Contributing Authors: Sami Odeh & Keegan Flick-Parker Genre: Fan Fiction (R) [Rated M] Setting: Battlestar Galactica - Alternate Version (Battlestar Rhea) Disclaimer: The Re-Imagined Battlestar Galactica and all its characters and concepts are property of Ronald D Moore, Syfy, and Universal Studios. This work, however, is original to its authors and may not be recreated or copied without our permission.
Raptor 771
Mission: Post-Jump Recon
14:00
"Frak me," mumbled Natalie from the front seat of the Raptor as she watched the last of the fleet ships jump away. "Eight hours stuck here in this tin can just waiting to see if the Cylons show up."
She pushed her controls forward, giving herself enough room to lift her knees up towards her body, kicking her feet up onto the instrument panel and leaning back in the chair. She could hear her ECO, Hero, in the back running his last minute checks.
"So, you want odds on this or not? I'll bet fifty cubits we don't see any sign of the toasters this whole eight hours. Frakkin' waste of fuel and my precious time as far as I'm concerned."
"Flash, if this is gonna be another eight hours of you complaining, like the last three recons, you can start looking for a new ECO", Ewan remarked with a grin, not looking up from his instruments that were running a last check on the asteroid field nearby and the gas giant they were orbiting.
They had been flying together for some time now. Several months, actually. It started off on the Battlestar Gargantua, as a makeshift partnership due to personnel shortage, and it had worked ever since. They matched each other in character and professionality.
They could still stand each other, after quite a bunch of missions. It wasn't really explicable. Raptor crews just worked that way.
"But if it makes you happy, you've got my fifty on the toasters."
"See... That's the Hero I know," she replied, grinning.
She reached up and unclipped her helmet, pulling it up and over her head. As she freed herself from it, she took in a deep breath, letting it fill her lungs. She dropped the helmet down on the seat next to her and turned around to face the man sitting in the main compartment.
"You brought the booze, right?"
His movements froze, his gaze obviously fixed on the screen in front of him.
"Oh shit... I knew that there was something I forgot...", he said, apparently to himself but loud enough for her to hear it.
"Don't do this to me again, Ewan," she said, her words awash with her usual dry sense of humour. "I know where you sleep at night."
He couldn't keep himself from laughing any longer and pulled his own helmet off, too, revealing a wide grin.
"You didn't actually think I'd forget something to drink for our picnic, did ya?"
With that, he presented a bottle of Caprican Ale. Not the best beverage one could have found, but when the hours were getting long, duty tiresome and the good stuff you grew up with running low, you became less picky.
Sometimes, you even prefered the cheap brew, because it reminded you of your first night out, the first time being drunk, for some the first kiss or even the first time. Strange, how a nuclear holocaust could turn booze into something so valuable.
"The thought never crossed my mind," she said with a wink and a sly little smirk. "I know you value your life too highly."
She accepted the bottle from his outstretched hand, twisted the long cap off and flicked it into a corner with her thumb, likely never to be seen again. Taking a quick swig from the bottle, she let the liquid fire fizzle and tingle on her lips and along her tongue, the familiar sensation tantalizing and exciting. It made her think back, back to her life on Leonis before everything changed.
Nights out late with her friends, getting smashed and making all kinds of decisions they'd regret the next morning. The titilating rush of adrenaline that came from the knowledge of what you were doing was illegal or dangerous or both. Her body remembered it all, even as it grew hazier and farther away in her mind with each passing moment.
"Here," she said, passing the bottle back to her ECO. "A little liquid courage for when your precious Cylons show up. Don't want you getting scared again like last time."
"Hey, I just value my life too highly", he quoted her with a grin, grabbed the bottle and took a big sip, feeling the familiar burning down his throat. Putting the bottle down, he wiped the last drops of his lips with his free gloved hand.
"Besides, you had that huge hangover from the night before and I was pretty sure that you'd open the hatch and start shooting at them with your handgun, if I had let ya."
"You say that almost like it doesn't make complete sense."
He laughed at her reaction, gave her a wink and took another gulp.
"Man, the CAG would kill us, if she knew. No, probably worse: She'd let us work on the hangar deck for a couple months, like Drifter. But she seems to have gone soft on him lately, ever since she lost that fight."
Ewan offered Natalie the bottle, who took it without hesitation, and let his gaze wander around for a moment, till his lips formed another smirk.
"Hah, so, if we get caught, I just have to get myself into her quarters. But what about you, Flash?"
She let herself finish her third sip before responding. Let him wonder. As the lip of the bottle left hers, she sucked in another breath of recycled air, enjoying the cool sting that never failed to bring her back to reality. That little jolt of awareness that she so craved. Then it was gone.
"What? You asking if I'd frak her? Sure, why not. I like my women lean and mean."
There was a moment's pause before the two of them errupted in laughter.
"I'm serious", he said, contradicted by his own chuckles. "I mean, she's hot. She can be a real ballbreaker, if you mess with her, but apart from that, I wouldn't mind."
Hero turned his chair and tried to get himself a more comfortable seating. Of course, this was only so easy in a ship with as few extras as possible.
"Chief's the same. If she got some good nights' sleep, a decent meal and a shower, I'd totally do her."
"Aww, what? You're not into greasy, strung-out, pale chicks? I guess I'm off the menu then, huh?"
She watched with inner glee as his brain started working on a response. She could see it in his face. That look that men got whenever they thought they'd made a mistake in front of a woman. She loved that expression.
"Don't worry about it, buck-o," she said, gently tossing the half-empty bottle his way. "You'd never have a chance with her anyways. Word on the deck is she's in it for the babes."
Again, he took it. It actually surprised him. He hadn't heard that bit of gossip before. Then again, you had to spend some time around CIC officers, knuckledraggers and marines to be up-to-date on the latest rumors. And he spent most of his freetime in the rec room, drinking with some of the other pilots, smoking the only cigars left in the universe and playing Triad. So he shrugged and drank.
"What a shame. Or luck, depending on the kind of underwear you're wearing. But I sure as hell wouldn't send you away, baby. The flight gear suits you and I can't help but wonder what's beneath."
He mustered a curious look at her chest, then grinned and drank again. It didn't occur to him up to then that he was drinking somewhat 'faster' than usual, that they both were, for that matter, as the bottle was already in its last third.
Then again, he also barely ever flirted like this and never when he was sober. But small indications of getting drunk, even though obvious, were only slowly transmitted and processed in a drunk brain.
And if he had consciously known yet, he wouldn't have cared at all. It had been days since he had been able to loosen up and talk to Natalie in private like this. The rec room wasn't always the best place for that. After all: She was the best friend he had left.
"What, like you didn't get a good enough look during that little game of strip-triad last week? I saw how you staaared and staared at me."
She giggled, which was something rare for her. A bubbly flirty interior that sat just under her usual cloak of sardonic apathy that somehow managed to creep up every time she was alone with a boy. That had always been her downfall.
"Come on. Admit it. You've got the hots for me."
He sighed, as if it was hard to gather the courage to speak it out, and let his face show a pensive expression.
"Well... Maybe...", he eventually said and leered at her.
Had their 'relationship' always been like this? He wasn't quite sure. The talking, teasing and fooling around had been there from day one. But he knew that something had changed since the attack. The thoughts in the backs of their heads were more serious now.
Cause suddenly, anything they had planned before was gone. There was nobody left but them, nobody was as close to them, as familiar, as intimate.
He found himself thinking of his friends back on Scorpia, his girlfriend Cynthia, his mother, his father, his sisters... and it surprised him how fast he had overcome all that. And it was always at moments like this when he realized that Natalie and the fleet were his only remaining ties to his life before the holocaust.
"But, if you think that I haven't noticed how you give me a once over, every time we meet in the showers, you'd be surprised how attentive I am. Not only when it comes to your looks." He made a kissing motion with his lips, towards her, and winked.
"Mmmm..." she hummed through the bottle as she emptied what was left of it. She felt drunk and stupid and she loved it.
"Sometimes I think you're almost as in love with yourself as you are with me," she joked. "But that's okay. I could use a little healthy competition."
She laughed again, enjoying the sensation as it rolled out of her body and over her tongue, filling the cockpit with a raucous caucophany of pleasure. She pushed herself up out of the chair and dropped the bottle on the seat behind her, moving slowly over to her ECO, a big cheeky grin still plastered across her face. Her movements, however, became much more serious. Her hands moved up towards the bottom of her flight vest, gripping onto it and teasing it like fidgeting school-girl talking to her crush.
"So," she said. "Any ideas on how to use up some of our eight hours?"
"More than you'd guess", he replied, his voice lowered and teasing, while he looked her up and down, before their looks met again.
"And you'd love every single one of them."
"Well," she said, moving closer as she pulled off the flight vest. "I hope you won't keep me waiting because I'm very... very... curious."
"No", Ewan replied, looking at her without interruption, while his hands got rid of the gloves, "I wouldn't dare to."
"That's 'No, Sir' to you. I'll have you remember that I," she began to zip down her flight suit, "am the," it was down to her waist, her tank top the only thing separating her flesh from air. Her skin begged for the feeling of cool air against it, begged to be rid of all and everything that could keep her apart from Ewan. "The.. superior officer here."
He grinned at her, made it look sheepish, while his pulse changed rhythm and her looks made him quiver with longing. His fingers opened his vest and he stood up, standing barely one feet away from her.
"I won't leave you waiting, ma'am."
"That's better," she said, deciding to wait just a moment longer. "You first," she said with only the slightest hint of want.
He got out of his vest and let it fall down, onto his chair. He missed it and it slipped off, fell to the ground. He didn't care.
"I'm honoured", Hero said softly. He became aware of his heartbeat, of the want it expressed. If there had been time to ask, how long he had wanted to be with her like this, he would have. But when every conscious thought took twice as long, you stopped caring. You left it for later.
The hesitation he felt was overcome in an instant. He stepped forward and felt his hands at her side and back, feeling her warm body underneath the fabric. He could see every detail of her eyes and lips, feel her breath on his skin, as fast as his own.
"You're stunning", he somehow managed to whisper, as if this realization had just hit him, before he turned his head slightly to the side and lowered his lips onto hers.
She kissed him back, hard, letting her teeth graze his lip, his tongue. She felt his hands run along her sides, up her back. She pushed herself closer to him, letting him enjoy the curves of her body.
"Shut up," she managed to breathe out between passionate drunken breaths. "Shut up and frak me."
A demand he couldn't refuse. Letting himself go, his hands applied more pressure and so did his lips. He forgot all about their mission, the fleet, the Rhea and the near-extinction of the human race. He would have given up his soul and sanity aswell, had it been demanded. At that very moment, he didn't care about anything but her.
His hands found their way beneath the tops, to her bare skin, soft as silk. Before long, he had pulled them up over her belly, running his fingers all over her exposed back and stomach.
Natalie let him take over, allowing herself to finally give up what power she had. She could feel the adrenaline rush filling her body with endorphins, every sensation being magnified and enhanced. That rush that came from danger that she had learned to love, learned to seek out, over all the years. That forbidden fruit that tasted all the sweeter. Lust and passion and sex, naked and ugly and beautiful all at once. She got high off it, was addicted to it, couldn't get enough of it.
As his hands found their way under her clothes, she remembered the back alley on Leonis where she had first come to know that dangerous game. She tried to remember his face, his voice, the colour of his hair even. None of it would come back to her. Every time after that was different, the circumstances changed. But still, they were all the same. All some blatant disregard for everything - everyone else. A mad selfish craving for euphoria that dominated over all.
"Gods," said her lips without her even thinking about it. "I've wanted this for so long. You have no idea."
"Don't I?", he murmured unconsciously, while his mouth traveled away from hers and down her neck. His teeth carefully bit into her flesh, looking for the most sensitive spots.
Meanwhile, his hands parted from each other. One had found its way to the back of her neck and head, stroking her hair, while the other one was southbound, moving below her waistline and starting to massage her ass.
She held her hand tight against the back of his head, near the top of his neck, willing him down into her. His teeth bit lightly on her neck and she felt a shiver run through her body. Her mouth quivered and a small gasp of pleasure escaped her lips; that sound that drove men crazy and made them work all the harder in hopes of hearing it again.
She felt herself sit down on the instrument panel, Ewan's hot skin against hers as the last bit of her flight suit went flying off to some unknown corner. She wasn't sure who did it. They were intertwined, the two of them. Acting together. One.
She moaned as he began to carry out her last order, feeling the uncomfortable dials digging into her back as the two of them moved together. She didn't care. It just enhanced the experience, made it more real.
He couldn't tell afterwards, how he had gotten out of his own flight suit, if it had been Natalie's doing or his own. Probably both. All he knew was that he was holding her close against his own body, felt her skin and curves, the sweat and heat, smelt her, saw the beauty of her naked body, her eyes and, through them, her soul and feelings.
Ewan remembered every moment he had ever spent with her. Every kiss, every movement seemed to bring up another before his inner eye; every sound caused a thought. Action and reaction. It took the end of the world to bring them where they were now, having sex in a raptor, the sensation of doing something forbidden already overshadowed and swallowed by the approaching climax.
There were no thoughts left he could have spent on the future, anything beyond the next thrust, the next wave of ecstasy that surged through their bodies.
"Frak... Ewan..."
Natalie felt her legs wrap around behind his back with a mind of their own. She had lost control, her brain overwhelmed with the mixture of pleasure and pain that drove her wild. She dug her nails into his back as she felt her own scrape against the buttons of the instrument panel. Systems were flipping on and off as they moved. DRADIS, on, off, on, off, the interior lights dimmed, the roar of the emergency fire ducts.
She knew she wouldn't last much longer and, from the way he was moaning she doubted he would either. Her mind raced, trying to figure out when exactly she had decided she needed him, when she had started to tease him and torture him. A sideways glance in the showers, moments alone in the raptor where she'd joke about what it might be like, deliberately losing those games the pilots always seemed to be making up as an excuse to get naked for eachother.
Where had it all begun?
"Gods, oh... Frakkin' Gods dammit, yes!"
Where were the times without her?
"Natalie..."
The days he had spent in flight school? The nights out, picking up girls, getting laid by total strangers?
"Natalie... I..."
His apartment on Scorpia, the bars he used to visit, the roads he used to travel on, his parents' house in the mountains?
"Ah..."
The twelve Colonies as a whole were burnt to ashes, his memories wiped out. The past was lost and would soon be forgotten. Every single day gave new birth to the human race, every hangover was the first. He had never experienced love before and the dangerous forbidden sex he had with her was the first he had ever had.
Cause everything was gone. The places and people he had known had vanished and nothing else mattered but the there and then. The audible peak of their combined desire which they reached at that moment. The sweat on her forehead, gleaming in the dim light. The distorted facial expression of ecstasy, just like his own. Her tender lips against his, when the high point was passed, the relief kicked in and the sole sexual craving was slowly replaced by emotion. Only Natalie mattered.
"Gods," she said as she snapped out of the hazy cloud of ecstacy that had fallen over them both. She began to feel the buttons digging into her flesh again and used the discomfort as an excuse to kiss Ewan again, gently pushing him back as she stood up, letting her legs slide back down to the ground.
As she pulled her lips away from his, a satisfied grin on her face, she began to remember things. Things like where they were, what they were doing, how she had gotten there. All things that had not mattered only moments ago, suddenly flooding back. She wished it would stop. Wished that the pleasure would never end and they wouldn't have to go back to their lives on the Rhea; the tedium of day-to-day living on a Battlestar, seeing the same corridors, the same faces, and the same gods-damned routine day in and day out.
"I needed that," she said, catching her breath.
With the awareness coming back to him, the alcohol supressed and almost ineffective, the back of his head asked the question of what seemed to be missing: Where was the 'I love you, I love you too' part of conversation, if it wasn't only a cheap frak? Where was that highschool level of romance?
But he knew the answer already. Her eyes, her kisses... There was no need to hear it. They were way too close to risk everything, their relationship above all, for a bit of sexual satisfaction. It meant something.
"Anywhere, anytime", he responded, winking and giving the slightest hint of a bow.
"My hero," she laughed, giving him a light smack on the cheek, still flushed red from exertion.
"Well... If I'm your hero, that means that you must be my princess, huh?"
Before she knew what was happening, he had lifted her slim figure from the ground and held her on his arms.
"Oh, you're going to pay for that one!" she said with a threatening glare as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and kissed him on the neck.
Instead of answering, he sat down on the ECO seat and put his pilot on his lap, his own arms around her waist, caressing her stomach.
"Who knows when we're gonna be alone like this again. We've got a couple of hours left. You might see my sensitive side."
"What, you mean that wasn't it?" she asked, still teasing. "Seemed pretty..." she stopped.
She finally saw it. What she had been wanting to tell him for months. She hadn't been able to. She was so sure that he didn't feel the same way she did. But there it was, reflected right back at her from his eyes. They weren't just two clueless horny jocks fresh out of the academy anymore. He was a man. She was a woman. And they needed eachother.
"I..." she started, still finding it difficult. "I've never..."
He immediately felt that the mood had changed. It was written across her face, shyness, the slightest hint of fear and the trouble that came with expressing something important. His heart leapt for joy in his chest, guessing what she was going to say. He tried to look clueless, though.
"What, Natalie?", he asked, very, very carefully.
"I care about you," she said. "More than I've ever cared about anyone before. I've thought that I was in love before but... now I know. Now I know how wrong I was. I can't stand being away from you. When I wake up I wish you were lying there next to me. Everytime the cylons show up... I can't even imagine what I would do if they... If you..."
She ran her hand along the side of his face, trying to memorize every curve, every beautiful imperfection.
"I don't need a drunken frak," she said, finally. "I need you."
Ewan couldn't help but being amazed by how... weak she looked, saying this. How open, fragile and vulnerable. She had always seemed so strong, indepedent, invincible, unapproachable even, when emotion was involved. She had worn a mask of indifference all this time and when something got to her, she would disappear with an angry outburst and stay that way until much later.
Not even he, probably her closest friend, had ever seen past that until then. It was like she had wanted to hide this especially from him. But now, knowing that she was just as sensitive and mortal as everybody else, as he himself, he felt the eagerness to protect her all the more. And he was glad; glad to know that he was so important to her, that he was the only one to know this side of her. That she trusted him.
That she needed him. It made him smile. A huge gap that had seemed to be in his chest, the constant feeling of need, longing, imperfection, were gone all at once. It was too much for him to say anything right away.
He just smiled, happier than he had felt in... Actually, happier than ever before. And the only way he could express it then was to embrace her and hold her close, while the relief flooded out of his chest and over his tongue as an uncontrollable chuckle.
"Well don't laugh at me, you ape," she half-whined half-chided, her confidence and sarcasm returning. She kissed him, stopping his laugh and, as she pulled away slowly, whispered sof"tly to him.
"Tell me you need me too."
He let her pull away, just enough for him to look into her eyes, their foreheads still touching. His hands had wandered to her cheeks, caressing her carefully with his fingertips and keeping her close at the same time.
"You are the reason why I get up in the morning", he smiled, honestly, "and why I keep going. You're my sanity and the light I follow. The color of every day that makes my life significant. You are my heart and... I need you more than air to breathe because I couldn't live another second without you."
He slowly, carefully moved his lips to her forehead and kissed her, smelled her hair and the drying sweat, and tears flooded his eyes.
"I love you."
She stroked his cheek, letting the emotion well up inside of her. She didn't try to hold back, bury it all deep down within herself like usual. She let it rise till it reached the brink and came spilling out in so many beautiful and unpredictable directions all at once. She felt like crying but didn't know if the stinging she felt in her eyes was from joy or sadness and the wrenching in her gut was met with the soaring of her heart.
It was all a bittersweet realization that neither of them could share with one another, even if they both felt it. They knew their days were numbered. It was just a matter of time until one of them...
"I love you too," she said, letting out a laugh of joyous relief. "I never knew those words could be so hard to say.. and mean them."
The happiness was beyond comparison. He had never felt as fulfilled before. Her voice and words, even though he had seen them coming, were the softest and most beautiful melody Ewan had ever heard, and he could have smiled at her forever, just seeing her smile, too.
But he could see the fear in her eyes, the same far-away tingling of presentiment he felt, too. And, by gods, he wouldn't let it be a part of their lives, not even for one second. It took them almost a year to get there, in eachother's arms. Nobody and nothing could be allowed to make it any less full of joy and happyness, now. So he slowly let his smile fade and exchanged it with an expression of determination and security.
"I'm not too sure, if we're ever gonna get where the Commander wants to lead us to. If the place he has in mind even exists or we're going to wander restlessly for decades. But I know that I will always, always be with you. And I sure as hell won't let any Cylon motherfrakker take you away from me", he added, the light-hearted, self-confident grin across his lips she had seen so many times and that seemed to melt everybody's bad mood away the instant they saw it. It was his greatest gift, greater than anything he could do as an ECO or soldier or Triad player:
He always seemed to be in a good mood and could convey it to other people.
"Hmmm..." she hummed, "So what are we gonna do with all this time together?"
"We're gonna spend these", he took a sideways glance at a screen, the grin getting brighter, "7 hours together and I will give you your fifty cubits. Then, we are going to figure something out, where we can meet and be alone. And the place needs to be a hundred percent soundproof, unless you want us to attract attention and have spectators."
The grin slowly changed to an impish, flirtatious one, and considering what he obviously had in mind, it was no wonder that his eyes wandered down to survey her flawless body, as bare as his own, and he couldn't but smile sheepishly.
"What, you don't like an audience? Stage fright? Who the frak cares who knows? It's not like they're going to throw us in the brig. They need every bird they can get out there."
He softly bit on his lower lip and eyed her, as if he was giving it a deep thought and seriously considering it, but instead gave her peck on the lips and a bold wink before continuing:
"Eventually, they will cut the fraternization paragraph, in favor of 'humanity's survival'. We will get older, doing one mission after the other, and before you know it, we will get married, have kids and retire."
He laughed. But his heart made a merry bump in his chest when he thought of proposing to her and imagined the future they might... no, were going to share.
"You've got it all planned out, haven't you?" she chided teasingly.
He looked up to the ceiling, apparently thinking it over.
"Well... If you really want to know what eye colours our seventeen children are gonna have..."
She was about to respond when, suddenly, a light on the panel behind Ewan started to blink. He saw the look on her face and wheeled around in the chair as she jumped up from his lap, grabbing what clothes she could find as she went. She slipped her arms back into her flightsuit, knowing that even though their first priority ought to be escape that the flightsuits were their last line of defense. There was a reason pilots had to wear them. If the ship was damaged it would be the only thing between her and cold space, and she did not intend to die any time soon.
"Frak, tell me the fleet just sent someone back to check on us."
It seemed impossible at first that, after everything had been going so well, that he would be the one to win their bet. But there it was. He saw it clearly on the DRADIS, while his reflexes followed Natalie's and he struggled to put the flightsuit on, not paying any attention to the rest of his clothes.
"I'm afraid you owe me fifty cubits. Single Cylon Raider, bearing 267, carom 305. About 13 klicks from us. A little closer and they would have had us with our pants down..."
Even though he was tense, all of a sudden, he had to speak out what had popped up in his mind when he saw his lover's well-formed buttocks disappear underneath her flight gear.
"Dammit... Dammit, Ewan, can you tell if they've detected us?"
"Gimme a sec...", he murmured, reading the instruments carefully. He probably had her on the verge of repeating her question, when he finally replied:
"Not yet. No wireless activity, weapon systems are offline and it's turning away from us. But... frak", he muttered.
"Gods, what now?"
"The Raider's spooling down its FTL drives. Probably won't leave anytime soon."
She slipped her arms into their sleeves and zipped up the front of her suit as quickly as she could, foregoing her underclothes. As she dropped her helmet over her head and clicked it in place, she saw the familiar form of a Cylon raider flying past them in the distance, its distinctive curved steel catching the light of the nearby star.
"This is not good," she said.
"I say we make a run for it. We can't spool up unnoticed and I'm pretty sure that at max speed, even with the distance, it would reach us well before we were set for the jump. But if there're more of 'em coming, then now's probably the best time to try."
He tried to be as matter-of-fact as possible and knew that, as far as speed and warming up the systems that had been shut down for the last hour went, it would take a hell of a bit of flying to get out of it. The decision rested with Natalie as the pilot, the superior officer, the one he was in the same boat with and the one he was going to share a bed with.
"It's your call, baby."
She swallowed, a lump sticking in her throat. That agonizing feeling of anxiety crept over her like a strong hand wrapping itself around her neck, fingers pressing and prodding with an uncomfortable and dangerous strength.
"Frak. This is so not what I signed up for when I joined the fleet," she grumbled.
She checked her DRADIS again, watched as the blip moved in a predictable scouting pattern only a few clicks away from them. It was only a matter of time before the Raider doubled back and started searching in their direction.
"All right," she said. "We make a run for it. When I give the word, you start spooling the FTL, okay?"
"Wilco", he responded, warming up the other systems.
She stood up, walked back to him and kissed him on the cheek.
He was dumbfounded for a moment, looking up at her. It was just plain unexpected, considering the tight spot they were in.
"What was that for?"
"For luck," she said.
He understood. His hand reached out to her neck and pulled her down once again, to kiss her lips. He stroked her cheek reassuringly and his smile was confident. They'd make it. He let her read it in his eyes before he let her go and put the helmet and gloves on, clicking them to safety.
"Ready?" she asked as she sat down again in her seat, her right hand resting on the throttle controls, her left on navigation.
"All set."
"Okay... Go!"
She pushed the throttle all the way forward and the kick of the afterburners sent the blood rushing out of her head. Doing her best to ignore the sudden change in pressure, she maneuvered the ship up in a tight angle, flipping it over on its dorsal axis. It was the fastest - and subsequently, most dangerous - way to pull a 180 in a Raptor. Usually the maneuver was left for the jocks but, given the situation, she felt like something different was in order.
"Pursuing?" she asked, needlessly. She already knew the answer.
"Ohhh yeah", he said. The Raider had already doubled back the distance he had brought in between them. A glance on the FTL told Ewan that he was right: They would be long in his firing range by the time it was ready.
"I'll try and distract it with some fake DRADIS signatures and a little wireless activity. Let's see, if I can outsmart a toaster..."
"Better hope you can. This asteroid field's gonna be a mega bitch to fly in. At least for us, anyways."
"We're slower, but the raider's gotta watch out, too. As long as you don't fly into anything too bi-", he started, a jest in mind, but she interrupted him.
"Okay, he's in weapons range. I'm going to try to put as many rocks between us and him as possible, but the dodging and weaving is going to slow us down. We're trading time for time here."
She pushed on the vertical thrusters, forcing the nose of the craft downwards, looping them over a small asteroid. Her instruments flipped and twisted crazily, but her eyes weren't on the panel. Instinct had kicked in and she flew with her gut, not her head. Spacial dynamics, physics, particle theory and the ever-increasing gravitational pull of the nearby gas giant all disappeared from her concious thought, slipping into the back of her brain as she fought to keep them alive. There was no way she would let it end there, like that. Not after what had just happened.
"Just a little longer. FTL drive's at 37 percent. Keep an eye out for those smaller rocks, I can't help you from here."
He was nervous and he knew it. Stating the obvious wasn't like him. It wasn't the first time they were in a situation like this, either, and as an ECO, he had to get used to being more of a passenger when it came to serious flying. Still... It seemed like there was more at stake now and his stomach wouldn't calm down. Ewan stared at the DRADIS again, knowing that it was a mess due to the lot of large objects AND the omnipresent particles of metals and minerals. And the radiation from the gas giant was frakking up the other readings. He was blind and deaf. But...
"Oh... Oh yeah... Yeah, that might work", he murmured slowly, with growing confidence, and Natalie could hear it, even though she was occupied.
"What?"
He got up and up front, keeping his balance by clinging to the co-pilot seat.
"Ewan, what is it?"
"Hm...", he mumbled, trying to get a good look outside while his pilot kept them out of the Raider's line of fire. A burst of blue to starboard underlined the danger of the situation. But it was this shot that attracted his attention, and...
"There", he pointed at a dustcloud, about three klicks from them, "That's where we need to go."
"Are you frakking kidding me?" she asked, bewildered. "I'm having a hard enough time staying out of his line of fire in here. We'd have to go through a lot of open space to get there.
"I didn't say it would be easy. But I believe in your skills", he said while moving back to his console, suddenly in a hurry.
She looked at him in the reflection of the glass as he headed back to his seat. She was confused as hell. What could travelling into a cloud of dust do to help them? But she didn't have time to worry about it. She adjusted her flight path, pulling a hard right out of the asteroid field towards the cloud.
"I don't suppose you want to tell me what the point of this is?"
"Save our asses. The asteroids are making our DRADIS useless, so the bogey on our tail has the same issues. Same goes for the radiation. The gas giant screws all of our readings up and as long as we've got it at our back, with the DRADIS all messy, we could jump a hundred times and it wouldn't pick it up. So, all it's got is its eyeballs, or whatever substitute the toasters have for that, and a clue on the DRADIS every now and then."
"Yeah. That's assuming he hasn't already picked us off by the time we get there."
She felt a wave of anxiety wash over her as they passed out of the relative safety of the asteroids. She wanted to trust in Ewan's idea, but she couldn't help but worry that she was making a mistake. She shook it off, concentrating on the job ahead.
"We don't have to get there", he replied, working the console. "All we've got to do is get in the direction."
"He's coming out behind us. Ewan, he'll have a missile lock any second now!"
"Don't worry, we still have a couple of swallows aboard. I'll change the speed of one of them and try to enhance the fuel output, so that its engines burn brighter. The swallow's gonna be the visual decoy, the gas giant radiation masks our FTL signature anyways. Then I'll work on some more DRADIS confusion."
Hero stopped typing for a moment and looked at her back, a boyish grin all across his face. This situation kinda reminded him of the day when he was given his callsign. Even though he had actually screwed up back then and saved several hundred lives and two ships by sheer accident.
But he loved playing. He loved to frak people over. And that was basically everything an ECO did, tricking the enemy and messing with their electronic eyes and ears. And at moments like this, he knew that he was good at it. He knew that it would work.
"If you can get us a little closer and give me another 30 seconds, we're off the hook. By the time it notices, we're all set for the jump."
She gritted her teeth, a red warning light pulsating to her right, the wash of adrenaline heightening her senses. The Raider had a missile lock.
"Can do," she said, pushing the thrusters to their maximum output as she put the raptor into a spin.
"That's my girl."
"His missiles are hot. Frak! Frak, frak, frak!"
She swerved hard left, barely avoiding a barrage of gunfire, the rounds sailing past the co-pilots side window with barely an inch to spare. She was good, but the Raider was better. It was just a matter of time before he adapted to her style and learned to anticipate her moves. Only a matter of time before they were dead.
"Okay, now: When I launch the swallow, get us as out of sight and as close to the back of an asteroid as possible. They're full of metal, so they should cover our FTL for a little bit, until it notices its mistake. Ready?"
"Ready as I'm gonna get."
Suddenly the red light went solid.
"Here goes", he said, launching the swallow and doing his best to let everything look real on the sketchy DRADIS their pursuer had.
As she heard the swallow mechanism initiate, she cut the port thruster, sending the Raptor into a sideways dive out of the way of the incoming ordinance. With any luck, the burst of the swallow's engine would be enough to throw off the Raider and its missile. The DRADIS was frakked up enough that she could barely make out their foe on the screen, but nobody knew just how advanced Cylon tech was. Maybe he could see them perfectly. Maybe he would see right through their ruse.
As she pulled back towards the asteroid field, she swung her head around, looking for any sign of pursuit. The angle was impossible - no way to tell if there was anything behind them. She turned in her chair, knowing that if Ewan's plan hadn't worked there was nothing she could do anymore. The Raider had already been almost on top of them. Her deceleration to hide behind the asteroid would be all it needed to catch up.
"I can't see anything from here. Ewan, did it work?"
He didn't answer for another five seconds, then sighed in relief.
"Seems so. If he didn't notice until the decoy entered the cloud, then he won't notice until they are both on the other side. FTL's at 69 percent, coordinates checked and double checked."
His gaze met hers and he smiled.
"I think we did it."
"Thank gods," she said, slumping back in her chair.
Even with the adrenaline pumping through her system, she felt exhausted.
"Really? Only thanks the gods? I didn't see Athena showing up anywhere..."
"Fine," she said, a tired smile coming to her at last. "Thanks to you too."
"That's what I wanted to hear. By the way, we're at 90 percent", he mentioned, checking the display.
"Ha ha!" she laughed.
"Looks like we made it after a-" there was a sudden flash of light and sound as a hail of bullets rained through the co-pilots side of the cockpit, smashing the instrument panel to pieces. There was a loud bang as the cabin depressurized, the air spilling out through the holes in the side of the raptor.
Natalie felt the flash of heat first, the panel to her side bursting in a barrage of sparks and shrapnel. Then she felt hot metal rip through her flight suit and into her flesh, burrying itself in her abdomen and neck. There was blood and pain and confusion all at once. They had been safe. They had made it. The raider had been fooled. Now she lay on the floor of the Raptor cabin as the air flew out into space, her suit ruptured. It grew harder to breathe. Whether it was a hole in her throat or the hole in her suit, she didn't know.
One always thinks that those slow-motion moments only belong to movies. That, in reality, time never slows down and everything actually happens incredibly fast. And it's true. It's just like that. Ewan had no time to think, barely even enough time to realize what had happened. But when his ears were ringing from the sudden noise and he saw the cockpit explode around her, her body collapsing to the floor and the blood sprayed on the canopy, he couldn't contain the sudden and burning fear that welled up within him and burst from his mouth.
"No! NO!"
He sprung to his feet and reached her just in time to catch her as she fell. He was speechless, too terrified to say anything, think of anything in the split seconds given.
"Jump the ship!" she managed to get out before her body went limb.
She looked up, her eyes locking on to the raider. It had seen through their trick. It had come back for them. Now it was going to kill them both. She could see its blue engine exhaust as it flipped around, readying itself for another pass. The red flash of its eye, moving back and forth ever so slowly.
He tried to set her body down slowly but time was racing around him and so was his mind. He stretched out a hand for the FTL button in the side panel but saw that it was gone. The raider seemed to know that it could take its time. The hunt was over, its prey unable to move. Three lights flashed far behind the raider and even without the beeps from the DRADIS, Ewan knew that they were basestars. There was no doubt. The Cylons were still after them and, one way or another, were on their trail.
Hero realized that he was still holding Natalie. At that moment time did begin to slow. He looked down at her, saw the rips in her suit, the blood spilling out, the blood on his own suit, his gloves, even his helmet. She looked outside, at the raider, away from him, and her eyes were full of... resignation. She knew that this was how it was going to end.
"No", he whispered and looked at his seat. He knew what to do. He let go of her, and the very moment their contact broke, time went back to normal.
He felt his body leap up and forward. It was a desperate leap, a hard six. Their one and only chance was for him to hit the right button at the right time. His hand reached the panel. He hit empty metal and his heart skipped a beat. Blue light was flashing up at the corner of his eyes, muzzle flashes.
All went to slow-motion again. His hand reached a little to the left. He knew that this was the right button, had to be. He pushed it. And the odd, tingling sensation up and down his spine told him that they had jumped.
Natalie wondered if the sensation she felt was death, wondered if all the stories about the Gods on Olympus and heaven and hell were true. She wondered where she would be going. She felt her body stretch and contract simultaneously, a distant yet familiar sensation.
The tingling was followed by a loud noise, something that was undoubtedly another hit. A look around told him that a few bullets had come through, crashed through the canopy and ripped into the backwall of the raptor. No matter. A single glance at the DRADIS told him that they were back. The Rhea and her fleet had appeared where, seconds before, there had been a raider, about to unleash death upon them.
Finally, time picked up its usual speed again and his mind caught up with reality and their situation. Natalie lying on the floor, drops of her blood gently flying away from her body and towards the countless holes in the ship.
"Natalie", he murmured and crawled back to pick her up in a hurry. She seemed absent, was bleeding rapidly and losing oxygen. He swallowed hard. There was nothing he could do to help her, not inside the raptor. He needed to act fast.
"I have to leave you for a moment. Hang in there." His voice was close to the breaking point when he stood up and got in the demolished co-pilots seat.
"Raptor 771, this is Rhea", Ream's voice finally echoed through his helmet, just as he pushed the throttle all the way up, "Sitrep".
"Rhea, Raptor 771. I need a full paramedic team at Port flight deck, elevator 3. A raider jumped on top of us and hit us hard. The raptor's damaged and Flash is badly wounded."
"Raptor 771, Rhea, all elevators on port are currently occupied due to civi-"
"Then you will have to get them the frak out of there right away, cause I don't have enough control over this ship to even think about getting it to starboard", he interrupted Ream, his voice strained and obviously dead serious, "Raptor 771 out".
Without waiting for a reply, he just shut off the wireless. He knew it was dangerous but he didn't care. He was already too close to Rhea's Port to turn around. The thrusters were frakked, or at least their control was erratic. He had to make a perfect approach and stop on the spot, or else go for the next elevator.
"Don't screw up, Ewan", he murmured to himself, "Don't screw up".
The elevator panel was approaching. As expected, he saw several civilian ships, small shuttles about the size of the raptor, trying to fly away hurriedly in order to make room.
"Come on..."
He pulled hard on both the throttle and stick. The engines shut down, but he wouldn't get as slow as he needed to be. He pulled harder.
"Come on!"
The weak sound of the thruster got slightly louder. After what seemed to be an eternity, the raptor came to a halt, slowly hovered downward and touched the ground. Almost instantly, it rocked hard as the elevator began to work.
Ewan sprung up and knelt down besides Natalie who's blood was now, instead of flying away, slowly building a puddle around her. Her chest barely seemed to move. Her face was pale, the inside of her helmet fogged and her eyes looked weak and tired. He picked her up, trying not to let any of his fear show.
"Baby, we're here. Just hold on a little longer. We're here."
He heard the air rushing back inside as the elevator was pressurized. He carefully took her helmet off, followed by his own.
"See? We're back. It's gonna be okay. All is gonna be alright."
She made an incoherent murmur, barely audible, her eyes beginning to close. His own eyes widened and he slapped her across the face, trying to keep her awake and present.
"No, no no no, don't sleep, not yet. You've go to stay with me, do you hear me? Stay with me. I promised I would never leave you, remember? Now, don't you leave me. Don't leave me, Natalie."
His body was stiff, hers limp. She didn't seem to realize what was going on. He wasn't even sure if she could hear him. But he needed to keep her awake.
The elevator stopped. A moment later, they could hear the massive bulkhead open that sealed it from the hangar deck, and with it, the sounds of the deck flooded in.
"You hear that? We're almost inside. Now I only gotta get you to the infirmary."
He stroked her face, her neck, pressed her up against his body, tried to make her feel as much of him as possible. Picking her up, he walked over to the hatch in two steps and opened it. But her neck was getting limp and her head was slowly sinking down. He readjusted his arm to hold her up, get her face close to his again.
"Don't leave me now, Hallowell!", he said, loudly, into her ear, as if he was angry, to cover how afraid he really was. She didn't react to it, not in any way he could make out.
He kissed her, on her lips, on her cheek, several times, until the hatch had opened and he could step outside. Some people had seen it. It didn't matter to him. He put her on the stretcher that was ready for her.
"Only a bit, Natalie. Only a little bit longer", he repeated, holding her hands, while the medics around him were checking her pulse and breathing, trying to get an infusion up and stop her constant blood loss. At this moment, when they started to run towards the infirmary, he felt her hand squeeze his for a moment and when he looked at her face, partially covered by a respiratory mask, he was almost sure that the life had returned into the body he had so desperately tried to keep awake and alive.
Knowing that both of them were naked underneath their flight suits, that their clothes were scattered inside the raptor and the remainders of the bottle wouldn't be to hard to find, Ewan was sure that they would face consequences. There was enough evidence to show that they had been drinking and had had sex in total violation of almost every regulation he could think of but he didn't care. They could face those problems later. Until he knew she was safe they didn't exist.
---
The Chief and two of her deckhands took a look into the raptor, or at least what remained of it.
"Man... The Cylons frakked 'em pretty bad", one of them stated. The other deckhand chuckled and pointed at the clothes.
"Looks like the Cylons weren't the only ones 'frakking'."
"Shut up, you two", the Chief said and looked after the group heading for the infirmary. Hero wasn't even trying to hide his affection. She respected that. And she was pretty sure that this was trouble enough for him.
"Come here", she gestured at the two of them and they complied, "I want you to take those clothes to the laundry, so that nobody see's them. Understood?"
"You want to help them?", one of them asked.
"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"
"No. None", they replied, almost in unison.
****
Battlestar Rhea
Sickbay
8:00, Two Days Later
Natalie awoke, a bright light filling her entire feld of vision. She raised an arm to block it out, felt a stinging pain in her side. There was a rush of memories. Leaving the Rhea, the asteroid field, drunken flirting, drunker sex, love, fear, death. It all came back clear as day.
"Ewan?" she asked, quietly, her dry throat barely managing to squeeze out the name.
There was low groan from her bedside. Hair, attached to a head, attached to a face, and somehow connected to two arms with two hands, one of which was holding Natalie's. The hair, or maybe the head underneath, was groaning and the face was slowly waking up, opening its eyes. At first they were sleepy, but when they met with hers, all of the sleep was gone.
"Natalie." His relief was palpable, a smile spread across his face. He hesitated for only a moment, then hugged her tightly.
"Ow! Ow, Ewan," she said, barely able to feel the pain through the intense happiness that spread through her body as her eyes met his.
"Oh, I-I'm sorry", he said, embarrassment written all over his eyes.
"I... I was so worried about you. When we finally reached the infirmary, your heart stopped and... I thought... I..."
Instead of saying any more, he just kept stroking her cheek.
"It's okay," she said, enjoying the feeling of human contact once more. "It's all okay now. You did it."
She smiled and let her eyes close as she lay back down in her bed, letting the comfort and warmth overtake her again now that she knew all was well.
"Ewan," she began sleepily as she drifted off again. "What happened to the Raptor? Are we busted?"
It didn't matter any more than a passing curiosity. Still, she wondered what might happen. What their future together might be like.
"No, it's alright", he answered, his voice soft and low.
"I talked to the Chief, ready to convince her not to tell the CAG about us but she grinned to me and said that the CAG had already come by and that the Raptor was clean on inspection."
He knew that the deckgang had their fingers in this, that Tracey had done this. That grin gave her away. But he was glad. It could have all been so much more complicated.
"That's good," she mumbled as she slipped back into sleep and, for the first time she could remember, Natalie Hallowell had a good dream.
"Sleep well, love", he whispered with a smile, leaning over and kissing her forehead. He wouldn't leave her. He knew that, soon, everybody aboard spread rumors about them. But it didn't matter. With the Raptor clean, they were save. After all, how could a Commander try to keep them from each other when he was married to a woman who had been his wing for several years?