--Just a little ditty that helps me deal with the Anders being left on Caprica crap.
--I own nothing except for the ideas in my head. All the familiar characters belong to RDM and Sci-Fi.
He couldn't believe that he was doing this…. But he couldn't resist the look on Kara's face when he said he would. For two months she had moped around the dark corridors, looking aimlessly ahead at some hidden demon that she couldn't shake.
She shouldn't have made a promise that was so hard to keep.
"Raptor 4-5-7, you're cleared for launch. Good hunting, Apollo. Galactica out."
Dee's voice was reassuring as it left the comm. He could tell that no one on Galactica suspected what they were up to. Only the Chief and his deck crew had seen Kara get on board. His look had spoken volumes, but Lee knew Galen Tyrol well enough to know the man would keep his mouth shut. If only so that he wouldn't get stuck in the middle of it, too.
"Helo, get that FTL up and spinning. Jump to commence on my mark."
Sharon's former ECO smiled as he worked the controls, then shook his head.
We must be crazy.
"Roger that Apollo."
Kara ducked as two vipers flew by. Kat and Hotdog, by the looks of it. She was supposed to be teaching them a few new maneuvers, but had taken "sick" at the last minute. She even managed to con Doc Cottle for once…and it was hard as hell to get anything past that old man.
"Mark."
Her stomach lurched. She couldn't tell if it was from the jump through space, or in anticipation of things to come. Once they completed the jump, she raised her head to look out the window.
"All clear?"
Apollo turned to look at her. Now that they were away from the Galactica, he felt free to express himself.
"Yes Starbuck. Looks like no one's home. Creepy. Helo, are you sure we're outside of Caprica?"
Helo looked at the scan in front of him. All signs pointed to the planet Caprica. But the Cylon presence that was painfully orbiting the planet before was no longer there.
"Yeah. Looks like it. But we'd better power down just in case…coast in like Sha…like we did the last time we were here. It's not like we're all stealth in this thing like in a Cylon raider." He grinned in Starbuck's direction.
She rolled her eyes as Apollo powered down the raptor. They coasted into the atmosphere before powering up again.
Lee looked back at Kara, who was still sitting on the floor of the raptor.
"You wanna come up here so you can point out where we're going? Or do you want me to continue flying blind?"
Kara felt like grinning, but didn't. This was too serious a situation for her to start joking. Besides, she didn't think that her stomach could take it. Easing herself into the co-pilot's seat, she cringed at the thought of stepping out of the raptor's confines and back onto this gods forsaken planet again. As she tried to calm her racing heartbeat, she began to recognize some of the terrain.
"Land over there, behind that building."
Apollo flew to the building in question, southeast of where they were. It looked burned out. To Kara and Helo, it was hardly recognizable.
"What the frak…"
Helo got up from his chair to look. The school, Delphi Union High, was no longer. It looked like the attack had been recent, too. The burned-out hallways were still smoldering.
"Gods, I hope they got out alive."
They both looked at Kara, who had suddenly gone ashen as she started stuttering.
"T-too, l-late…"
Lee turned towards her. There had to be a way to tell her it would be all right.
"Kara, now, we don't know…"
He was cut off as she jumped to her feet and forced open the hatch, with Helo two steps behind.
"Stop, the both of you! That's an order!"
Apollo's voice echoed eerily, as the two Lieutenants halted. Dammit. Great way to make our presence known, if there still is a Cylon force waiting out there. Idiot! Lee was going to regret this…he just knew it.
"We need to walk the perimeter, do a little recon…"
Click. Click. Click.
The sound kept coming from all around. Someone or some-thing had definitely been waiting.
"Frak."
Lee was going to kill her for this. It was bad enough that he would have to explain his actions to his father, again. Now he would have to deal with how they were going to get out of this one in the first place.
One man came out of the nearby woods and started walking toward them…a grim look upon his features. He came directly in front of Helo and Starbuck, who were a few paces ahead of Lee.
"You just can't make a quiet entrance, can you?"
A tiny, knowing smile, slowly crept across Starbuck's stony features. The man motioned for the others to come out and for them to lower their weapons. He looked down at Starbuck in particular, then picked her up and kissed her hard on the lips.
"Kept your promise then, didn't you?"