BG01B-A Cold and Silent Night
by VStarTraveler

Summary: While on a dangerous, long-range scouting mission, a badly outnumbered Starbuck must use the words of a Colonial hymn to help him deal with a horrible loss and also deal with those responsible for it.

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction, written entirely for fun and not for profit. This interpretation of the world of Battlestar Galactica is entirely my own, and Battlestar Galactica and all of its various components remain the property of their respective owners.

That said, the poem used here, attributed to the ancient Colonial poet, V'Starius, is my own work, and I alone am totally responsible for it and the imperfections that it contains.

Author's Note: This story takes place a few weeks/sectons after the events of the episode "Gun on Ice Planet Zero."

Prelude: Assignment

On the bridge of the Battlestar Galactica:

"Commander, we've picked up Cylon signals in this system." Colonel Tigh looked worried.

"Colonel, order all ships to communications lockdown. Low power, short range ship to ship only. Only ships in visual range. No Interfleet broadcasts, no long range communication with our patrols."

Tigh nodded. "Yes, sir." Turning to Sergeant Omega, he merely said, "Send it. Request Priority One receipt of orders."

Omega, who had already typed the order from Colonel Tigh that was almost verbatim from Adama's instructions quickly added the last part and then sent the message. Responses confirming receipt of the order started showing up on the screen just microns later. Less than a centon later, Omega said, "All ships acknowledge, Sir."

"Thank you, Omega," replied Commander Adama. Turning to Colonel Tigh, he said in a soft voice, "Who's assigned to run the mission to check the belt today?"

"That's Lieutenant Starbuck, sir."

"And his wingmate?"

Tigh wasn't sure so he glanced questioningly at Omega. The sergeant glanced at his screen, made a few keystrokes, and then looked up with a strange look on his face. "Uh, Cadet Cree, Sir."

"Do you think we should...?" Tigh also looked apprehensive.

Adama shook his head, though there was concern showing on his face, too. "No, let's let them work it out. Starbuck has been working very closely with that kid since the ice planet, trying to get him up to speed, so he'll know best if Cree is ready or if he needs to request a replacement for the mission. Either way, just make sure both Warriors understand the comm lockdown order and tell them to be careful."

Stanza 1: Crossing

When one would cross to distant star,
Across dark space 'tween points of light,
Til man, alone, discerns how far,
How cold and silent is the night.

—The Spacefarer's Ode,
by V'Starius Travelerian, circa 6100.
A Colonial Warrior's Hymn

Several centars later as they neared their destination:

"Starbuck, why would the Commander even think about taking the Fleet so close to an asteroid field?"

"Cree, first, it's not really a field; it's a belt."

The ensuing silence told Starbuck what he needed to know. The young cadet in the adjacent Colonial Viper wasn't following. Since they were traveling so close together that they could see each other in the dim light of the cockpit and with their helmets glowing, the lieutenant avoided his first impulse to shake his head.

Starbuck had taken a special interest in the young man for the past few sectons since the events on the ice planet Aracta. There, after feeling responsible for Cree's capture, he'd rescued the kid, the team had succeeded in blowing up the Ravashol Pulsar, and, at least temporarily, the fleet had escaped from the Cylons. All-in-all, it had been a pretty good cycle worthy of celebrating, but there seemed to be something of a hole remaining in Starbuck's heart. He didn't really understand it but, somehow, he just felt responsible for the kid.

Because of that, he'd been exercising a degree more patience than he would with most other young hotshot pilots straight out of the academy. Therein lay the second part of the problem. That the "academy" was now centered on the Galactica rather than back home on Caprica might have added a bit more weight to his concern, and that Starbuck and most of the other senior Warriors served as teachers or assistants for the new trainees and cadets added to that. That Cree was still only a cadet rather than an actual graduate was the final straw. Starbuck had almost replaced Cree for the mission when Colonel Tigh gave him the chance, but Starbuck realized that showing his lack of trust in the kid's skills and judgment might do more damage to the cadet's development than taking him along. Thus, they found themselves together as they approached the outskirts of the rather densely populated asteroid belt.

Drawing a breath, he used his at-least-somewhat-patient voice to explain. "Ya' see, everything in there is orbiting this dinky little star, and it has been for untold ages. The scientists tell us it's about as stable, celestially speaking, as you're ever going to get. It's not like they're spinning around real fast and smashing into each other, turning everything into dust like you see in the silly vidnet shows. You know, where the hotshot pilot in the oversized ship is always out flying the bad guys in the fighter craft, zipping in and out of the flying boulders. Well, that's just crazy, made-up felgercarb."

Cree laughed, as if remembering just such a scene. He paused for a moment before saying, "I guess they would all be dust pretty quick if it was like in the vids, wouldn't they?"

Starbuck smiled. The kid seemed to be catching on...at least to part of it. "Well, possibly, but gravitational pull comes into play. Every little piece, even little tiny specs, has a tiny bit of mass and they exert tiny little influences on each other. An asteroid belt has lots and lots of those parts and pieces and little specks, but they're all pretty friendly with each other since they've been there as neighbors for so long and had time to get stabilized. You know, getting used to each other so all their gravitational pulls, as small as they are, work together. Don't get me wrong. Scientists say that there may be collisions occasionally, but that's usually due to things like comets or rogue asteroids that aren't part of the belt zipping through and disturbing what one of my profs once described as 'the delicate gravitational balance.'"

"It still sounds pretty dangerous to me," said Cree. "Sure, it may not happen often, but I'd rather not give them a chance."

"That's probably the best course of action," agreed Starbuck, "but sometimes we just don't have a choice. I said they're generally pretty friendly with each other, at least as friendly as rocks can be with each other. If you've got to go in there with them, you basically have to be friendly with them, too. When venturing into one of those belts, you have to be careful to go with them in the same general direction, travel at about the same speed, and not stir up any problems. Follow those general rules, you have a chance of making it out safely. If by some chance you do stir up problems in an asteroid belt, your best bet is to get out. Fast."

"Well, if you say so, Lieutenant, but it still seems pretty silly to me, running the Fleet right past it on our survey course. A few stray pebbles shooting out just right at just the right time could do lots of damage and make us all sorry. It just doesn't make much sense."

Starbuck hated to admit it, but the kid had a point. Of course, there was a bit more to it than that. They'd already detected Cylon activity in the system, so all of the ships of the Fleet, including their Vipers, were traveling on communications silence. Their ship-to-ship comm system was set for visual range only to avoid the Cylons picking up their chatter. They were under strict orders not to try to contact the Fleet, too. Therefore, the senior officer decided to give the simple version of the explanation.

"Well, the ships of the Fleet have electroshielding and thick durasteel hulls that generally protect them from the little micrometeors we can't see. It either bumps them out of the way if they're on an oblique angle, or if they're heading right at us, it's like a meteor entering a planet's atmosphere and burning up. If there's anything left by the time it hits the hull, there's usually not much damage. Our shipboard shielding also deflects the small meteors we may or may not see, and our sensors detect the ones that are too big so we can steer clear of them or increase power to the point we can bounce them off. Does all of that make sense, Cree?"

"Yes, sir, Lieutenant," agreed the young cadet. "I guess so."

Starbuck stifled a sigh. "Now, not to say you couldn't still be right. It could potentially cause us trouble if there were pieces flying out of the belt's orbit like that, because if they come at us at an angle and they bounce off one ship's shielding, they could be deflected and hit another ship, and so on. Fortunately, astrophysical science tells us that shouldn't be the case. That's why we're here; to prove that science is right or to figure out why it isn't."

Cree repeated doubtfully, "Well, if you say so, Sir." Pausing for a moment, he added, "You said, 'first.' Does that mean there's another reason?"

"Yep." Starbuck smiled to himself. The cadet might not understand it all, but he was definitely learning and picking up on the finer points. Starbuck would have to watch out for that if he ever had to play a hand of pyramid with the kid.

"Remember in school when you learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line? Well, the Commander will assure you that the next shortest distance is almost a straight line when the straight line goes through the middle of the asteroid belt. We're still heading toward the point where we'll be able to engage the jump drive engines to go to the next system, but we're bowing out of the celestial plane of this system to go just outside the asteroid field and then we'll bow back down to get back on course. If we had to go around the system outside of the belt, it would be a lot further."

Starbuck had hated some of his classes at the academy, but he had generally listened when he'd gone to class, even to the officers who were boring. This was one of those subjects that had come easy to him, that he'd just understood instinctively. Therefore, he launched into another discussion of fuel usage and the effects of gravity. As a Viper pilot, he had an excellent understanding of both and the physics and mechanics that went along with them. He was still in the middle of answering Cree's first question when the scanner alarm sounded.

"Lieutenant, I'm picking up three Cylon Raiders! They're coming out of the asteroid field. Belt."

Having his scanner set to a different but overlapping setting, Starbuck replied, "Uh, and you should now see three more right behind them on your short range scanner." Starbuck hit the switch, extending the scanner range. "And three more a little way behind them. They're all heading straight for us. On my mark, let's return the favor. Hit your turbos and head straight for them." It was critical to take out the first three before the others arrived to even the odds. "Now!"

Both men hit their turbothrusters, launching toward the incoming Cylons at a high rate of speed. "Cree, take the left one."

"What about the second and third waves, Sir?"

"Cree, they probably won't matter if we don't take care of these. Besides, they're over 20 microns behind and then the last—" hopefully! he thought, "—another 20 behind them. That's an eternity out here," said Starbuck, knowing that they'd both be spending eternity here if they weren't careful…and lucky.

Centering his targeting reticule on the center incoming ship, Starbuck pressed the red "Fire" button one, two, three times, and was pleased to see an explosion ahead. Cree fired at his opponent as the third ship spiraled off to the right, leaving Starbuck inadequate time to shift his aim to that ship as he'd planned. Incoming fire from the left side indicated that Cree had missed.

Frack! Two on two, one of whom would have trouble fighting his way out of a thin polymer bag, with the odds about to change drastically away from their favor in mere microns. "Pull up, now!" he called as he pulled back on the stick.

Slicing upward, Starbuck led the way as he arced off to the right, with Cree trailing behind. "Stay with me, buddy," he called. "We're going to have to cut into this belt, find one of the bigger rocks, slip down under it, and then try to get away from these guys if we ever want to get home." Within microns, they'd shot into the edge of the asteroid belt and adjusted course parallel to the asteroids' orbit.

"Lieutenant, there's five of them now, and they're—"

"Shooting at us," finished Starbuck as he finished the turn, knowing that three more would be arriving soon. "Cree, do a two micron turbothruster burst on my mark. I'm going to drop back to take out the two close ones while they're going after you. Ready, now!"

As Cree's Viper shot forward with the turbothrusters firing, Starbuck hit the IM reverse thruster button on his own ship. The baffles in his ship's engines' deployed, creating a reverse thrust that slowed his ship tremendously, allowing the two nearest Cylons to shoot past him. The next three were only a few microns behind so he had to hurry.

His thumb came off the button and, with a tweak of the stick, he was aligned on the right Raider. Just as he triggered to fire, both Raiders unleashed their own bursts into the darkness ahead. An explosion flared in the distance, but it was at that moment that the right Raider exploded into a brilliant starburst that filled Starbuck's canopy screen. The internal dampeners in the thick transparent material did their work in reducing the flare to keep the explosion from blinding him, but he still winced at the closeness of the blast. Glancing down slightly at his scanner screen, he saw the left Raider slant off to the left.

Increasing power on his comm system even as he increased his speed, he called, "Cree! Got one! Hang on, be back with you in a moment."

He was about to jerk his stick to follow the fleeing Raider when a loud, crackling noise came over his Viper's comm system. That told Starbuck that something had happened, something bad, but the silence that followed made it even worse. Since it hadn't happened to his ship, that only left Cree's. Looking ahead, he saw nothing and checking his scanner on a wider sweep, his cadet wingmate's ship was nowhere to be seen.

"Cree! Cree? Where are you, buddy?" called Starbuck as aligned on the Raider in the distance. It would be a long shot, but it should work. As his finger tightened on the trigger, his Viper suddenly shook violently and was knocked off course as he struck a small boulder making its way around the distant star. Widening the scan once more, neither Cree nor the Cylon Raider was visible, but the nearest flight of Raiders was almost on top of him with the others closing rapidly.

Reducing his scan and comm outputs to forward only, he reluctantly hit his turbos as he kept calling Cree's name. Seeing a large body ahead, he quickly slipped his Viper so that it paralleled the oblong, flying boulder that was about three kilometrons in length and one or two in width. With a few maneuvering bursts, he brought his ship into the shadowed side of the asteroid.

Cutting power so he was moving parallel and just a few metrons above the big asteroid, he waited, five, ten microns.

In the distance, he saw two and then two more parallel flares. "Raiders," he said to himself as they disappeared from sight. He waited a few more microns before seeing what appeared to be a couple more, but it was so far away he couldn't be sure. Taking a risk, he activated his ship to ship comm on low power once more and called out, "Cree. Cree?" Increasing output power once more to the point that he knew it would be well beyond the range that Cree could have traveled, he called out again, but once more, there was no response.

He immediately cut the power and hoped the Cylons hadn't detected, or if they had, hadn't had time to triangulate back on his signal.

Thinking back, he remembered that first explosion when the Raiders had fired. That had been Cree's ship.

"Frack! Oh, kid! I am so sorry." He'd used the kid as bait with the turbo burst, but somehow the Cylons had still been close enough to hit him. Balled fists pounded down on his thighs as he cursed several more times. The last was barely audible. His head slowly fell forward and, in the cold darkness of space, Starbuck was once more surrounded by silence.

~BSG~

Author's Note: I hope you've enjoyed this first part of the story. Your reviews, follows, and favorites will be greatly appreciated.