I can't raise alert status without tipping our hand to any Cylon spies and more than likely accelerating there timetable for attack. So I have had R&D take apart the CNP and install your nephew's new program.

He has been ordered to return Galactica to speck and use his initiative he will more than likely install his new toys on your ship, they should make the Galactica more powerful than any three Mercury class Battlestars, it already has for the Atlantia,

Bill we need you and all older commanders now more than ever, I'm bringing the old boys back to fight again these new pups can't take a shit without a computer telling them how and I need men that know what it means to fight, fight and fight a hopeless battle and fraking win.

Good luck Bill you're going to need it

Nagala.

(Letter end)

The two sat there in silence for a moment, before the Admiral spoke

"I won't have a networked computer on this ship" he spoke with conviction and authority

"That uncle would be sacrilege" he said as he pulled out the fleet book "this is how Galactica was and this is how she will be again" he showed him the picture of the Galactica as she was when she was first launched "but with better weapons and armour, energy weapons and shields that can take multiple heavy nuclear weapons hits and shrug them off, a power core to that won't need to be refuelled ever, an FTL system that will allow Galactica to calculate a jump with pin point accuracy"

"That sounds pretty extensive"

"Yep and don't get me started on the engines"

"When do you begin?"

"Now" he smiled