Lia had tracked the signal, but could see no evidence of either warrior through the dense forestation. She flew by a few times with a dubious hope she would see some sign of her sister or friend. As she rolled her ship away from the homing signal, she proceeded with the second part of her assignment, finding a closer spot to land in. She reported her findings back to Apollo as ordered and became increasingly frustrated as she soon realized the thick growth spread for kilometrons in every direction.
Why was it she couldn't help but feel that if Starbuck had taken this assignment they would all be headed to some grassy meadow a few hundred metrons from where Luana and Sheba were being held? Oh, of course, it was ridiculous, but she couldn't help but feel a little inadequate. It was probably a mixture of trying to prove herself to the seasoned veterans and simply being frustrated with the failure of her assignment. She surmised she was wasting precious time that could be spent hiking closer to the missing warriors and headed back to Starbuck and Apollo. She could see Apollo sitting atop his Viper, but could not see Starbuck. Apollo waved to her and jumped down heading towards the large ship where she could now see Starbuck climbing through the cockpit. She checked her scanners one final time to confirm there was still no sign of the unusual creatures sneaking up on them and then brought her fighter in for a landing.
"Apollo, I disabled that signal," Starbuck told him jumping down from the large craft. "Now no one else will be lured down to this spot to investigate a dead ship."
"Good idea. It seems strange, Starbuck. I assume for the creatures to sneak up on Sheba and Luana they must have arrived quickly. However, they're being held at least fifteen kilometrons from here."
"It could have been a hunting or scouting party." Starbuck suggested. He watched Lia land safely. Nice form. "They were in the wrong place at the wrong time." Again, he wished he had flown this patrol instead of spending the time stuffing his face on the Rising Star. He sighed.
"What?" Apollo asked as he watched the emotions play across his friend's face.
"Nothing," he shook his head. "I found another book underneath one of the bodies." He handed it over to the captain. "Smaller and no Empyrean Talisman, but similar script."
"It's probably a log book." He reflected that the one human skeleton in the ship had possibly recorded what had happened to the rest of the occupants. There were so many questions and all the answers were probably in the two books that none of them could read. "Did you find anything else?"
"Yeah," he replied hesitantly. "One of the creatures that was shot in the back of the skull had blood on its fangs."
Apollo nodded. Starbuck didn't miss much. One of the women was injured then. They moved off together to meet Lia. She was walking towards them with two packs slung over her shoulders. She handed one to Starbuck as she fell into step with them.
"Two shuttles?" he asked her as he took it and slung it over his own shoulder adjusting the straps to his larger frame.
"You never know what you might need." She replied to him as they moved over to the edge of the plateau. She pointed further along. "It looks like we could get down over there."
Apollo and Starbuck looked at her indicated path. It looked unlikely that the creatures had taken this route. It was covered in loose dirt and rock and the angle of descent was incredibly steep. "Uh . . . I don't think they went this way," Starbuck started as Lia moved over to the edge and began planning her descent in her mind.
She looked up at him. "We could probably cut a couple centars off our trip if we go down here. We wouldn't have to circle around."
"This from the girl who hurled me into a raging river to save time," Starbuck said to Apollo. Lia was usually the epitome of good sense, but Starbuck would never forget being pulled into the river on the planet Empyrean. He thought they would all drown, but as it turned out, only Lia did. He had to resuscitate her in front of her hysterical sister. He would never forget the desperation in Luana's eyes as she watched him performing compressions on Lia.
"I have a line, " Lia added helpfully. She started to pull the rope out of her pack. "It's not quite long enough, but the lower part of the trail looks pretty tame." She expertly began to secure the line to the nearest tree.
Apollo studied the possible routes down the cliff as he considered her plan. He got the feeling she was intending to follow through with or without them. The path, for lack of a better word, was difficult and dangerous, but with the line it should be possible. Starbuck looked doubtful and the captain wondered how his leg was holding up. "Starbuck, how's the leg? Can you do this?" It wasn't that long ago that his leg would cramp up after a centar in the cockpit.
Starbuck looked at him in surprise. His leg was the last of his concerns. Tumbling head first down a cliff was actually foremost in his mind. Oh, right, Apollo used to do a lot of recreational climbing. He had forgotten. That was what gave the captain the experience necessary to qualify for the mission on Arcta. Starbuck, however, had simply hacked into the program that was selecting the team and had inserted his name on the list. "My leg's fine," he muttered.
"Hey, you did this at the Academy, didn't you?" Apollo asked. Cadets trained extensively in various ground assaults and basic mountaineering was a part of that skill set.
"Well, actually, I missed that part of the training," Starbuck replied reluctantly. He now wished he could go back and reverse the complex plan he had come up with to get him and two buddies out of their mountaineering expedition and instead assigned to part of a ceremonial honour guard. It had taken a fair amount of hard work on his part, well, maybe flirting with the colonel's daughter hadn't taken as much effort as he remembered, but the harrowing display of disappointment on his face when the disciplinary duty was meted out was definitely arduous.
Apollo shook his head at his friend. "It was part of basic training. How in Hades could you miss it?"
"It's a long story, best told over a long, tall Empyrean Ale." Starbuck told him. Meanwhile, Lia was digging through her pack for something.
"Starbuck, take a look in Luana's pack. We both carry a couple pairs of gloves." Lia instructed him as she pulled them out of her own pack and tossed a pair to Apollo.
"Thanks, Lia." Apollo told her. He felt a familiar exhilaration as he pulled on the leather gloves. He had missed climbing. While at the Academy he had discovered climbing was not only a great outdoor sport, but also a welcome diversion from studies and protocol. He had started traditionally with lines and full protective gear, but had then discovered free climbing. There was no rush that compared with ascending a summit with nothing but the rock, the avian and the wind. No lines, no protective gear, just skill. "This does look like the best route down," he agreed with Lia. "I'll lead. Starbuck, why don't you take up the rear? Just take it slow and watch us. You'll be fine." He grabbed the line and held on tightly while lowering himself hand over hand down the first few metrons of the short vertical drop. He landed gently on soft dirt and loosened his grip beginning to pick his way carefully down the steep hill. "Don't get too close. The dirt's soft and stone fall could be a real hazard."
"I guess I'm next." Lia said to Starbuck who had finally found his gloves. She lowered herself slowly until her feet touched down. Apollo wasn't kidding. The soil was loose. She gingerly started down his chosen route. The captain was moving steadily and confidently. He obviously had a great deal of experience with climbing. She looked up to see dubious blue eyes staring down at her. "Are you okay?" she asked Starbuck.
"Oh, sure," he responded despondently. "Just what I was hoping to do today, fall off a fracking mountain." He watched Apollo crisscrossing the cliff side; he was as sure-footed as a mountain caprine. He took a deep breath and pulled on his gloves. "Better get out of my way, Lia. I'm coming in for a landing and it could be a rough one."
Lia chuckled as she maneuvered further along the path. She found a solid foothold and stopped to watch Starbuck lower himself down. He went slowly and cautiously, realizing that getting himself hurt or killed just wouldn't be much of a benefit to the rescue mission. He felt his feet touch the dirt and looked along the path to see Lia waiting for him. She smiled her encouragement and he realized the tables had turned and she was now the teacher. He looked down at Apollo who had stopped and was waiting for them. He looked a bit impatient to move on.
"Get your feet further apart. You need to have a wide base of support to help keep your balance especially when you're going down." Lia encouraged him.
Starbuck adjusted his footing and followed her holding on tightly to his lifeline. It was slow going, but that was fine with him. The lieutenant didn't even care that he slid part of the way down on his astrum. He suspected Lia would be keeping up easily with Apollo if she wasn't babysitting him. Approximately, three quarters of the way down they caught up with Apollo who was sitting on a large rock and peering over its edge. It was another vertical drop that they simply couldn't see from the top looking down.
"Is the line long enough?" Lia asked as she joined him.
"Just long enough," Apollo replied. He looked over at Starbuck who was rubbing his left thigh. "How's the leg?"
The lieutenant nodded abruptly, "Fine." So much for thinking he was in great shape. His leg was cramping up again. He rubbed at the knot trying to work it out like Kale had done so many times in the Fitness Center. Frack, I don't have time for this. He looked up to see Apollo still watching him.
"Fine?" Apollo repeated. Starbuck didn't look fine. A permanent grimace was set across his pale face and he was sweating heavily. "Lia, do you have a med kit in there?"
Lia rustled through her pack and handed the captain her med kit. He opened it up and found the drug kit and hypospray. "Starbuck, pull down your pants."
"Why?" he asked somewhat startled.
"I'll inject some corticosteroid into the muscle. It's an anti-inflammatory. It should stop the cramping." Apollo explained patiently as he approached the lieutenant.
"And I need to pull down my pants why?" Starbuck repeated noticing the cheeky grin on Lia's face.
"Well, because you're covered in dirt and it probably wouldn't be beneficial to inject the dirt into your leg with the drug." He smiled at his friend's reluctance to undress in front of Lia.
Well, Starbuck couldn't argue with that so he quickly lowered his pants. Apollo kneeled down beside him and palpated the contracted muscle. He applied the hypospray and activated it. "How long does it take to work?" Starbuck asked as he pulled his pants back up. He wasn't feeling much relief.
"About ten centons. Just sit still and relax." Apollo told him. "I'm going to head down and scout out the rest of the route." He sat on the edge and grasped the line, lowering himself down and looping the line around his leg while using his opposite foot as a break as he descended. He hadn't counted on Starbuck's lack of climbing experience or his leg giving him trouble, but the medication should help. Apollo realized that the lieutenant was less than thrilled with his impromptu mountaineering lessons, but Lia's experience and support had been an unexpected bonus. He grinned as he recognized that Starbuck would drag his astrum through just about anything, especially if he thought he might be upstaged by a woman. Eventually, his foot connected with solid rock and he looked up to see Lia giving him the thumbs up.
"He's down." Lia relayed to Starbuck. "My turn." She followed the captain's lead.
Starbuck's cramping leg had eased off. He moved to the edge to watch Lia moving methodically down the rope. Luckily, he had shown up for the Academy class in which they spent a grueling amount of time inching their bodies up and down lines suspended from the ceiling. He remembered at the time wondering why the frack he needed to learn the useless task if he was intent on becoming a pilot. He had been working on a plan to get him out of that as well, but he was still young and inexperienced, and it didn't come off quite the way he had planned. Actually, he recalled having to repeat the task about ten times more often than the rest of the cadets due to the fact that his not so well thought out plan had been discovered. He looked down to see Lia finally had reached the end of her rope. He chuckled to himself at his private joke as he sat down and adjusted his gloves.
"Come on, Starbuck!" Lia shouted up to him. "Apollo says the rest of the way is easy!"
Well, coming from a guy who got his kicks from clinging to the side of a rock without a line, that wasn't exactly comforting. He looked down and realized the difference between the Academy and this mountainside. No mat. No big, padded, comforting, incase-you-fall-on-your-head type mat. Frack, it must be twenty metrons down. His mouth suddenly felt parched. Imagine admitting to the guys back in the squadron that he had suddenly discovered a fear of heights. Well, really it was more of a fear of falling on his head. Let's get this over with, Bucko.
He grabbed the line tightly with both hands swinging his body down beside it. He then maneuvered himself so the line was wrapped around his leg, and clamped his opposite foot onto it. He allowed most of his weight to rest on his legs for the moment. He started his descent keeping his eyes on the rock in front of him, counting off the metrons as he went. Nineteen, eighteen, seventeen, sixteen . . . Suddenly, the line twitched from above. What the frack? He could hear Apollo returning to Lia below.
"Hey, keep moving! We don't have all day!" Apollo teased him. Starbuck was doing well. Well, at least he hadn't conned his way out of climbing up and down lines as well. Suddenly, the lieutenant was letting go of the line and lunging desperately for a large, outcrop of rock as he started to fall. Apollo watched in horror as the line began to drop uselessly to the ground and his friend was left swaying by one hand while frantically searching for another hand or leg hold. Lia screamed and they heard a chorus of growls from above the cliff top echoing over the valley.