Author's Note: Jeez, I'm on a roll with cranking these chapters out! Anyway, brace yourselves, 'cause you're gonna get rocked like a frakking hurricane, baby!! :D
Disclaimer: I own an anime doodle I did of Starbuck. You go get 'em, you badass. xD
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It was damn near impossible for me to stop gawking at Apollo as he vaulted out of his viper's cockpit and and walked down the wheely stairs with a cocky I'm-a-badass sort of attitude. I didn't know why, but there was something that was painfully familiar about Lee Adama - almost like I'd known him way before mom and I relocated ourselves to Galactica. It was weird as hell.
Except for the airlock claxons going off, the entire hangar deck was as silent as a frakking mausoleum as the deckhands saluted Apollo. The silence lasted for only a few seconds though; some jughead in a knuckledragger suit said, "Welcome aboard, Apollo!" Then, it went right back to being noisy and busy on the deck.
I waited a few minutes before going back to work on the frakked-up DRADIS system; during those few minutes, I watched Uncle Galen verbally trip over himself as he tried to impress Lee.
"Morning, sir. Chief Tyrol," he introduced himself to Lee. "I'll be your crew chief while you're aboard."
Lee nodded curtly. "Captain Lee Adama."
Uncle Galen stuck his hand out for Lee to shake it. "It's a real pleasure to...meet you, sir." He retracted his hand when Lee didn't bother to shake it. "I'm sure you've heard this before, but I'm a great admirer of your father. Services are gonna miss him when he retires."
"Well, I'm sure someone will," Lee said sourly. "Is your auto-landing system down? I was hands-on for the whole approach."
Jeesh, who the frak pissed in his coffee? This guy's acting like a real ass right now.
"It's all hands-on here, Captain. There are no auto-landing systems here. Commander Adama's orders."
"Is that right?"
By that time, I'd stopped paying attention to Lee and Uncle Galen's conversation, and returned to working on the DRADIS. Apparently, I'd also stopped paying attention to what I was doing, too, because I suddenly nicked my hand against the screen's titanium edge.
"SHIT! SHIT FIRE SON-OF-A-FRAKKING-BITCH!" I cursed loudly as blood surged from the large gash going across my left palm. "UNCLE GALEN! I COULD REALLY USE A BANDAGE!"
Both Uncle Galen and Lee whirled around at the sound of my cussing, and ran towards me. (I really didn't know what Lee was doing, but oh well.) Uncle Galen was the first to reach me.
"You okay, Sloane?"
I held my hand up in annoyance. "Does it honestly look like I'm okay? C'mon, Uncle Galen."
Uncle Galen whistled to Lee, and told him to look in his toolbox for a roll of bandages. Lee nodded his head, and rifled through the toolbox for a couple of seconds; when he found it, he tossed the roll to Uncle Galen, who immediately began to wrap them around my bloody hand.
"Gods Sloane, what the hell were you doing?"
I shrugged nonchalantly. "Fixing the DRADIS, that's all. What else?"
"Do me a favor, and try to be careful, please?"
I nodded once, then looked around the hangar bay. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Lee staring at me. I turned my head slightly so my eyes were level with his, and stared right at them, trying to distinguish the color of them. When I did, I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
They were blue...his eyes were blue. They were luminescent and brilliant; they were so beautiful that they made wanna cry all of a sudden. I realized that something weird was going on as Lee stared back at me curiously. His eye color exactly matched what mom had told me. There was a very small possibility that this hotshot, handsome pilot could've been my father.
No way, my mind contradicted. Just because he has the blue eyes doesn't mean that he's the actual sperm donor that helped out mom in making you. There could be others like him out in the twelve colonies.
Sadly, the little voice inside my brain had a point - there could be MILLIONS of others like Lee Adama out there. But still, it was interesting to think that this guy could probably be my dad.
"She gonna be okay?" Lee asked Uncle Galen.
"Yeah, she'll be fine."
I flashed Lee a thumbs-up. "This always happens...it's just that it usually isn't this bad. I should cut it out though, otherwise I'm gonna be dead by the time I turn fourteen."
Lee looked at me strangely the moment 'fourteen' slipped out of my mouth. "How old are you, exactly?"
"Just turned thirteen a week ago," I said proudly as I stood up and proceeded to climb back in the viper.
His jaw sagged a little, and he stuttered in disbelief. "T-thirteen? What the frak is a thirteen-year old girl doing here in a viper?!"
"She's my niece, Captain," Uncle Galen said harshly. "I don't have a problem with her being down here, and neither does the Commander."
"Besides," I added, "do you REALLY want to see your pilot buddies blow up because their bird's screwed up? No. THAT'S why I'm here."
Lee shook his head in exasperation. "Do your parents know that you're down here?"
"It's just my mom. And yeah, she does know. She really doesn't give a shit what I do, as long as it's not overly crazy." I fished out an unplugged wire from the mess inside the dashboard, and quickly plugged it back in it's port. The screen instantly lit up, and displayed the viper's radar. Seeing that my work on the DRADIS was done, I put the cover for the dashboard back on, then jumped out of the cockpit with a satisfied grin on my face. "Anything else you'd like to know, Captain Adama?"
By then, Lee had stopped listening to me, and was now stomping towards the entry hatch to complain to his father about letting me fix up vipers.
"NICE TALKING TO YOU, TOO!" I called out sarcastically as Lee slammed the hatch shut behind him.
Once he was gone, I looked at Uncle Galen, and burst out laughing. "What an ASS! What the hell's his problem?"
Uncle Galen snorted. "Heh, I was thinking the same thing, too." He strode over to the bird I'd just finished fixing, and climbed into the cockpit. "You fix the DRADIS in this bird, Sloane?"
"Yeah. A wire had come loose, so I plugged it back in. Should be good to go now."
He flicked the DRADIS on for a quick once-over, and nodded pleasantly. "Nicely done, Sloane. You sure as hell have a talent for technology."
"And who wants to bet that she'll be as talented as her mom when she sits down in a viper?" a deep, booming voice called out over the sound of the claxons.
I looked over my shoulder, and saw Uncle Helo standing on the wing of his raptor with a big smile cemented to his face. A huge grin spread across my face the moment I laid my eyes on him.
"UNCLE HELO!" I squeed as I rushed in his direction and tackle-hugged him.
Uncle Helo, being a big guy - he was tall enough to tower a foot over me - of course, easily stood his ground as he caught me with the arm that wasn't holding his helmet. He squeezed me, then lowered me down to stand on the raptor's wing. "There's my favorite niece," he said as he gave me a noogie. "How's it going, Jarhead?"
Okay, for all you clueless people, a jarhead is just another nickname for a marine. Uncle Helo came up with it when I was five years old. The long story made short: I trip on a stair, I bash up my knee, and I shout "FRAK!" at the top of my lungs in front of mom and Uncle Helo. Thus, I'm nicknamed Jarhead because my language is as colorful as a marine's. There you go, people - a short nicknaming history of Sloane Thrace.
I saw that Uncle Galen was now occupied with arguing with Sharon Valerii - Uncle Helo's co-pilot and Uncle Galen's long-time squeeze...I might be a kid, but I know an affair when I see one, and holy SHIT, did Uncle Galen and Sharon have an affair going on - and figured that my services were no longer needed, so I untied the knotted sleeves, and unzipped my knuckledragger suit.
"Well, I spent this lovely little morning heckling Lee Adama, fixing a gimpy DRADIS in a viper, and earning a battle scar while I was at it." I held up my bandaged left hand, and made a slashing motion across my palm. "That'll teach me to wear gloves next time."
"Crap Sloane, you hack your hand up with a machete or something? What the hell did you do?"
A hatch slammed shut, and Uncle Helo and I looked towards the source. Assuming that it was Uncle Galen and Sharon, I looked back at Uncle Helo, and asked, "What's Sharon crabbing about this time?"
Uncle Helo sighed. "Primary gimbal, what else?"
I stole a glance at his face, and saw that his eyes held a hint of longing and disappointment. Seemed to me that Uncle Helo always had that look in his eye whenever Sharon was hanging around Uncle Galen...almost like he wished that Sharon was his instead of Chief Tyrol's.
The look quickly disappeared from Uncle Helo's eyes though. He looked at me, gave me a smile, and said, "So, you were saying before?"
I smirked. "Well, I got careless fixing the DRADIS, and I nicked my hand on the edge of the screen."
Uncle Helo shook his head and chuckled. "Gods, that sounds like something your mom would do."
"Speaking of, did you see my mom before you went out in the raptor? She should be raggin' on me right now for not running two more miles than I can handle," I trailed off. "I haven't seen or heard her for almost half an hour."
A sort-of doubtful look appeared on Uncle Helo's face. "Yeah...Sharon and I were the ones trying to keep her from wailing on Tigh."
Frak me, you've gotta be JOKING.
"Did Tigh toss her in hack again?" I asked with an exasperated sigh.
"Sloane, it's not like the X.O.'s gonna give her a gold star and a promotion for using her right hook on him. Of course Tigh tossed her in hack." Uncle Helo unzipped his flight suit down to his waist. "It's Buck's fifth trip to the brig this month."
Is mom trying to break a record for the biggest number of trips to the brig or some other bullshit? FIVE TRIPS! What the hell?!
"Dammit all," I gowled irritably. "Why the hell does she always do this?"
"The colonies may never know, kiddo."
I shook my head, then looked at him. "Can you come and keep me company while I get my mom's sorry ass outta hack, please?"
Uncle Helo smiled. "Well, since you did say please, sure. I'll give you some company."
I grinned in thanks, then headed in the direction of the brig with Uncle Helo following close behind.
Gods, I'm SO gonna smack her upside the head when I get her out.
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SHA-WING!!!!! Third chappie is complete!!!!! R&R, and keep your eyes peeled for the fourth chapter!!!!!! :D
