This will be a series of stand-alone stories which deal with the choices that the characters on Battlestar Galactica have made throughout the mini-series and first season (I'll be posted in as much of the order of the season as I can). I want to explore what would have happened/changed if things had gone differently. Some of the stories will be angst, some will be shippy, some will be funny. There will be different pairings throughout. Don't feel like you have to check out each one to understand the others. All I ask is that if it intrigues you, then give it a try. Hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!
There are pivotal moments in one's life where if you take the wrong path everything may change. Those changes may be for the good or for the bad. The possibilties are endless.
Apollo thought about the President's words as she gave one final nod and left him alone with his father. She was right in insisting that they move on. They didn't have the fuel or supplies to keep this frantic searching up. The Fleet needed to give up in order to stay safe. For the good of human kind and all that stuff he didn't really want to be thinking about right now.
"Let's make the call."
His father's voice echoed the thoughts running through his head. It was the reasonable solution to their problem. They had to leave her behind if they wanted to survive. No matter Starbuck's importance to the Fleet, they had to let her go. It was logical. It was right. It was a command from the President of the Twelve Colonies
The only problem was his heart was screaming no as loud as it could.
"I'm not leaving her," he said quietly, although by his father's scowl he was pretty sure it was loud enough to make his point.
"You disagree with the decision of both your President and your commanding officer?"
"No, I don't." He did his best to hold eye contact with his father. The man had always been the scariest person he had ever known to talk to.
"Then if you agree, what's the problem, son?"
Hearing his father address him so informally made his nerves ease just a little bit. It was enough for him to be able to voice his thoughts and opinions. Funny how much more he could communicate with his father now that the world was over. Something to think about when he wasn't doing everything possible to keep from abandoning his top pilot. "I can't leave her behind, Dad."
"The Fleet's running out of fuel, and we're running out of functional ships. If we keep going with this, then we're just asking the Cylons to come destroy the remainder of the human race."
"So have the Fleet move on. I just won't go with you."
"That's suicide, Lee."
"I refuse to leave Kara behind. My mind keeps remembering what she did for me when my engine gave out and I was floating in space with no way to get back to Galactica a few weeks ago. She risked her life to make sure I got back. She didn't give up. She didn't accept that I was dead."
"You were right in front of her face at the time, alive and trying to sacrifice yourself for everyone else. As much as I hate to admit it, we're not even sure if she made it through that dogfight alive. Hot Dog was not able to confirm that he saw her eject out of the Viper. And even if she did make it out of her bird all right, the chances that she made it down to the planet safely are slim. And she wouldn't want to risk everyone's safety just for hers. "
"She's Starbuck. She's alive down there on that planet. I can feel--" He paused for a moment. He really didn't want to admit to his dad that he actually thought he could feel her alive out there. That if she was gone, somehow he would know. "She's alive, Dad. Which is why I'm not giving up. She is too important."
Adama raised his eyebrows at Lee's words. "To the Fleet or to you?"
He didn't really want to get into this right now, but if it would help, he'd do it. Anything to keep from talking about this damn intuition he had that she was waiting for him to come rescue her. That was another topic he didn't want to discuss with his father. "Both. She's the top pilot. She keeps everyone fighting. And she keeps me going. She's the last connection I have to my life before the Cylons attacked. She's the one that knows how I'm supposed to be doing my job and makes sure that I know it, too. I'm not letting that go."
His father rubbed his temples with his fingers and shook his head. "And what do you propose we do then?"
Lee knew that he was just being humored. His father would never let him do any of the things he was currently thinking. But he didn't care. His mind was set and for once, no rational reasoning was going to change it. "I don't know exactly. Put me in a Raptor or something. Give me the next jump coordinates to program into the FTL drive when I find her. We'll catch up to the Fleet."
"I don't think you've thought this one out. There's a high probability that we may have already jumped to a new location by the time you try to return. If that's the case, you will never find us."
"I'll find you. Kara and I have never encountered a problem that we couldn't solve together."
"This isn't like your training at the Academy. If you get this wrong, then you're dead."
"I'm willing to risk that for her."
Adama looked at him grimly. "You're not a miracle worker. And that's exactly what this is going to take. A miracle. Because under any other circumstances, there's no way you'll find us if we leave you behind."
"I can't go," he said simply.
"And I can't let you stay."
Lee was just bearing down to start arguing some more when Dee's voice erupted from the speakers. "Commander Adama, report to the CIC. Also, the CAG is needed in Hanger Bay B. Repeat. Commander to CIC. CAG to Hanger Bay B."
"Something's wrong," Adama said. He motioned for his son and together they went running to their positions.
In the back of his head, Lee felt a little satisfaction in knowing that no one had actually made the call to move on. His words had stalled that decision for at least a little while, and now there was time to figure out a way to make this work. Maybe he'd be able to come up with another, more reasonable plan that could keep him searching for her while he solved whatever problem was waiting for him in Hanger Bay B.
Whatever had happened down there, he was grateful. It had bought him a precious few moments to figure out how he could get her back.
When he entered Hanger Bay B fifteen minutes earlier, Lee quickly noticed that his summons by Dee no longer seemed like a blessing in disguise. Everyone, including the normally irrationally calm Specialist Cally, was running and screaming in an effect to get the Vipers ready for whatever situation was occurring. When he yelled at someone to report what was happening immediately, Lieutenant Valerii took it upon herself to scream "It's a fraking Cylon Raider, sir!"
He ignored the initial impulse to discipline her on how you brief a fellow officer on the situation and instead asked for more information. When it was clear that she hadn't heard his request, he took a step back to scan the hanger bay. Although he knew it was completely inappropriate, he suddenly found himself fighting back the sudden urge to laugh. The way they were all acting, it was like none of the people on Galactica had seen a Cylon before.
Within another minute, he didn't feel like laughing anymore.
What Boomer had been trying to convey during her outburst and what took him talking to two other pilots and three deckhands to figure out was there was a Cylon Raider approaching Galactica and the civilian ships they were protecting. It happened to be flying rather erratically with enough fire power to take the whole Fleet out. On top of that, it seemed that the deck crew could only get one Viper operational.
Lee would have been even more concerned that he already was if he hadn't found out that it was his ship which was ready to launch. He was the only person he trusted to get the job done since Starbuck had taken it upon herself to get stranded on a planet without having the courtesy to let them know where she had landed. Having his Viper be the functional one would make it a hell of a lot easier to explain to his superiors why the CAG was taking this mission on himself when there were plenty of available pilots.
That was supposing that he made it out of this one alive. And that was never really a guarantee.
And so here he was, flying through space towards a single Cylon Raider with no back-up and no way to figure out how to get his best friend home safely. When had his life become so permanently complicated?
He watched as the Cylon Raider dipped and bent its way slowly towards him. "What the frak is wrong with this thing?" It had been flying as if there was a short in its wiring the whole time he had been closing the distance between them. He didn't trust it.
He shook his head at that thought. When had he contemplating trusting the Cylon Raider?
Hitting a few switches near his left hand, the familiar hum of the Viper's weapon system kicking into full power rang through the cockpit. If this Cylon Raider tried anything, he was ready. Because he didn't trust it. Not for one second.
"Galactica Actual to Apollo."
"Apollo," he answered, diverting some of his attention to his comm. He was still a safe enough distance from the enemy ship to do that in his opinion.
"Your orders are to shoot that Raider out of the sky. We don't want to risk it doing any damage to us right now with our current situation."
Lee understood what his father was trying to tell him. They didn't want to waste what little resources they had in order to wait to see what this Cylon was doing approaching them on a solo flight. So it looked like this was a simple shoot and run mission. He could handle that.
The Cylon Raider was getting close enough for his targeting system to get a solid lock so he started positioning himself for the shot he had been ordered to take. Doing a quick flip in space, his Viper jumped out of its position in front of the Cylon Raider and slid in to follow it from behind. The Raider immediately started dodging and twisting to get away now that it was on the defensive.
"Now you want to fight, do you?" he taunted to no one in particular. "Okay. I haven't been having that great a day so I could do for a little challenge."
For the next few minutes, he engaged the Raider in a pure dogfight without either ship taking one shot. He knew that he was holding back to conserve fuel and weapons, but he had no idea why the Cylon Raider refused to fire. This was probably the oddest experience he had ever had flying against one of the toasters.
Suddenly, his ship lit up as his weapons systems finally got a lock. "Galactica, preparing to take my shot."
"Do it," he heard his father's gruff voice call into his ear.
He tightened his grip on the firing mechanism.
He was about to fire when a wave of uneasiness came over him. There was something wrong. His gut was screaming for him not to shoot the Cylon out of the air.
"Take the shot."
He tried to listen to his father and made another attempt to fire. But again, he felt himself pull back.
The ship had been locked in his targeting system for at least ten solid seconds now. He didn't think he would have another open shot like this. At least, he knew that a lot more fuel would be wasted to get another opportunity. That was fuel they didn't have to waste. He needed to take this shot.
The Raider suddenly rolled into an impossible turn and did a flip so that its nose now faced the front of his Viper. It gave the impression of flying backwards. He had never seen a Cylon do that before. He hadn't even known they could do that. It would take an enormously talented pilot to make a ship perform a stunt like that.
"Starbuck?"
The word had escaped his mouth before he could really think about what he was saying.
There was no way that was his lead pilot flying a Cylon Raider, no matter how many death-defying and out of the box moves it did. No one in the whole Fleet knew what it took to pilot a Raider, including Kara Thrace. And she hadn't been gone long enough to properly learn.
"Apollo, report."
His father's voice ripped him back into the reality. He hadn't shot the Raider out of the sky yet. Adama wanted him to do that.
"It's Starbuck," he yelled into his comm, immediately cringing. He hadn't meant to say that.
"What are you talking about?"
"I think she's flying the Raider."
"How can you tell?"
He didn't answer at first. There was no logic to it. He had no idea why he thought it would be her. He just did.
"It's her."
"You've already said that. We need a concrete reason, Apollo."
Dee's voice cut into his father's transmission. "Second Viper prepared to launch from the port side tubes. Back-up will be with you within three minutes, Apollo."
He watched the Cylon Raider approach his Viper hesitantly, still behaving extremely erratically. Okay. He had three minutes to figure out what the frak made him think that Kara was doing the impossible again.
That meant he was about to do a few impossibly stupid things himself.
He didn't have many options at this point. The only one that made any real sense was testing the Raider to see if it would take the bait if he dangled himself in front of its nose, so he powered down his engines. Granted, he knew that it was only a flip of a switch to engage the engines again and his weapon system, too. But a toaster wouldn't know that. It would just think he was floating in space, defenseless.
He prayed this would work, and he prayed that he was right about it being her. Because otherwise he really might not make it back alive.
"Apollo, our readings say that you've lost power. Is something wrong with your bird?"
"No, Galactica Actual. I'm testing the Cylon."
"I'm sure there are better ways to see if their weapons are in working order."
He could hear the anger in his father's voice and prayed twice as hard that he was right. Otherwise, he was in for a hell of a verbal lashing with maybe a few punches thrown in when his father got his hands on him.
"Come on," he whispered to the approaching enemy. "Give me something to work with here."
As the words came out of his mouth, he stared in awe as the Cylon Raider followed his example and powered down its engines to the bare minimum. They were now both just floating in space, staring at each other. He saw the Raider make a few small dips with its wings in a sign that every single pilot in the air knew.
It was a friendly hello.
"It's her," he said, more sure of his decision. He pitched his Viper into a mirror of the wing tilts he had just received. "Galactica, I really think this is Starbuck."
"You have no proof. You're ordered to return to Galactica. Boxer will be on you within thirty seconds. He can take over the mission."
Lee rolled his eyes and flipped off the comm. "All right, Kara. This is it. You have thirty seconds, and then you're dead and I'm in hack for disobeying orders."
Almost as if the Raider had heard him, it pitched up into an almost vertical rise and gave Lee a clear look at its vulnerable belly. With a laugh, he flipped on his comm. "Galactica, I have your proof. The bottom of the Cylon Raider is marked in tape with the words Star and Buck. No frakin' toaster would do that."
He waited patiently for Galactica's response.
"All right, Apollo. You've made your point. Lead the Raider into Hanger Bay B. And if it does anything to put you on the defensive, shoot it out of the sky."
He pitched his Viper up into a small roll until he flew side by side with the now horizontal Raider. With a shake of his wings, he let his laugh carry through to the CIC. "I don't think that will be a problem, sir. This has to be her. That Raider was flying with some serious attitude before."
Typical to the way Starbuck worked, her first words upon stepping out of the Raider were to reprimand Lee.
"What the frak was that, Apollo? You didn't even take one shot at me!" She shook her head at him with a laugh.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the approaching crowd. For whatever reason, she let him tug her out of the hanger without much protest. It was only once that had reached the hall that she yanked her arm away and stopped walking. "Where the frak are you taking me? Because I know I didn't do anything wrong."
He shook his hand and grabbed her arm again. "I'm not taking you to the brig, Kara. Relax. You smell like you bathed in some sort of decaying mush. I figured you would want to hit the head before facing anybody's questions."
She leaned in and sniffed her shoulder. "Oh frak. I must have gotten used to the smell of whatever was inside that Raider. Though when you become a member of the Hygiene Police is beyond me."
"Consider it another one of my CAG duties." He shoved her into the hatch leading to the showers. "Or it was just my good deed for the day."
Rifling through the equipment locker, he pulled out a couple tanks and a pair of sweatpants. "Use these until you have a chance to change into something of your own. I'll be briefing my father on why I disobeyed orders out there."
"You disobeyed orders?" she said, pausing in her removal of her flight suit.
"Yeah. They wanted me to shoot you out of the air, no questions asked."
She went back to work undressing. "And you didn't. Why was that again?"
"Because I didn't feel like killing the best pilot we have."
She rolled her eyes as she threw her clothes at him. He dodged them easily with a laugh. By the time he had pushed them into a pile against the wall where they wouldn't bother anyone, she was already in the shower.
Kara Thrace took a deep breath as she stepped out of the briefing room. For the past week, it seems like she had gone from meeting to meeting to explain what had occurred to her on that planet and how she had been able to figure out the schematics of a Cylon Raider in such a short amount of time. Throw in a few turns at the CAP and plenty of technical questions from the Chief, and it was no wonder that she hadn't seen Lee in days.
And frak it, he was probably the only person she wanted to talk to, too.
When he had dragged her to the head to clean up, he had managed to avoid answering why he hadn't fired his weapons at her. He hadn't explained how he had known it was her.
She rubbed her face and turned to the nearest person walking past her. "Have you seen the CAG?"
"I think he has an off-shift, Lieutenant, sir," the young specialist sputtered out. "He's probably in his office, catching up on paperwork."
She nodded in a quick dismissal and started out in the opposite way of the CAG's office. The specialist didn't know Lee Adama like she did. If he had finally procured a free shift, there was only one thing he would be doing.
The bunkroom was completely empty, making her smile. That was the one good thing about having an off-shift. Not many other people had that same luxury. You could actually get some peace and quiet.
Her eyes fell on the one bunk that had its curtain closed. Gotcha.
Smirking, she made her way up the ladder in front of the bunk and slid herself in through the opening of the curtain. Lee turned over to stare at her before emitting a growl and turning to face the wall. "What the hell are you doing, Kara?"
"I needed to talk to you. Heard you had an off-shift which meant that you would be indulging your lazy tendencies."
"Go away," he said with a laugh, although he did turn over to face her once more.
"No," she said, biting back a laugh. She stretched out so that she lay down next to him. He instinctively slid his arm around her and pulled him close. "We haven't done this since we were in school together, you know."
He laughed. "But then we had the pretense of you being scared to death of thunderstorms to explain it."
"That's why I love being a pilot. No such thing as a thunderstorm in space."
A loud banging and yelling interrupted their small trip down memory lane. "What the frak is that?"
Lee made a move to get up before she shoved him back down. "I locked the hatch door. Wanted some privacy."
"Which explains why you just invited yourself into bed with me. I knew you wouldn't have done that if there was a chance of you being caught showing actual concern for another human being."
She punched him lightly on the arm before putting her hand to rest on his chest. "Speaking of showing concern, you haven't asked how I'm doing now that I'm back on Galactica. I banged up my knee on that planet, you know."
"So I heard. I also heard it wasn't that bad."
"I was able to fly CAP a few days after returning. That doesn't mean it didn't flare up my injury." She scowled. "I could kill that stupid pyramid player for throwing that cheap shot during the championship."
Lee nodded. He knew how mad she still was at always having to favor her left leg. Every little blow to her right knee had the potential of keeping her from flying ever again.
"Lee?" she said hesitantly after the banging had stopped and they were once again laying in silence. "Why didn't you fire at the Cylon Raider? And don't give me that crap about not wanting to lose your best pilot. There was no frakin' way you could have known it was me in the cockpit in the beginning."
She felt him shift slightly in what she could only guess was a shrug. "I have no idea how, but I just knew it was you."
"You're going to have to do a little better than that."
"My father ordered me to shoot down your Raider at the first possible moment, but when the time came, something kept me from pulling the trigger. I knew that it was you. Call it intuition."
"Intuition is just a load of crap," she said with a smirk.
"Well, my intuition has kept both myself and you alive on other occasions besides this one." He pulled his arm out from under her and slid the curtain open. "Maybe you should start following your intuition a little more. It might keep you from getting lost on a planet again."
"Hey! I can't help that those Cylons appeared out of nowhere to take on me and a whole squadron of nuggets."
"Don't lie," he said, rolling his eyes as he pulled his body over hers and vaulted out of the bunk. "You just wanted to be the hero again, taking on all those toasters all by your lonesome."
"If the shoe fits, wear it." She sat up and let her feet dangle off the side of the bunk.
Lee walked over to his locker and pulled out his uniform. "That's all right. I think we need a few more heroes around here now."
When she didn't respond, he shut his locked and turned to see why the notoriously loud-mouthed pilot was so quiet. She was still sitting on his bunk, only now she was holding her head in her hands and wincing in pain. "What's wrong, Kara?" he asked, concerned.
"My intuition is telling me that you're going to be late for you shift, Mr. CAG." With the last words, she stopped acting and burst out laughing.
"I don't know why I put up with you when all you do is mock me. I am you superior officer. I think there are rules against blatant teasing somewhere."
She nodded and gave him a little mock salute. He could see her biting her lip to keep from laughing.
"Don't you have a meeting to go to, Lieutenant?" he called as he unlocked the hatch and let himself out.
Her laughter filled the bunkroom and followed him down the corridor.
Lee took a deep breath as he stared at the hanger bay, buzzing with activity. This crazy plan of Starbuck's had no chance of succeeding. The Fleet had no other option, though. They needed more tylium, and this plant infested with Cylons was the only source of fuel within their reach.
And he still didn't see why she felt the need to deal him the ego blow of getting his father to put her in charge of leading the twelve Vipers that were going to hide in those shipping crates. It was a job for the CAG, but she had seen to it that he would just be another pilot following her into battle.
"Apollo" called a sweet, sing-songy voice from behind him.
He finished his last minute check of his ship and turned to scowl. "What do you want, Thrace?"
"I wanted to apologize while I had the chance, sir. I used the fact that it was my plan to take away your authority." She started to fidget. Obviously apologies didn't come easy to a woman like her, Lee thought. "It's just I had to be a part of this. I'm not sure if it can be pulled off without me."
"You mean without your stupid, last minute decisions that always seem to work out in the end?"
She gave him a small smile. "Yeah. That's what I meant."
He handed the clipboard to the nearest deckhand. "I'm really not mad. I just don't understand. You would have been assigned to fly under my command anyway. I don't see why you had to be so underhanded."
She blushed slightly and suddenly became particularly interested in the side coupling of his Viper. "My knee's been acting up again. The Doc is trying to convince your father that I should be taken off active flight duty until it heals up properly from the injuries when my bird got shot down. So I had to do whatever it took to make sure they didn't do that before this mission."
Understanding lit up his face. "You blame yourself for the fuel shortage."
She glared at him. "Well, if I hadn't got shot down, we wouldn't have wasted all of that tylium, would we?"
He reached out and touched her shoulder. "I understand."
His words seemed to hit home as she turned to stare at him. Before he could say anything else, he found himself pinned up against his Viper with her lips crushing into his. It was probably a mistake on both their parts, but he couldn't get himself to fight her off. Instead, he wrapped his arms around on her and held on tight for as long as she would let him.
Eventually, though, she did let go. He was proud of the fact that he kept the groan that was on the tip of his tongue in place.
That had been long but not long enough in his book. And definitely on a level he wasn't used to. It was a wonder he could even find his voice.
It was also a wonder that she could hear him over all the cheering and cat-calling their little encounter had attracted.
"What was that?" he managed to pant.
She simply winked at him as she backed away. "I was just following your advice and listening to my intuition. Now, get suited up. We have some Cylons to kill."
He couldn't believe the words as they came out of his mouth. "I'm taking my Viper into that conveyor tunnel."
Starbuck's voice screamed into his ear immediately. "What the frak are you talking about, Apollo?"
"We have to take out our mission objective. The only way to do that is to get in under their sensors. I'm going in."
Without another word, he twisted his Viper into a downward spiral that took him right into the tunnel. He wasn't surprised to see, upon straightening his ship out, that she was right on his tail. Whenever one of them did something as stupid and reckless as what he was doing right now, the other felt obligated to follow. They had an unspoken pact.
"Well, here we go, fearless leader," she quipped.
"You should have stayed out there. Protected the rest of the pilots."
"You need me more," she stated simply.
He chose to not respond to that comment and instead focused on keeping them both alive. The tunnel was slowly narrowing. And it looked like it was about to en--
"Pull up! Pull up!" he yelled, already doing what he had screamed. He was pleased to see her instinctively listen to him, and they both came shooting out of the top of the tunnel.
"So, now what, Apollo?"
"Now I shoot the frak out of this base and we fly on out of here to finish off the straggling Raiders."
"Sounds like a plan."
He turned his sights onto the target Dr. Baltar had given them and, whispering one quick prayer to the gods, he pulled the trigger.
"Anytime now, Lee, would be good."
He pressed the trigger again. Nothing was happening. "It's jammed!" he growled.
"I guess it falls on me, then. I'll just have to--"
Her voice cut off suddenly. "What's wrong, Starbuck? Don't tell me your weapon system is jammed, too."
"No, it's operational. The only problem is all my missiles with the delayed triggers are gone. I shot them trying to take down the target as we first planned. I didn't know you were going to pull such a stupid Starbuck kind of move."
"I like to keep you on your toes." He sighed. "Well, we're just going to have to radio some of the other Vipers to make it through the conveyor tunnel into here."
"You and I both know that we're the only ones who could have navigated a Viper through those tunnels. Any other pilot would have crashed into the walls."
"So then what do you suggest?"
"I suggest you get out of my way. I'm taking this thing out."
"But you can't do that without the delayed timers. Unless…" His voice trailed off as he realized what she was suggesting. "No, Kara. You're not sacrificing yourself."
"It makes sense, Lee. It's my fault that we don't have the tylium we need to make it to Earth. I'm just fixing what's turning out to be the last screw-up I'll ever have."
"Forget it. We'll just go back through that tunnel and let Galactica know they need to come up with a new plan."
"There's not enough time or supplies for that. The Cylons know we're here now. If we don't take out this base, then we're all going to die."
He could hear her voice falter at the end. She had really resigned herself to this. So much for her eternal optimism in her ability to get herself out of tough jams. He shook himself away from that thought. There had to be something else they could do to finish this mission besides having Starbuck fly herself close enough to use her short-term missiles.
"Tell the old man that I appreciate everything he has ever done to me. He's been the only father I've ever known."
As her words of goodbye registered with him, he knew there would be no answer to this problem. This was their only move. "You're sure about this?"
"It's our only option. I guess I just want to play hero one last time, huh?"
Her laughter sounded hollow even to him. "I'll let my father know."
"Thank you." He could see her face in the cockpit as their Vipers sat idly side by side. There was a battle going on all around them, but at the moment, he couldn't even tell.
"I…" He heard her clear her throat. "I'm going to miss you, Lee. You've been… well, you've been a hell of a lot to me through the years."
"I love you, Kara."
"I know. And the feeling's mutual. I'm sorry I couldn't have told you in happier way."
"You don't have to do this."
"Yes, I do. Make sure you finish off those Cylons for me. I don't want you to screw this up after I've gone to such lengths to make it work."
"Good hunting, Starbuck."
"Good hunting… Lee."
He watched her speed her Viper straight towards the heart of the Cylon mining base for as long as he could before he had to start flying away. He didn't turn back as the sky flashed bright yellow from the explosion. He ignored the calls of victory that echoed through the comm system as he came back into range. He didn't agree with their elation.
Because all that he knew right now was what his intuition was telling him. No matter how large of a victory this mission had been, in the end, it was a loss.
His intuition was telling him that humanity didn't stand a chance without Kara Thrace.
And, like always, he listened to his intuition.