chapter 3

Hello Commander, have a seat. I'll be with you in a minute." Roslin said as Bill stepped into the meeting.

Adama listened to them impatiently for a while. Billy apparently gave her an update on the fleet's status. The young man looked nervously at the Commander from time to time.

He really had better things than being here, Adama thought, slightly annoyed.

"Are you planning to stage a military coup?" she asked directly.

"What?" Adama looked at her in surprise.

"Do you plan to declare martial law? Take over the government?" Roslin clarified her question. If Adama really planned something like that then there was nothing she could do to stop him.

"Of course not." He replied angrily. What kind of man did she think he was? "Ms. Roslin, my primary objective at the present time is to repair the Galactica and continue to fight." Adama had voluntarily not used her title. He wanted to make clear that he was not willing to give in to her.

"What we do know at his moment is that there are 50,000 civilian refugees out there who don't stand a chance without your ship to protect them." Roslin tried to reason with him.

"We're aware of the tactical situation and I'm sure that you'll all be safe here on Ragnar after we leave." Adama replied, annoyed.

"After you leave?" Roslin said, getting angrier. "Where are you going?"

"To find the enemy. We're at war. That's my mission." Adama stated.

"I honestly don't know why I have to keep telling you this, but the war is over." she calmly said.

"You would rather that we run?" Adama asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, absolutely. The only sane thing to do here is run. We leave this solar system and we don't look back." She shivered, what other choice did they have?

"And we go where?" Adama thought she had gone completely crazy. There was nowhere else to go. And they couldn't survive on these ships forever.

"I don't know. Another star system? Another planet? Somewhere where the Cylons won't find us." She wished she could give him a better answer. But the truth was that she had no idea where they could go. She just knew that they couldn't stay here.

"I'm gonna be straight with you here. The human race is about to be wiped out. We have 50,000 people left and that's it. Now, if we are even going to survive as a species then we need to get the hell out of here and we need to start having babies!" Roslin glared at Adama and willed him to understand that there was nothing else to fight for except the people left here on Ragnar.

--

Lee stood in CIC listening to Starbuck's incoming transmission.

"I didn't get an accurate account but it looks like two Basestars with 10 fighter squadrons and two recon drone attachments patrolling the area."

"Starbuck, were you followed?" Tigh wanted to know.

"Negative, no sign of pursuit. By the way they were deployed, I'd say they're waiting for us to come to them." she reported.

"Bring her home." Adama ordered.

Lee felt relieved Starbuck would finally be returning to Galactica. He should be angry at her, furious actually. She had just told him that she was responsible for his brother's death. He had always blamed his father, hadn't spoken to him for two years. And know he found out that it never was his father. It was Kara, his wife. She had put Zak in the plane that got him killed. But he didn't feel angry towards her. He actually understood why she had done it, she hadn't realized at the time it would kill him. She did it to keep her husband from going to jail. She wouldn't go, as he was her superior blame would of been laid on him if Zak had told the military they were married.

--

Lee had been standing in the CIC for 30 minutes now talking to his father, Colonel Tigh, the XO, and Lt. Gaeta, the ship's navigational expert. They had been talking about their situation. They had been arguing whether to take the civilians along with them and if the war was over.

"They better start having babies." Adama suddenly said quietly. For the last few minutes he had watched Billy Keikeya talking intimately to Dee. They seemed to have become very close in this short time.

"Is that an order?" Tigh asked, confused, following Adama's gaze towards Dee and Billy.

"Maybe not before too long ... Okay, we're going to take the civilians with us. We're going to leave this solar system and we're not going to come back." It hurt more then he had thought to say these words aloud.

"We're running?" Tigh called out, shocked.

Adama looked sadly at his old friend. "This war is over. We lost."

"My father is right. It's time for us to get out of here." Lee looked at his father and gave him a small smile.

It took another 10 minutes after the revelation to sort out what they were going to do. After they had decided they told the president the plans to jump past the red line. Lee went of to brief his pilots.

--

The pilot briefing didn't take very long. It had hurt to see so many empty seats. Lee remembered that just this morning before the ceremony it had been full with pilots. Just this morning. His whole life – everyone's life – had changed dramatically in the hours that had passed since then. It was still difficult to really comprehend all this.

Kara was the last pilot to leave. Hesitantly Lee called out for her to wait. Slowly Kara turned around to him. She looked at him, slightly afraid of what would happen now and braced herself for whatever he would slap in her face. She would deserve it.

"Be careful out there." Lee quietly told her. "No heroics, ok?"

She looked at him surprised. She hadn't expected that. "No heroics, I promise. I told you my taste for that is gone." She gave him a small smile.

"Good. Make sure you come back in one piece, alright? That's an order, Lieutenant." He said while looking intensely at her. I don't want to be left alone to bring up Kasey. She need the both of us now."

"Understood, Captain." she replied. "Same to you. I don't know if I could cope on my own."

"Okay then. Dismissed." He looked down at some papers in his hands, pretending to read them. He didn't really know what they said since all he could think of was that he might never see Kara again after this battle.

Kara stared at him for a second. She had other things to worry about, like getting out alive from this upcoming battle with the Cylons. She had promised Lee she would come back and she wouldn't let him down again. And when she still had time she would make sure that he would make it back alive too.

--

The fight against the Cylons had been going on for quite some time already. And it didn't look good for the Colonials. So far they had managed to protect the civilian ships and already most of them had made the jump successfully. But the Cylons shot down the Vipers faster then one could count. They had already lost too many pilots and Galactica had taken some serious hits. Suddenly Apollo was hit by an enemy missile. He had been so busy targeting the Raider in front of him he hadn't even seen it coming..

"Apollo, do you read me?" Starbuck called out in a worried voice over the comm. Apollo didn't have time to respond, as he was trying to get his Viper back under control. When he saw a Raider coming toward him he starting firing and shot it down. Suddenly he saw another missile coming directly in his direction. In horror he stared at the approaching warhead, bracing himself for the impact. But in the last second Starbuck's Viper showed up before him and she destroyed the missile.

"Whhoooo! Come on boys! Ha, ha!" Apollo could hear Starbuck laughing over the comm. "Looks like you broke your ship, Apollo."

He had to chuckle at that, despite the situation he was in. "I've had worse. But thanks."

A few minutes later the last civilian ship had jumped away and the Vipers where called back to Galactica. But Apollo still had trouble getting his Viper fully back under control when all of a sudden he was starting to loose power.

"Frak" He called out frustrated while he tried to figure out what the problem was.

Starbuck could clearly see that Apollo was in trouble. Desperately she tried to defend him against the approaching Raiders.

On Galactica, Adama nervously waited for all Vipers to return. When he saw that only Starbuck and Apollo were still out and that they weren't approaching Galactica he knew something was wrong. Anxiously he grabbed a microphone and called out to Starbuck.

"What do you hear? ... Starbuck, Galactica! What do you hear?"

"Nothing but the rain!" She replied, grinning.

"Then grab the gun and bring the cat in." Adama ordered.

"Aye, aye, Sir! Coming home." She knew exactly what Adama wanted her to do. And she was right with him. She wasn't going to leave Lee behind. She just didn't know quite yet how to get him back to Galactica. But she would find a way.

"I'm losing power. I'm not going to make it, Starbuck. It's over. Just leave. Damn it! That's an order!" Apollo shouted over the comm when he noticed Starbuck didn't pull back towards Galactica. By this time he was already floating around in space helpless.

"Lee, shut up and hold still! I'm not letting you break your promise." Starbuck suddenly knew how she would get them both back. She turned her Viper and flew directly in Lee's direction.

"Ahhhggghhh!" She screamed over the comm.

Apollo looked shocked at the oncoming Viper. "Oh no!" He mumbled to himself before the nose of Starbuck's Viper pushed right into the left wing of his own Viper.

"You are beyond insane!" He screamed at her.

"Kickin' in the burn." Starbuck yelled laughing while she pushed Apollo's Viper towards Galactica.

"We're coming in a little hot, don't you think?" He asked, worried while he sat helpless in his Viper.

"No ... Not really." Starbuck replied. Her voice didn't sound too convincing though. She tried hard to get the Vipers to slow down but it wasn't easy.

"Hang on!" She screamed as they approached the flight deck.

As soon as the Vipers hit the flight deck Starbuck lost control over them. She could do nothing but watch in horror while they slid over the floor. They finally came to a sudden stop when they crashed into the back wall. Terrified Starbuck saw that Apollo's Viper was almost smashed between her Viper and the wall.

Chief Tyrol had made their way to the crashed Vipers. After seeing that Starbuck seemed to be alright Tyrol went straight to Apollo. Kara could hardly see into his cockpit as the canopy was covered with cracks. When Tyrol finally managed to get the canopy open she could see that Lee wasn't moving. Suddenly he eyes flickered open and his head rose.

"Hey." Kara whispered relieved to see him awake.

"Hey." He replied weakly, giving her a small smile.

"How long have I been gone out?" He asked in a small voice.

"Not long. We only just crashed. So you managed to keep your promise." Kara told him quietly.

Lee started to get out his Viper. "Well I couldn't just leave you here to be CAG now. I don't know what would happen. Anyway, you're the one who saved me."

By this time that Lee had gotten out of his Viper the medics were their checking them over. Once they had the all clear they were free to go.

--

They walked together towards the quarters they had for their child. Well, they were really their quarters as they would soon me living there after telling his father their news.

"So after this memorial tomorrow will should tell your father" Kara said as they walked into their quarters. They were quite big, with two bedrooms, one for them and the other for the nanny and Kasey.

"That's ok. At least then we can spend more time with Kasey." Lee said in return.

The rest of the night they spent in their bedroom until it became late and they decided that people would start to wonder were they were. So they headed back to the bunk room.

--

The service next day was boring. Kara nearly fell to sleep until the end when the commander told them he knew were Earth was. As they went up to talk to him he was ushered away by the president. They decided that it would have to wait.