2/12/04
THE FLIGHT OF BELLEROPHON Ch. 1
"Sir, short range scanners indicate a Cylon scout ship bearing down on us... We're being scanned, sir!"
"Damn, how do they keep finding us?"
Bridget "Sheba" Cain, the commander of the Battlestar Pegasus stalked the length of the CIC like a caged lioness. For nearly a month now, she and her ship had been hounded by a Cylon basestar that had somehow managed to follow them, regardless of the number of hyperlight jumps they made. The theory was that hyperlight jumps were untraceable. So, either the Cylons had found a way to prove this theory wrong or they were tracking her ship by some other means. Some means that Cain wasn't sure she wanted to contemplate.
"As soon as that bastard gets in range, shoot him down!" She barked. "I do not want him reporting back to his basestar. Weapons grid to full power... Starboard batteries standby... Commence firing!"
The Pegasus' starboard side batteries blazed out and within minutes the Cylon drone ship was destroyed. Cain released the breath that she hadn't even realized that she had been holding. It was a victory, a small one, a temporary one, but a victory all the same. There had been so precious few of those these past few weeks that she would take whatever she could get. She joined in with the rest of the bridge crew as they gave a short round of applause.
It would buy them a little more time before that basestar found them again. They would need to jump again, and soon. Moving to examine the navigational charts laid out on the lighted console, she looked for a place to hide her ship. She had already poured over these charts a hundred times and had found nothing.
Four weeks ago, they had responded to a fleet-wide request for all FTL-capable military ships to report to the Armistice Station. They had responded along with about 30 other battlestars. That request had turned out to be a Cylon ambush. Only the Pegasus had survived. The other ships that had responded had been newer, state-of-the-art models and they had all reported massive systems failures and malfunctions. While the Pegasus, one of the oldest ships in the fleet, second only to the Galactica, had experienced only minor troubles. Even with her marginally networked computers and her perpetually malfunctioning navigational system, she had survived while the others had not. It made no sense.
The one thing the Pegasus did have that was state-of-the-art, were her Mark 7 Vipers, but, ironically, it was the Vipers that had failed. Their systems had either shut down completely or had seized up and Cain had lost almost all of her Vipers in that initial attack.
Seeing what was happening and watching helplessly as one by one, the battlestars were picked off, Cain had curbed her natural impulse to stand and fight. Instead of sending out the last of her Vipers, she had pulled in as many as she could and had made the jump back to the Colonies. Unfortunately a Cylon basestar had made the jump immediately after her. Seeing the devastation already done to the Colonies and realizing that no help would be coming from that quarter, she did the only thing she could, she jumped again. She could not even hope to take on the basestar without Viper support. She had hoped to lose the basestar and be able to return to the Colonies later, but that had yet to happen. They were too busy trying to stay alive themselves, trying to stay one jump ahead of their Cylon pursuers.
Gesturing to Lt. Atlan, the navigations officer, Cain beckoned the young man closer. Speaking softly to avoid being overheard, she asked, "What's the furthest point you can plot a jump from the Colonies?"
"Away from the Colonies, sir? But I thought-."
"It's been almost a month," Cain interrupted. "After what we saw, do you really think there's anything left of the Colonies by now?"
The young man swallowed with difficulty. "No, sir," he whispered.
"Exactly. We need to lose these Cylons once and for all. I'm getting sick of playing tag. I think, we need to put as much distance between us and the Colonies as possible. How far can you take us?"
"Well, the Red Line marks the edge of known, charted space, beyond that is the Prolmar Sector. I can get us that far, but I don't dare try to plot a jump any further until we have a better idea of what's out there."
"So, you can get us to the Prolmar Sector?"
"Yes, sir."
"Plot the jump, but do it quickly and do it quietly. Don't let anyone know what you're doing."
"Sir?"
"Just don't tell anyone."
"Yes, sir."
Cain understood the lieutenant's hesitation. It was unlike her to order secrecy. She generally liked to keep her crews informed about her plans and ideas. She had always found that openness and honesty made for a more relaxed ship. The crews knew what was going on and what was going to be expected of them. She felt that it also cut down on a lot of the rigid separations between the various crews, between the officers and the enlisted, and that was the way she like it. She was not a big stickler on the military formalities. She liked her ship to be one big, happy family. She knew that this style did not sit well with many other commanders, but as the first, and only, female battlestar commander and, at 46, one of the youngest, it was only to be expected that she would have her own unique style.
Despite all the achievements of women during the wars, and the hard- fought acceptances that they had won, the Colonial Fleet was still, by and large, a man's world. Women, especially those who wanted to be combat Viper pilots, still had to prove themselves daily. They still had to work just a little bit harder than their male counterparts simply to earn a fraction of their respect. It was a reality that Bridget Cain was long familiar with. Like so many other battlestar commanders, she had begun her career flying Vipers. Although unlike many of the others, she was too young to have flown against the Cylons, a fact they all loved to remind her of. Well, they had all come face to face with the Cylons four weeks ago and all of those self- righteous old men were dead, while Bridget Cain and her outdated battlestar were still alive.
As much as she had grown to love the Pegasus, her assignment to the aging battlestar was still a sore point with Cain. It had been Admiral Negalla's predecessor who had promoted Cain. Admiral Paris had always been a great supporter of Cain's and it had been his last request before retiring four year ago, that Bridget Cain should be given command of a battlestar. The fleet had just commissioned five, state-of-the-art battlestars to be built, but unfortunately Paris had not specified which ship Cain was to get command of. Paris had left that decision to his replacement Admiral Negalla, and Negalla did not like Cain.
Instead of giving her one of the new battlestars, Negalla had moved Commander Valdez from the Pegasus to the new Colombia and had given the nearly obsolete Pegasus to Cain. It had been a deliberate slight to Cain and she knew it. The only way it could have been more insulting would be if he had given her the Galactica, but for some reason that antique had been given to William Adama. Cain wasn't sure who Adama had pissed off to have earned that assignment, but then again, knowing what a traditionalist he was, he had probably requested it. Hell, he had probably even thought of it as an honor.
Cain had served under Adama when he had been in command of the Battle- cruiser Camelot and her opinion of the man was a bit conflicted. While she respected his experience and his accomplishments, no one could deny that in his prime, he had been a hero, those days were long past. Bridget could remember well, chafing under the man's cautious, by-the-book method of command. His glory days had been in the past and he had never managed to change with the times. No wonder Negalla had given him the Galactica, she thought, they were a perfect match. Both were relics of a by-gone era.
But there was one thing for which she could not find fault with the man, and that was that he had somehow sired Lee Adama. The elder of Adama's two sons was possibly the finest pilot she had ever seen. He had served on the Pegasus for a year right after he had finished with his Viper Training Program. She had eventually lost him to a transfer to the Solaria, but she remembered his one year of service quite fondly. Of course, none of that mattered now. She had seen that last report from the fleet, listing which ships had been confirmed destroyed. The Solaria had been on that list. Lee Adama was dead, as, most likely, was his father...
Cain gave her head a shake. She didn't have the time to be dwelling on dead comrades. Perhaps later, when they had finally given the Cylons the slip, she would have the time and luxury to properly grieve for those she had lost, but not right now. She had a ship and a crew to get to safety first. Everything else would have to wait until later.
~*~*~*~
The jump into the Prolmar Sector had been successful. That had been a little over a month ago and there had been no sign of the Cylons since then. Nor had there been any sign of anything else. No other ships, no habitable planets, nothing. For the first time in her life, Bridget Cain was at a complete loss as to what she should do. For all she knew, she and her crew were the only surviving members of the human race. A humbling thought if ever there was one. And Cain did not like feeling humbled.
To be perfectly honest, she was frightened and lost. The men and women of the Pegasus were all looking to her to get them through this alive. The problem was, she didn't know what 'this' was. She had no idea where to take her people. They couldn't return to the Colonies, that much was obvious. So, where did they go now? She had no answer to this question, so, for now, they simply flew in a straight path from the point at which they had emerged from their jump. It was all she could think to do. She knew that she could not do this indefinitely. Eventually the ship would run out of fuel and they would be dead in space.
She knew that she needed to consult with her officers and try to come up with a plan of action. She knew that she owed that to them and that they were waiting for this, but she just couldn't seem to do it. To go to them and ask for help would mean that she had to admit that she had no idea what she was doing and she just couldn't do that. So, she hid away in her quarters and spent hours staring at navigational charts, looking for hidden meanings in the patterns of the stars. Wasn't that what the ancient ones had done? They had looked up and seen their futures mapped out in the mysterious twinkling lights of the night sky. Well, Bridget Cain was traveling among those twinkling lights and they were telling her nothing. She was not a religious woman, but right now, she was desperate enough to offer up a silent prayer to the Lords of Kobol to give her some kind of guidance.
A soft buzz interrupted her thoughts and Cain turned to pick up the old-fashioned phone attached to the wall beside her desk. The phone was cumbersome and inconvenient and she hated it, but the Fleet had denied all of her requests to have the Pegasus refitted with a new communications system. She suspected it was because they didn't want to spend the money on a ship they were already considering for decommissioning. The Pegasus was of a unique design. She had been intended to be a transition between the original battlestars, like the Galactica and the newer, fully integrated models. But for some reason, the Pegasus had been the only ship of that design that had been built.
"Yes," Cain said into the receiver.
"Sir, short range scanners are picking up a small ship." The voice was that of Petty Officer Rome, one of the communications technicians.
"Cylon?"
"No, sir, scanners indicate that it's Colonial. A Raptor, sir."
"Have they responded to the proper signal protocols?"
"Yes, sir, they say they're from the Galactica."
The Galactica! The Galactica still survives! Was this the sign she had just asked the Lords for? Relief, such as she had never felt before, flooded her being. They weren't alone!
"W-well, welcome them aboard, Mr. Rome, welcome them aboard! We, evidently, have much to discuss."
"Yes, sir!"
~*~*~*~
By the time Cain arrived at the port side hangar deck, the two pilots from the Galactica were standing beside their ship and looking around with dazed expressions. They were both female, one with long, black hair pulled back in a ponytail, the other with short, blonde hair. The two women turned to face Cain as she and her XO, Col. Tolan, approached.
"Well, it's certainly good to see you ladies. Welcome aboard the Pegasus. I'm Commander Bridget Cain and this is Col. Michael Tolan."
She extended her hand to the nearest pilot, the dark-haired one. The young woman immediately stepped up to shake the offered hand.
"How do you do, sir? I'm Lt. Sharon Valerii, Boomer. It is such an honor to meet you, sir. I've been following your career ever since I was a little girl."
Cain smiled. She was accustomed to being greeted that way by young pilots, especially young female pilots. And while it did remind her of her age, it was still quite gratifying to her ego. Disengaging her hand from Valerii, Cain turned to the blonde pilot.
"Lt. Kara Thrace, Starbuck."
Both the woman's eyes and her tone were cool and she deliberately did not shake the offered hand. Thrace... Starbuck... both the name and the call sign sounded familiar to Cain, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard them. Then she remembered that she had heard about this young woman when she had been in flight school. She was supposed to be some hotshot pilot whom people had been comparing to Cain in her younger days. Cain had even gone to see the young woman during her training sessions, but had not been terribly impressed. Cain also remembered that Lee Adama had mentioned her a number of times. Cain had not been impressed with this Thrace before, she was even less impressed with her now.
"So, I assume from your presence and from what you told Mr. Rome, that the Galactica somehow managed to survive the Cylon attack as well?" Cain asked.
"Yes, sir. We were involved with the decommissioning ceremony, so we weren't there for the initial attack," Kara said. "Some of our Mark 7 Vipers tried to engage, but they were all destroyed. The Galactica had no warheads or missiles in her magazines, so we had to jump to the Ragnar Anchorage to arm up. By the time we had finished with that, it was too late to help the Colonies, so we jumped to the Prolmar Sector."
"So, that's it? Our two battlestars are all that's left of the Colonies, of the entire Human race?"
"Oh, no!" Sharon spoke up. "We managed to save quite a few civilian ships. The Galactica has an entire fleet of ships with her and some 50,000 refugees."
"Thank the Lords! Well, that's good news at least. How far out is the Galactica? I must speak to Adama at once!"
"Of course. I can give you the coordinates for the Galactica's position and you can follow us back as soon as you want," Sharon said.
"Excellent! I don't mean to rush you ladies, but if you could relay the coordinates to the CIC as soon as possible, we can make the jump just as soon as our computers are warmed up. Thank you. I hope we'll speak again on board the Galactica."
The two pilots watched as the tall, broad-shouldered woman strode from the deck. Her stride was long and confident; the walk of a predator in its element. It was that very walk that had earned her the nickname of the "Lioness of Leon" on her home Colony. With a disinterested shrug, Kara turned away to climb back on board the Raptor. Sharon followed a moment or two after her. As the two women went through the pre-launch procedures, Sharon was practically bouncing in her seat in her excitement.
"Oh, man, Starbuck, isn't this incredible? Commander Cain! One of the first, and probably the greatest, female Viper pilots ever! She's a living legend!"
"Yeah, it's great to find another battlestar," Kara said neutrally. "We'll be able to protect the fleet so much better now."
"Uh, yeah."
After relaying her jump coordinates to the Pegasus' CIC and receiving launch clearance, Sharon launched the Raptor back into space.
"You don't seem very excited about meeting Commander Cain," Sharon commented casually.
"Nope. Don't like her."
"Had you met her before? She didn't seem to know you."
"No, I've never met her. I do know that when I was in flight school, she and several other high-ranking officers stopped in to watch my class run through our training exercises, but I never actually met her that day."
"So, obviously she didn't offer you a commission on the Pegasus."
"Nope. Evidently she was much more impressed with Apollo. He was in my class, too. She offered him a commission."
"Capt. Apollo served on the Pegasus? I thought he'd been assigned to the Solaria?"
"He was. He only served on the Pegasus for his rookie year, then he asked to be transferred. He was moved to the Solaria."
"Why did he ask to be transferred?"
"You'd have to ask him that."
"Because you don't know or because you're not telling?"
"Because it's not my story to tell."
"Fair enough."
The two women fell silent for a moment as they made the hyperlight jump. Coming out of the jump, Sharon made minute adjustments to the controls without even thinking. She had flown so many patrols, in so many different conditions, over the past few months that what had once caused her so much stress and anxiety, was now second nature.
"So, is the reason that Capt. Apollo asked for a transfer, the same reason that you don't like Commander Cain?" Sharon asked carefully.
Kara was spared from having to answer that question by Duella's voice crackling over the wireless. "Raptor 312, this is Galactica, welcome back, Boomer. Did you and Starbuck have a good flight?"
"That is a definite affirmative, Galactica. We found a friendly who should be joining us momentarily. I repeat, tell command to hold their fire, friendly coming in!"
~*~*~*~
The sound of the knock on the hatch to his quarters brought William Adama to his feet. He was surprised to find that his hands were shaking and his heart was racing.
"Come in," he called out.
As the hatch swung open and Bridget Cain entered the room, Adama felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He had been on the bridge when Lt. Valerii's message had come through and he had seen, with his own eyes, as the Pegasus had emerged from her jump and had sidled up alongside the Galactica. He had heard the cheers and applause of the bridge crew, but it had all seemed like a dream, until now. Somehow seeing this tall, imposing woman in person made it all real. She was as beautiful and impressive as he remembered her. Standing close to two meters (~6'3") in height, she was taller than Adama, with an equally impressive build to go along with that height. Her skin was the color of the finest Tauron chocolate and her trademark mane of black curls, as yet untouched by gray, was bound back in a tight bun, as it always was while she was on duty. As ever, she looked every inch the ancient warrior queen to which her call sign referred.
For a long moment the two commanders simply stared at each other. Cain stepped further into the room and closed the hatch behind her. Adama took a step toward her, his hand extended, but Cain pushed it aside and pulled the older man into a rib-crushing hug. Chuckling, he returned the gesture. After a long moment they stepped back from each other. Adama gestured to the leather couch and the two of them sat.
"You look as good as ever, Sheba," he said.
"And you've got a few more gray hairs, Old Man."
He smiled at that. "I'm sure I do. There's nothing like trying to deal with 50-some-odd civilian ships to age a man prematurely. But, thank the Lords, you're here, now we don't have to be responsible for the entire fleet alone."
"How is this even possible?" Cain asked in amazement. "How did you all survive? I'm not even sure how we managed to."
"It will all be explained soon. I've called a number of my people together for a formal debriefing in about an hour. If you could bring some of your people over as well, we could answer all of each other's questions at the same time."
"Yes, an excellent idea. I'll contact the Pegasus in a moment." She looked down at her hands for a moment and took a deep breath. "Lords, Husher, this must be hell for you. You've lost everything. I was never all that close to my family, but I know that you and your ex-wife still were. And I never married or had children, so I can't even imagine how hard it must be for a father to lose both of his sons."
"Both?"
"Yes, I got that last report from the Fleet that confirmed the destruction of the Solaria. I am so sorry. Lee was a damn good pilot. I was sorry to lose him from the Pegasus."
"Wh-...Oh, of course, you wouldn't know... Lee wasn't on the Solaria. Admiral Negalla thought it would be a good idea for him to take part in the Galactica's decommissioning ceremony. He was on the Galactica at the time of the Cylon attacks... He's alive."
"L-Lee's alive?" Cain asked, her voice catching slightly. "Well, where is he? Uh, I'd like to see him."
~*~*~*~
Lee stared at the screen of his small, desktop computer in frustration. He hated doing schedules. He didn't have enough pilots to cover all the duty shifts and the patrols. And after he had worked himself into illness, only a few weeks back, the commander had flatly forbidden him from trying to pick up the slack. His father was still occasionally asking blunt and, in Lee's opinion, intrusive questions about his son's sleeping and eating habits. Lee was unaccustomed to having his personal habits examined and, although he knew his father was only trying to demonstrate paternal concern, it still rankled. Someone was going to have to pick up those extra shifts and Lee was not willing to ask his pilots to do something that he himself could not do.
Since he was off duty, he was wearing only a pair of loose, dark green, work pants and the two regulation tanks. He had been sitting at his desk for well over an hour and had solved none of his problems. The only thing he had accomplished was giving himself a headache from staring at the screen and a lower backache from sitting in the uncomfortable chair for so long.
His frustrated concentration was abruptly interrupted by the sounds of loud voices outside the door to his office, in the pilots' general quarters. He wasn't terribly concerned, as the voices sounded excited as opposed to upset, but he was curious. He was just getting up to go investigate, when the hatch burst open and several pilots, including Starbuck and Boomer, spilled into the room. They all seemed so happy and excited that he decided not to point out that no one had bothered to knock before entering the room.
"Sir, have you heard the news?" Lt. Caspan asked eagerly.
"Uh, no, what news?"
"Boomer and Starbuck found another battlestar!"
"What?!" Lee immediately looked to Kara for confirmation. Her expression seemed a bit more sober than the others, but she nodded to him.
"Yes, sir, it's true!" Sharon said, beaming at him. "We found the Pegasus! Isn't that fantastic? Starbuck told me that you had served on the Pegasus. Is that true?"
"Uh, yeah, I did, for a short time," He said, uncomfortably aware that the room had quieted considerably at his words and several of the pilots were now looking at him expectantly.
"So, then you've met Commander Cain?" Lt. Sorrel prompted.
"Yes."
"Well, what's she like?"
"Uh...tall," Lee said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.
The others laughed and, to his relief, began talking among themselves again. He was aware of Kara moving to stand beside him. The others were deeply involved in the their own conversations and no one was paying attention to them.
"You know, she's probably on board the Galactica right now," Kara said quietly.
Lee nodded, but said nothing.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he said, a little too quickly.
"Lee..."
Kara was never able to finish her thought, as they heard several soft gasps and the room fell silent. They both looked over to see Commander Adama and Commander Cain standing just inside the doorway of the crowded room.
"Well, well, Lt.- no, I'm sorry, it's Capt. Adama now, isn't it?" Cain said, smiling broadly. She gestured to the name plaque on the door. "And CAG, I see. Congratulations."
"Uh, thank you, sir."
The tall woman gave her head a shake and sighed happily. "By the Lords of Kobol, Boy, I thought you were dead."
"No, sir."
A strained silence followed these words and after a moment, Cain turned to Adama and said, "William, do you think I could have a few minutes alone with the captain. We haven't seen each other in a while. I'd like to do some catching up."
"Of course," Adama said and gestured to the gathered pilots to leave the room. After he had watched them all file out, he was surprised to note that Kara had remained at Lee's side.
"Starbuck," the commander called to her.
He was surprised again when she did not immediately respond to the implied command, but instead turned to look at Lee. It was only after the captain had given her a slight nod that she seemed to consent to leave the room. What was all that about? Adama thought as he watched the pilot walk past him out the door.
Turning back to Cain, Adama said, "So, I'll see both of you in the wardroom in about an hour?"
"We'll be there."
Lee was about to ask Cain what his father had meant by that statement, but he never got the chance. As soon as the hatch had clicked shut behind the commander, Cain had stalked purposefully across the room and had pulled Lee into her arms. Wrapping one arm around his waist and grasping the back of his head with the other, she crushed his body to hers. Her mouth was hot and demanding against his, as she forced his lips to part, allowing her tongue to invade his mouth. Such was the almost frantic nature of the kiss, that for a moment Lee feared for the safety of his tonsils. But luckily, oxygen soon became an issue and Cain was forced to relax her grip on him.
Looking down at him and breathing heavily, she whispered, "Damn, I missed you."
To be continued
THE FLIGHT OF BELLEROPHON Ch. 1
"Sir, short range scanners indicate a Cylon scout ship bearing down on us... We're being scanned, sir!"
"Damn, how do they keep finding us?"
Bridget "Sheba" Cain, the commander of the Battlestar Pegasus stalked the length of the CIC like a caged lioness. For nearly a month now, she and her ship had been hounded by a Cylon basestar that had somehow managed to follow them, regardless of the number of hyperlight jumps they made. The theory was that hyperlight jumps were untraceable. So, either the Cylons had found a way to prove this theory wrong or they were tracking her ship by some other means. Some means that Cain wasn't sure she wanted to contemplate.
"As soon as that bastard gets in range, shoot him down!" She barked. "I do not want him reporting back to his basestar. Weapons grid to full power... Starboard batteries standby... Commence firing!"
The Pegasus' starboard side batteries blazed out and within minutes the Cylon drone ship was destroyed. Cain released the breath that she hadn't even realized that she had been holding. It was a victory, a small one, a temporary one, but a victory all the same. There had been so precious few of those these past few weeks that she would take whatever she could get. She joined in with the rest of the bridge crew as they gave a short round of applause.
It would buy them a little more time before that basestar found them again. They would need to jump again, and soon. Moving to examine the navigational charts laid out on the lighted console, she looked for a place to hide her ship. She had already poured over these charts a hundred times and had found nothing.
Four weeks ago, they had responded to a fleet-wide request for all FTL-capable military ships to report to the Armistice Station. They had responded along with about 30 other battlestars. That request had turned out to be a Cylon ambush. Only the Pegasus had survived. The other ships that had responded had been newer, state-of-the-art models and they had all reported massive systems failures and malfunctions. While the Pegasus, one of the oldest ships in the fleet, second only to the Galactica, had experienced only minor troubles. Even with her marginally networked computers and her perpetually malfunctioning navigational system, she had survived while the others had not. It made no sense.
The one thing the Pegasus did have that was state-of-the-art, were her Mark 7 Vipers, but, ironically, it was the Vipers that had failed. Their systems had either shut down completely or had seized up and Cain had lost almost all of her Vipers in that initial attack.
Seeing what was happening and watching helplessly as one by one, the battlestars were picked off, Cain had curbed her natural impulse to stand and fight. Instead of sending out the last of her Vipers, she had pulled in as many as she could and had made the jump back to the Colonies. Unfortunately a Cylon basestar had made the jump immediately after her. Seeing the devastation already done to the Colonies and realizing that no help would be coming from that quarter, she did the only thing she could, she jumped again. She could not even hope to take on the basestar without Viper support. She had hoped to lose the basestar and be able to return to the Colonies later, but that had yet to happen. They were too busy trying to stay alive themselves, trying to stay one jump ahead of their Cylon pursuers.
Gesturing to Lt. Atlan, the navigations officer, Cain beckoned the young man closer. Speaking softly to avoid being overheard, she asked, "What's the furthest point you can plot a jump from the Colonies?"
"Away from the Colonies, sir? But I thought-."
"It's been almost a month," Cain interrupted. "After what we saw, do you really think there's anything left of the Colonies by now?"
The young man swallowed with difficulty. "No, sir," he whispered.
"Exactly. We need to lose these Cylons once and for all. I'm getting sick of playing tag. I think, we need to put as much distance between us and the Colonies as possible. How far can you take us?"
"Well, the Red Line marks the edge of known, charted space, beyond that is the Prolmar Sector. I can get us that far, but I don't dare try to plot a jump any further until we have a better idea of what's out there."
"So, you can get us to the Prolmar Sector?"
"Yes, sir."
"Plot the jump, but do it quickly and do it quietly. Don't let anyone know what you're doing."
"Sir?"
"Just don't tell anyone."
"Yes, sir."
Cain understood the lieutenant's hesitation. It was unlike her to order secrecy. She generally liked to keep her crews informed about her plans and ideas. She had always found that openness and honesty made for a more relaxed ship. The crews knew what was going on and what was going to be expected of them. She felt that it also cut down on a lot of the rigid separations between the various crews, between the officers and the enlisted, and that was the way she like it. She was not a big stickler on the military formalities. She liked her ship to be one big, happy family. She knew that this style did not sit well with many other commanders, but as the first, and only, female battlestar commander and, at 46, one of the youngest, it was only to be expected that she would have her own unique style.
Despite all the achievements of women during the wars, and the hard- fought acceptances that they had won, the Colonial Fleet was still, by and large, a man's world. Women, especially those who wanted to be combat Viper pilots, still had to prove themselves daily. They still had to work just a little bit harder than their male counterparts simply to earn a fraction of their respect. It was a reality that Bridget Cain was long familiar with. Like so many other battlestar commanders, she had begun her career flying Vipers. Although unlike many of the others, she was too young to have flown against the Cylons, a fact they all loved to remind her of. Well, they had all come face to face with the Cylons four weeks ago and all of those self- righteous old men were dead, while Bridget Cain and her outdated battlestar were still alive.
As much as she had grown to love the Pegasus, her assignment to the aging battlestar was still a sore point with Cain. It had been Admiral Negalla's predecessor who had promoted Cain. Admiral Paris had always been a great supporter of Cain's and it had been his last request before retiring four year ago, that Bridget Cain should be given command of a battlestar. The fleet had just commissioned five, state-of-the-art battlestars to be built, but unfortunately Paris had not specified which ship Cain was to get command of. Paris had left that decision to his replacement Admiral Negalla, and Negalla did not like Cain.
Instead of giving her one of the new battlestars, Negalla had moved Commander Valdez from the Pegasus to the new Colombia and had given the nearly obsolete Pegasus to Cain. It had been a deliberate slight to Cain and she knew it. The only way it could have been more insulting would be if he had given her the Galactica, but for some reason that antique had been given to William Adama. Cain wasn't sure who Adama had pissed off to have earned that assignment, but then again, knowing what a traditionalist he was, he had probably requested it. Hell, he had probably even thought of it as an honor.
Cain had served under Adama when he had been in command of the Battle- cruiser Camelot and her opinion of the man was a bit conflicted. While she respected his experience and his accomplishments, no one could deny that in his prime, he had been a hero, those days were long past. Bridget could remember well, chafing under the man's cautious, by-the-book method of command. His glory days had been in the past and he had never managed to change with the times. No wonder Negalla had given him the Galactica, she thought, they were a perfect match. Both were relics of a by-gone era.
But there was one thing for which she could not find fault with the man, and that was that he had somehow sired Lee Adama. The elder of Adama's two sons was possibly the finest pilot she had ever seen. He had served on the Pegasus for a year right after he had finished with his Viper Training Program. She had eventually lost him to a transfer to the Solaria, but she remembered his one year of service quite fondly. Of course, none of that mattered now. She had seen that last report from the fleet, listing which ships had been confirmed destroyed. The Solaria had been on that list. Lee Adama was dead, as, most likely, was his father...
Cain gave her head a shake. She didn't have the time to be dwelling on dead comrades. Perhaps later, when they had finally given the Cylons the slip, she would have the time and luxury to properly grieve for those she had lost, but not right now. She had a ship and a crew to get to safety first. Everything else would have to wait until later.
~*~*~*~
The jump into the Prolmar Sector had been successful. That had been a little over a month ago and there had been no sign of the Cylons since then. Nor had there been any sign of anything else. No other ships, no habitable planets, nothing. For the first time in her life, Bridget Cain was at a complete loss as to what she should do. For all she knew, she and her crew were the only surviving members of the human race. A humbling thought if ever there was one. And Cain did not like feeling humbled.
To be perfectly honest, she was frightened and lost. The men and women of the Pegasus were all looking to her to get them through this alive. The problem was, she didn't know what 'this' was. She had no idea where to take her people. They couldn't return to the Colonies, that much was obvious. So, where did they go now? She had no answer to this question, so, for now, they simply flew in a straight path from the point at which they had emerged from their jump. It was all she could think to do. She knew that she could not do this indefinitely. Eventually the ship would run out of fuel and they would be dead in space.
She knew that she needed to consult with her officers and try to come up with a plan of action. She knew that she owed that to them and that they were waiting for this, but she just couldn't seem to do it. To go to them and ask for help would mean that she had to admit that she had no idea what she was doing and she just couldn't do that. So, she hid away in her quarters and spent hours staring at navigational charts, looking for hidden meanings in the patterns of the stars. Wasn't that what the ancient ones had done? They had looked up and seen their futures mapped out in the mysterious twinkling lights of the night sky. Well, Bridget Cain was traveling among those twinkling lights and they were telling her nothing. She was not a religious woman, but right now, she was desperate enough to offer up a silent prayer to the Lords of Kobol to give her some kind of guidance.
A soft buzz interrupted her thoughts and Cain turned to pick up the old-fashioned phone attached to the wall beside her desk. The phone was cumbersome and inconvenient and she hated it, but the Fleet had denied all of her requests to have the Pegasus refitted with a new communications system. She suspected it was because they didn't want to spend the money on a ship they were already considering for decommissioning. The Pegasus was of a unique design. She had been intended to be a transition between the original battlestars, like the Galactica and the newer, fully integrated models. But for some reason, the Pegasus had been the only ship of that design that had been built.
"Yes," Cain said into the receiver.
"Sir, short range scanners are picking up a small ship." The voice was that of Petty Officer Rome, one of the communications technicians.
"Cylon?"
"No, sir, scanners indicate that it's Colonial. A Raptor, sir."
"Have they responded to the proper signal protocols?"
"Yes, sir, they say they're from the Galactica."
The Galactica! The Galactica still survives! Was this the sign she had just asked the Lords for? Relief, such as she had never felt before, flooded her being. They weren't alone!
"W-well, welcome them aboard, Mr. Rome, welcome them aboard! We, evidently, have much to discuss."
"Yes, sir!"
~*~*~*~
By the time Cain arrived at the port side hangar deck, the two pilots from the Galactica were standing beside their ship and looking around with dazed expressions. They were both female, one with long, black hair pulled back in a ponytail, the other with short, blonde hair. The two women turned to face Cain as she and her XO, Col. Tolan, approached.
"Well, it's certainly good to see you ladies. Welcome aboard the Pegasus. I'm Commander Bridget Cain and this is Col. Michael Tolan."
She extended her hand to the nearest pilot, the dark-haired one. The young woman immediately stepped up to shake the offered hand.
"How do you do, sir? I'm Lt. Sharon Valerii, Boomer. It is such an honor to meet you, sir. I've been following your career ever since I was a little girl."
Cain smiled. She was accustomed to being greeted that way by young pilots, especially young female pilots. And while it did remind her of her age, it was still quite gratifying to her ego. Disengaging her hand from Valerii, Cain turned to the blonde pilot.
"Lt. Kara Thrace, Starbuck."
Both the woman's eyes and her tone were cool and she deliberately did not shake the offered hand. Thrace... Starbuck... both the name and the call sign sounded familiar to Cain, but she couldn't quite place where she had heard them. Then she remembered that she had heard about this young woman when she had been in flight school. She was supposed to be some hotshot pilot whom people had been comparing to Cain in her younger days. Cain had even gone to see the young woman during her training sessions, but had not been terribly impressed. Cain also remembered that Lee Adama had mentioned her a number of times. Cain had not been impressed with this Thrace before, she was even less impressed with her now.
"So, I assume from your presence and from what you told Mr. Rome, that the Galactica somehow managed to survive the Cylon attack as well?" Cain asked.
"Yes, sir. We were involved with the decommissioning ceremony, so we weren't there for the initial attack," Kara said. "Some of our Mark 7 Vipers tried to engage, but they were all destroyed. The Galactica had no warheads or missiles in her magazines, so we had to jump to the Ragnar Anchorage to arm up. By the time we had finished with that, it was too late to help the Colonies, so we jumped to the Prolmar Sector."
"So, that's it? Our two battlestars are all that's left of the Colonies, of the entire Human race?"
"Oh, no!" Sharon spoke up. "We managed to save quite a few civilian ships. The Galactica has an entire fleet of ships with her and some 50,000 refugees."
"Thank the Lords! Well, that's good news at least. How far out is the Galactica? I must speak to Adama at once!"
"Of course. I can give you the coordinates for the Galactica's position and you can follow us back as soon as you want," Sharon said.
"Excellent! I don't mean to rush you ladies, but if you could relay the coordinates to the CIC as soon as possible, we can make the jump just as soon as our computers are warmed up. Thank you. I hope we'll speak again on board the Galactica."
The two pilots watched as the tall, broad-shouldered woman strode from the deck. Her stride was long and confident; the walk of a predator in its element. It was that very walk that had earned her the nickname of the "Lioness of Leon" on her home Colony. With a disinterested shrug, Kara turned away to climb back on board the Raptor. Sharon followed a moment or two after her. As the two women went through the pre-launch procedures, Sharon was practically bouncing in her seat in her excitement.
"Oh, man, Starbuck, isn't this incredible? Commander Cain! One of the first, and probably the greatest, female Viper pilots ever! She's a living legend!"
"Yeah, it's great to find another battlestar," Kara said neutrally. "We'll be able to protect the fleet so much better now."
"Uh, yeah."
After relaying her jump coordinates to the Pegasus' CIC and receiving launch clearance, Sharon launched the Raptor back into space.
"You don't seem very excited about meeting Commander Cain," Sharon commented casually.
"Nope. Don't like her."
"Had you met her before? She didn't seem to know you."
"No, I've never met her. I do know that when I was in flight school, she and several other high-ranking officers stopped in to watch my class run through our training exercises, but I never actually met her that day."
"So, obviously she didn't offer you a commission on the Pegasus."
"Nope. Evidently she was much more impressed with Apollo. He was in my class, too. She offered him a commission."
"Capt. Apollo served on the Pegasus? I thought he'd been assigned to the Solaria?"
"He was. He only served on the Pegasus for his rookie year, then he asked to be transferred. He was moved to the Solaria."
"Why did he ask to be transferred?"
"You'd have to ask him that."
"Because you don't know or because you're not telling?"
"Because it's not my story to tell."
"Fair enough."
The two women fell silent for a moment as they made the hyperlight jump. Coming out of the jump, Sharon made minute adjustments to the controls without even thinking. She had flown so many patrols, in so many different conditions, over the past few months that what had once caused her so much stress and anxiety, was now second nature.
"So, is the reason that Capt. Apollo asked for a transfer, the same reason that you don't like Commander Cain?" Sharon asked carefully.
Kara was spared from having to answer that question by Duella's voice crackling over the wireless. "Raptor 312, this is Galactica, welcome back, Boomer. Did you and Starbuck have a good flight?"
"That is a definite affirmative, Galactica. We found a friendly who should be joining us momentarily. I repeat, tell command to hold their fire, friendly coming in!"
~*~*~*~
The sound of the knock on the hatch to his quarters brought William Adama to his feet. He was surprised to find that his hands were shaking and his heart was racing.
"Come in," he called out.
As the hatch swung open and Bridget Cain entered the room, Adama felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He had been on the bridge when Lt. Valerii's message had come through and he had seen, with his own eyes, as the Pegasus had emerged from her jump and had sidled up alongside the Galactica. He had heard the cheers and applause of the bridge crew, but it had all seemed like a dream, until now. Somehow seeing this tall, imposing woman in person made it all real. She was as beautiful and impressive as he remembered her. Standing close to two meters (~6'3") in height, she was taller than Adama, with an equally impressive build to go along with that height. Her skin was the color of the finest Tauron chocolate and her trademark mane of black curls, as yet untouched by gray, was bound back in a tight bun, as it always was while she was on duty. As ever, she looked every inch the ancient warrior queen to which her call sign referred.
For a long moment the two commanders simply stared at each other. Cain stepped further into the room and closed the hatch behind her. Adama took a step toward her, his hand extended, but Cain pushed it aside and pulled the older man into a rib-crushing hug. Chuckling, he returned the gesture. After a long moment they stepped back from each other. Adama gestured to the leather couch and the two of them sat.
"You look as good as ever, Sheba," he said.
"And you've got a few more gray hairs, Old Man."
He smiled at that. "I'm sure I do. There's nothing like trying to deal with 50-some-odd civilian ships to age a man prematurely. But, thank the Lords, you're here, now we don't have to be responsible for the entire fleet alone."
"How is this even possible?" Cain asked in amazement. "How did you all survive? I'm not even sure how we managed to."
"It will all be explained soon. I've called a number of my people together for a formal debriefing in about an hour. If you could bring some of your people over as well, we could answer all of each other's questions at the same time."
"Yes, an excellent idea. I'll contact the Pegasus in a moment." She looked down at her hands for a moment and took a deep breath. "Lords, Husher, this must be hell for you. You've lost everything. I was never all that close to my family, but I know that you and your ex-wife still were. And I never married or had children, so I can't even imagine how hard it must be for a father to lose both of his sons."
"Both?"
"Yes, I got that last report from the Fleet that confirmed the destruction of the Solaria. I am so sorry. Lee was a damn good pilot. I was sorry to lose him from the Pegasus."
"Wh-...Oh, of course, you wouldn't know... Lee wasn't on the Solaria. Admiral Negalla thought it would be a good idea for him to take part in the Galactica's decommissioning ceremony. He was on the Galactica at the time of the Cylon attacks... He's alive."
"L-Lee's alive?" Cain asked, her voice catching slightly. "Well, where is he? Uh, I'd like to see him."
~*~*~*~
Lee stared at the screen of his small, desktop computer in frustration. He hated doing schedules. He didn't have enough pilots to cover all the duty shifts and the patrols. And after he had worked himself into illness, only a few weeks back, the commander had flatly forbidden him from trying to pick up the slack. His father was still occasionally asking blunt and, in Lee's opinion, intrusive questions about his son's sleeping and eating habits. Lee was unaccustomed to having his personal habits examined and, although he knew his father was only trying to demonstrate paternal concern, it still rankled. Someone was going to have to pick up those extra shifts and Lee was not willing to ask his pilots to do something that he himself could not do.
Since he was off duty, he was wearing only a pair of loose, dark green, work pants and the two regulation tanks. He had been sitting at his desk for well over an hour and had solved none of his problems. The only thing he had accomplished was giving himself a headache from staring at the screen and a lower backache from sitting in the uncomfortable chair for so long.
His frustrated concentration was abruptly interrupted by the sounds of loud voices outside the door to his office, in the pilots' general quarters. He wasn't terribly concerned, as the voices sounded excited as opposed to upset, but he was curious. He was just getting up to go investigate, when the hatch burst open and several pilots, including Starbuck and Boomer, spilled into the room. They all seemed so happy and excited that he decided not to point out that no one had bothered to knock before entering the room.
"Sir, have you heard the news?" Lt. Caspan asked eagerly.
"Uh, no, what news?"
"Boomer and Starbuck found another battlestar!"
"What?!" Lee immediately looked to Kara for confirmation. Her expression seemed a bit more sober than the others, but she nodded to him.
"Yes, sir, it's true!" Sharon said, beaming at him. "We found the Pegasus! Isn't that fantastic? Starbuck told me that you had served on the Pegasus. Is that true?"
"Uh, yeah, I did, for a short time," He said, uncomfortably aware that the room had quieted considerably at his words and several of the pilots were now looking at him expectantly.
"So, then you've met Commander Cain?" Lt. Sorrel prompted.
"Yes."
"Well, what's she like?"
"Uh...tall," Lee said, blurting out the first thing that came to mind.
The others laughed and, to his relief, began talking among themselves again. He was aware of Kara moving to stand beside him. The others were deeply involved in the their own conversations and no one was paying attention to them.
"You know, she's probably on board the Galactica right now," Kara said quietly.
Lee nodded, but said nothing.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" he said, a little too quickly.
"Lee..."
Kara was never able to finish her thought, as they heard several soft gasps and the room fell silent. They both looked over to see Commander Adama and Commander Cain standing just inside the doorway of the crowded room.
"Well, well, Lt.- no, I'm sorry, it's Capt. Adama now, isn't it?" Cain said, smiling broadly. She gestured to the name plaque on the door. "And CAG, I see. Congratulations."
"Uh, thank you, sir."
The tall woman gave her head a shake and sighed happily. "By the Lords of Kobol, Boy, I thought you were dead."
"No, sir."
A strained silence followed these words and after a moment, Cain turned to Adama and said, "William, do you think I could have a few minutes alone with the captain. We haven't seen each other in a while. I'd like to do some catching up."
"Of course," Adama said and gestured to the gathered pilots to leave the room. After he had watched them all file out, he was surprised to note that Kara had remained at Lee's side.
"Starbuck," the commander called to her.
He was surprised again when she did not immediately respond to the implied command, but instead turned to look at Lee. It was only after the captain had given her a slight nod that she seemed to consent to leave the room. What was all that about? Adama thought as he watched the pilot walk past him out the door.
Turning back to Cain, Adama said, "So, I'll see both of you in the wardroom in about an hour?"
"We'll be there."
Lee was about to ask Cain what his father had meant by that statement, but he never got the chance. As soon as the hatch had clicked shut behind the commander, Cain had stalked purposefully across the room and had pulled Lee into her arms. Wrapping one arm around his waist and grasping the back of his head with the other, she crushed his body to hers. Her mouth was hot and demanding against his, as she forced his lips to part, allowing her tongue to invade his mouth. Such was the almost frantic nature of the kiss, that for a moment Lee feared for the safety of his tonsils. But luckily, oxygen soon became an issue and Cain was forced to relax her grip on him.
Looking down at him and breathing heavily, she whispered, "Damn, I missed you."
To be continued