Mutiny on the Galactica - 
by J-Unit
It is now week 4 of the Colonel Tigh experiment on Battlestar Galactica. To say that he wasn't quite prepared to take command of the ship was sort of an understatement. Even if his best and perhaps only friend on the ship hadn't been shot, he was unprepared. Even if that friend wasn't the commander of the fleet, he would have wanted no part of it. Even if that commander had just taken the President into custody, he would have taken a pass. Unfortunately, all of those things happened, and Tigh was the one who had to step up because, well, who else was there?
Tigh took the death of Commander Adama very hard. Lt. Valeri, the hot Asian Cylon who shot him, had passed Dr. Baltar's Cylon detector with flying colors, but she went through some problems and shot herself in the face. She was a bad shot, and it didn't kill her, and when Adama needed her to blow up a Cylon Basestar, she did her job well. After cooperating, we thought that her threat was pretty much over. Then she shot the the Commander, and the shit just went downhill from there.
The Colonel was quite pissed at the shooting, as I hinted before, and he slapped Valeri around quite a bit trying to get information about other Cylons in the fleet. She has always denied being a Cylon, and she denies knowing anything about any other Cylons that might be among them. Whether this is true or just part of her programming, we can only guess. Despite his best efforts, Tigh was unable to get any information out of her, but he knows that she must have had some help, and he's determined to figure out who her allies were and he knows were to start.
Chief Tyrel and Valeri had a relationship dating to a long time before the Cylons were destroying civilization. People didn't really care because the Galactica was more of museum than anything else, and really, what's so bad about a little sex? Tyrel is the first person Tigh targets for his interrogations, and he slaps him around pretty good as well. Seriously, how in the hell could Tyrel not realize he was sleeping with the enemy? He is a traitor and Tigh wants information NOW! The Chief is not completely innocent because when Valeri was acting strange, and strange things seemed to happen on Galactica whenever she was near, he helped cover for her. In his defense, a lot of people were deceived by the Cylons, including the smartest man in the world - or I guess you would say universe, technically - who was also fooled by hot Cylon snatch.
In reality, Chief was forced to end his relationship with Valeri, but still held feelings for her. However, when he returned to Galactica and learned that Valeri had shot the captain, he wanted nothing to do with her. Therefore, when Tigh put the two of them together in the same cell, it's not exactly like old times' sake. Luckily for Tyrel, he still has a lot of friends on the outside, and his number one fan is Cally. She knows that Chief can't be a Cylon, and wonders why Baltar isn't helping him.
Last season, Baltar created a Cylon detector, which they were supposed to use throughout the fleet to see who was a Cylon and who wasn't. It worked, but Baltar fudged the results and let Valeri pass. Why? Well, I believe at the time Six was straddling him and about to, uh, help him along during one of their imaginary sex sessions. The point is that even if Baltar passed Tyrel, there was no indication that anybody else should believe him. Gaius doesn't say as much to Cally, but generally just blows her off. How much trouble can a junior engineer make for the Vice President anyway? Well, when that junior engineer was witness to what was, in essence, the murder of an officer, she does hold a little bit of leverage.
Now, although Gaius knows that when he killed Crashdown he likely saved the lives of everybody on the ground as well as the rescue party, he decides he needs to do something. He visits Colonel Tigh and tells him that he has worked out the kinks in the Cylon detector. Parameters this and anomalies that, and he won't let another one slip through. Tigh laughs at him, and then laughs at him even harder when Baltar suggests that since he is Vice President he should be in command. Clearly, he is going to have to come up with another plan.
Since Tigh declared martial law, it turns out that not everybody out there wants to simply be subjugated. The people want their democracy, goddamit, and they aren't going to settle for anything less. Galactica is a warship, but it requires supplies including food and fuel. When the supply ships start refusing to supply Galactica unless the president comes back, Tigh can't let this type of shit go on without some sort of action. If you let one person get out of line, other people will start getting original thoughts and may start believing that military control isn't in their best interest. In order to stop this insubordination, Tigh sends the marines to bring the supplies back. Wave a few guns around! That will show them!
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