Chapter 6

Kara was bored. They were holed up behind the cover of an asteroid field whilst the FTL was being repaired, so there wasn't much for her to do except watch for Cylons and wait for the engineer to finish the tricky repair job. She was missing even the routine of CAP and maintenance shifts. What did the ordinary people of the fleet do all day? No wonder so many of them were going crazy after being cooped up in space for so long. She decided to wander down to the hanger deck to check out her (Lee's) viper. She thought that she could use this spare time to try a few patch up repairs, although she wasn't sure where she'd start with the mess that it was in: definitely a job for Tyrol's superior skills. However, when she got to the deck she found that someone had already started sorting out the charred remains of the starboard engine. Joe the deckhand was working diligently on the back of the plane. He looked so young and innocent that she had to wonder what he could have possibly done to get himself banged up with some of the miscreants that were on the Astral Queen. She called to him and he immediately jumped up like a frightened rabbit when he heard her voice.

"Starbuck…I...I...er... hope you don't mind me trying some repairs."

"Only if you know something about the mechanics of a viper."

"I've never worked on a viper before, but it's just an engine, right? That's what I did in prison: worked in the mechanics shop. Gaffer said I had a natural talent."

"Well if you have a natural talent for mechanics you'd know that this is not just an engine: the viper mark VII is a thing of beauty."

"Yes it is, ma'am. I sure wish I could fly one like you." He gazed at her with what she quickly realised was a severe case of hero worship. She looked at what he had done. Frankly, anything would be an improvement on how she had left the viper after that Cylon attack, but she didn't really trust anyone with her birds other than Tyrol and his crew. Still, needs must: if they could get the viper going then at least it was another defensive option if they ran into any toasters.

"Shall I try it?" she asked.

"Would you?" he replied, his voice conveying his enthusiasm.

She climbed into the cockpit and started the engines. After a few experimental coughs they roared into life. She checked all the settings: everything registered normal, which was definitely not how it had been when she landed.

"Frak me, Joe, you're a genius. Do you want a new job when we get back to the fleet? The deck chief on Galactica would love to have someone with your skills."

"Do you really think so, Starbuck?"

"Of course. Let me know and I'll put in a good word for you with chief Tyrol, but a word of advice: never say to him that it's 'just an engine' OK!"

She spent some time tinkering around with the viper to see how Joe worked. Pleased with what she saw and realising that her viper was in good hands she wandered up to the command area. With only the briefest of knocks she strolled into Tom Zarek's office.

"Zarek, you're deck hand is a frakking genius. He's repaired my viper. That means we have some extra protection if the Cylons show up." She regarded the bowl of fruit on his desk ravenously and picked out an apple. She dug her teeth into it with a blissful sigh.

"Oh man, that's the best thing I've tasted in ages. Thank the Gods you guys are well connected with the black market." Zarek regarded her with an amused smile.

"Don't you have anything better to do, lieutenant?"

"Naa, and I'm bored."

He looked at her for a few moments. He had been impressed with how well she had fitted in with his crew. He had sort of expected her to play the "best of the best" ace pilot prima donna act and look down on his people for their previous crimes, but there had been no such problems. She had treated everyone in the same casual way and didn't pay the least attention to their records. In return they had treated her with respect and he knew that wasn't easy to earn. A few women had moved on board since most of the inmates had worked their passage to become free men, but they were still few and far between. Yet he hadn't had to issue any dictates to tell them that Lt Thrace was off limits. Whether that was from their respect for her or for Captain Adama he wasn't sure: probably a little of both. All the men remembered that the Captain hadn't sold them down the river and had delivered on the deal that he had brokered with Zarek. Starbuck's standard of dress might hardly be feminine but it couldn't disguise the fact that she was a very attractive woman and a lot of these men hadn't seen one of those in a long, long time. He figured that she could probably take care of herself, but he was glad that the need hadn't arisen. He had to admit that his interest in her was sparked by this enforced stay together and he might as well take advantage of this down time to get to know her better.

"Tell me about yourself," he asked.

"Not much to tell really: I'm just a pilot."

"Yeah, and I'm just an ex-con." She grinned at him in that disarming way of hers, flopped down on a chair and plonked her feet on his desk.

"What do you wanna know?"

They talked and argued companionably. He had always assumed that she was just a young woman with an unreasonable talent for flying, causing trouble and little else. He was surprised by her knowledge of the arts and her perceptive observations on political issues. She had always assumed that he was a terrorist out for nothing but his own gains. She soon realised that he did have the good of the people at heart and enjoyed pitting her wits against him. They had started out as "lieutenant" and "Zarek". At the end of an hour they were "Tom" and "Starbuck". She couldn't quite go as far as letting him call her Kara: she told him that you had to have known her for many years before you were granted that privilege, but they had certainly reached a new level of understanding.

This happy little bonding session was only broken up by a call from the command centre that the repairs to the FTL were finished. They strolled into the command together to find the crew preparing to jump to the original co-ordinates that they should have been at over two weeks previously. With the jump preparations completed everyone braced themselves. There was a perceptible tension in the room as everyone wondered whether the FTL would be working correctly and whether the fleet would still be there at the end of the jump.

As soon as the jump was completed everyone focused on the screen that would tell them whether they had made it back to the fleet.

"Nothing, Tom," stated his chief pilot. "The co-ordinates are correct this time but the fleet's not there."

"Damn it!" Zarek swore.

"Scan the area for anything: wreckage, bits of waste, anything that might give us a clue to where they've gone. Get anything you find on board." Kara ordered. The pilot looked to Zarek for confirmation and he nodded in agreement.

−

Kara was pacing the hanger deck waiting for the shuttle to return. She couldn't believe that the fleet would have left without leaving them some sort of clue as to where they had gone: no, scratch that, she couldn't believe that Lee would have left without leaving behind some message for her. Unless he was still mad at her of course, and would be quite happy never to see her again. What if he believed that she was already dead? Or that the Astral Queen had been taken by the Cylons like the Olympic Carrier. She shook her head to try and rid herself of these negative thoughts. She practically dived through the hatch of the shuttle before it had properly docked. They had picked up half a dozen bits of space debris. She scanned the junk quickly then bent to pick up a familiar looking piece of metal. She turned it over and a smile spread across her face: she knew Lee wouldn't let her down. She stood smiling goofily as she clutched a piece of a mark II viper with "Lt Kara Thrace: Starbuck" painted on the side. It was plain as day that this was her husband's message to her.

−

Almost a day later Kara was ready to throw the stupid piece of metal out of the airlock. She had been over every single inch of it. There was no hidden message, no map scratched into the metal, nothing except one tiny mark in the middle of her name, and that could easily have been previous damage. She knew that Lee would have had to be careful in case the debris fell into Cylon hands but did he have to be this subtle?

She decided to leave it for a while and go for a break in the mess hall, hoping that some food and coffee would clear her head. She grabbed something to eat and flopped down on a bench where Smith and some of the other men were eating.

"Still no luck, Starbuck?" asked Smith.

"No!" she replied grumpily. "I didn't think my husband had it in him to be this obscure. Textbook obvious is more his style."

"What? You mean he didn't just leave you a map with an X marking the spot?" they all laughed at this idea.

"No. No he didn't, Stan…but then again." She thought for a few moments. "Frak me!" She jumped up and ran back to her quarters and picked up the piece of viper. She sprinted into command and accosted the man in charge of navigation.

"Briggs, can you make a scan of the outline of this and then run it against the nav files?"

"Sure Starbuck."

She stood bouncing up and down and chewing her thumb for a few anxious minutes.

"Well I'll be…..the shape corresponds exactly with the deltaron nebula."

"Ha! I knew it! Gods, I love you Lee Adama. Briggs, plot a jump as close to where that mark is as you can get."

Zarek had come up to see what all the commotion was.

"Are you sure about this Starbuck?"

"As sure as I can be. And what's there to loose?"

"Alright. Let's do the jump."

−

The jump completed, again they all waited nervously for the report.

"Multiple contacts, Tom……but it's not the fleet……definitely Cylon raiders and a larger ship."

"Frak! A basestar?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well make sure and someone get plotting an emergency jump to get us out of here," ordered Kara.

"The large ship is hailing us, Tom. They're asking for id." Zarek's eyebrow rose in surprise and he exchanged a look with Kara.

"Send them our colonial id codes and put them on speaker."

"Colonial vessel, colonial vessel. This is the battlestar Pegasus. We have authenticated your recognition codes. Confirm your id." There was a collective gasp around the command centre. Only Zarek seemed to keep his cool.

"This is the Astral Queen, Pegasus, and you need to confirm your codes to us."

"Their codes are genuine, Tom."

"We have confirmation, Pegasus."

"We are currently engaged with the enemy, Astral Queen. Emergency jump codes will be transmitted. We will signal you if a jump is required."

"Frak me; the Pegasus. I thought all the fleet was gone." Kara was following the battle with the raiders on the screens. "And if that's how they do with raiders it's a wonder they've survived. Looks like their squadron could do with some help."

"Don't be stupid, Starbuck. You know you can't."

"It's what I do best, Tom. The baby will be fine; it's a manual launch. And if I want it to ever have a chance of meeting its father then we need to make sure that we don't have to jump away before we can look for Lee's next message."

He knew that the thrill of potential combat had gripped her. That, combined with the overwhelming desire to be reunited with her family on Galactica, made it useless to argue with her further. Before long they heard her scream of delight as the viper flew away from the Astral Queen and she was immediately into the thick of the fight.

"Astral Queen. This is Pegasus. Prepare to jump to emergency co-ordinates."

When they relayed the message to Kara they could hear her swearing.

"Acknowledged Astral Queen. We'll just have to get them to send a raptor back. I'm heading for Pegasus. See you at the other end."

−