Chapter Two
The captain turned to her and for the first time seemed too realised the age of the girl sat next to him, surprise crossed his face as he looked at her. "How old are you?" he asked her. "17" she replied sheepishly. His eyes widened in surprise as he took the girl sat before him in, "17" he repeated, she nodded her eyes turning back to the controls in front of her. After he had recovered from his shock he asked her "what's your name?" she turned and looked at the youngish captain. "Sky Everwave" she answered. For a moment a puzzled look appeared on his face before realisation replaced it almost instantly. "You're the daughter of senator Everwave." The girl gave a sharp nod not taking her eyes off of the controls in front of her. There was suddenly a thick tense atmosphere in the cockpit which disappeared instantly as a crackly message came over the communications network. "Come in, come in this is Battlestar Galactica come in" "the captain almost jumped across the cockpit to hit the button that would allow him to reply. "Copy Battlestar Galactica this is Star fire 324" he released his hand from the button allowing any incoming messages to be heard. It was a few minutes before any other transmissions were received, but eventually they did come. "Copy Star Fire 324 we hear you, what state are you in over?" "Copy Battlestar, left stabilisers gone and we have a hole in the cargo compartment, managed to shield that and it seems to be holding, over." This time the reply took at least ten minutes to be returned, when it was returned however this time it seemed to be directed at us but at other ships to. "Come in, come in, this is Battlestar Galactica prepare to jump drive in three minutes to co-ordinates 56-677-890-87-453, out." The captain and I looked at each other each wondering the same thing would the shield withhold a jump drive. The captain began to punch the co-ordinates into the keypad and said "think it will hold?" Sky replied quietly "I guess there's only one way to find out."
A blinding light spread across the windshield and I squinted, milliseconds later the blinding light was replaced with the darkness of a new area of dark space, as soon as we had checked the ship once again the captain and I checked the ships condition. It wasn't good, the captain decided to contact the Battlestar Galactica. "Come in, come in, Battlestar Galactica, this is Star Fire 324" "Star Fire 324 we copy, what you need? Over" " Battlestar that last jump has taken its toll, our shields are down to 30% now we aren't going to last much longer" the reply was quicker this time " Star Fire 324 who do you have on board and how many?" The captain sighed before replying "we have 64 on board not including crew, their young people who have all been awarded with the young genius award, civilians". There was no reply for a while and my stomach started to twist itself into knots nervously waiting for the captains reply, I began playing with the silver ring that hung around my neck, a bad habit that I tended to slip back to when I was thinking or nervous. After what seemed to be an age a reply came "Star Fire 324, you will be escorted to Battlestar Galactica by 3 vipers you will fly with them and immediately reply to any orders you are given, do you copy?" The reply was instant "we copy". All transmissions stopped then and we waited for the vipers to appear, when they did the captain and I started to follow them slowly the crippled plane shaking as we pushed it to its limits. The ten minute trip felt excruciatingly long and I spent most of the time trying to regulate my breathing, eventually we landed deep within the belly of Galactica. There were a large number of crew members gathered around awaiting our ships arrival. The captain and I opened the ships doors and watched as a single person stepped off of our ship then followed by another, then followed by another until there was a steady trickle of teens pouring off of the ship. The captain and I stayed on board for a while longer switching everything off, then it was time for us to leave Star Fire 324. The captain exited the cockpit first and I trailed awkwardly behind. As the captain stepped of the ship I suddenly felt a wave of nervousness wash over me and my head bowed low covering my face with my hair, I then stepped off of the ship trailing close behind the captain. I looked up though my fringe as the captain strode forward to greet the captain of the Battlestar Galactica, as my eyes fell upon the Battlestar's captain disbelief washed over me. He was supposed to have retired, he wasn't supposed to still be in charge of Battlestar, and despite all this though I let the brief moment of joy to wash over me at the sight of his familiar face. I hung back as the two men shook hands; I stood a little way off from the group of other teens, who stood unsure what to do. My ears picked up on the words the two captains were exchanging. "Yes Captain Adama we lost the captain and I was knocked unconscious." A puzzled expression spread across Captain Adama's face as he processed the information. Reading the questions in Adama's eyes he carried on with his explanation, "one of the pupils got into the cabin and roused me, a pretty mean flyer to I must say I haven't ever flown with anyone with such a feel for flying before." "Where is he" Adama asked looking to the large group of pupils. "She is right here" his hand beckoned for me to come forward, I walked forward my legs as heavy as lead I felt the captain place a hand on my shoulder as I stood beside him. The whole hanger was deadly silent listening to every word the captains exchanged. I slowly raised my head and for the first time looked into the Captain Adama's grey eyes. His face was a mixture of shock and relief and he took a hesitant step forward, he placed a gentle hand on my shoulder before saying. "How are you sky?"