Chapter 10:

Several centars later, the fleet's journey through the narrow passage continued, but the three Warriors at the head end of the convoy were tiring and sweating profusely. Still, Apollo, Starbuck, and Boomer made every adjustment just as their computer directed and hit every Cylon mine, allowing their Vipers followed by the fleet to continue on their way. Rigel stared at her monitor carefully, making minute adjustments when needed due to the effects of the high temperature within the "nova."

It was Apollo who noticed the change first. "It's cooling off!"

Rigel glanced at the readout and saw that the Galactica's external temperature was falling steadily. Checking their location, she saw that they were nearing the edge of the gaseous field and that there were no more stars ahead of them until the Carillon system a short distance ahead. Colonel Tigh and the other controllers were doing the same thing. When he looked to Adama, the commander nodded and Tigh ordered, "Negative shield, now."

The giant forward shield retracted. While still bright, with the polarizing field on the front viewscreens, the gaseous field was no longer blinding. With the forward screen magnified, it was just a few moments later that a planet began to come into view.

Adama said, "There it is, Carillon."

In his Viper, Apollo watched as the temperature readout continued to fall and then as his scanner began to lose some of the brightness that had plagued it throughout the journey. "I think we're going to make it."

Boomer, on hearing that and seeing a similar occurrence on his own ship, let rip with a "Yee haa!"

That exclamation sent an immediate wave of relief across the Bridge and cheers erupted. Hugs, backslaps, and high fives were exchanged, and Rigel was grinning more brightly than she had since before the whole nightmare began. She glanced toward the Commander and saw him and Colonel Tigh clasp hands and then grasp arms in a rare display of genuine happiness and excitement at their success.

With the mission complete, one of the other controllers assumed flight control for the returning Vipers heading back to Alpha Bay for landing as Rigel assisted the first of two Red Squadron patrols launch from Beta Bay. Others were directing the starships back into their usual place in the convoy.

Adama looked over the Bridge as he said, "Excellent job, everyone. Set course for the planet Carillon."

Remembering what they'd experienced, seeing what they'd just done, and hearing Adama's comforting voice, Rigel smiled. While they had been through the darkest of times, Rigel knew, deep down in her heart, that they would make it. While it wouldn't be easy, happier times were ahead.

'***

With their shift over and Carillon only a few centars away, Athena and Rigel stopped by the mess hall to eat. Like the evening before, there were still a number of the refugees in the dining facility finishing their meals as the first-shifters entered. Rigel noticed someone just finishing her meal so she said to Athena, "I need to check on something, so I'll be with you in a couple of centons."

Athena agreed, so Rigel went over to a table with a lone diner. She approached her young female helper from a few nights before who was busy looking at a comp pad. Rigel still couldn't remember the girl's name, so she said, "Hi, I'm Rigel. I just wanted to say thank you for helping with the little girls the other night."

The young girl replied, "Hi, Rigel. I'm Jos," and then added with a wry smile, "I really hate babysitting, but I was actually happy to help. The little ones needed it, and still do, so I'm volunteering part of each cycle with the group that's still aboard the Galactica."

"That's true, so thanks, Jos. Are you going to be transferred to another ship soon, too?"

The girl shook her head. "No, I was really worried about that with all of the bad rumors floating around, but I get to stay, at least for now! The Warrior who rescued me offered to be my guardian and take care of me since he...well, he knew my older brother. I was really apprehensive and had some serious issues about it, but he did save me and has been really kind so far. The nice colonel in the blue suit vouched for him, too, and told me I could come see him any time if there were any problems. Well, almost any time," she tittered. "The colonel found us a little family quarters, so we're going to give it a try, at least for a little while. He's given me the little bedroom with a locking door and he's sleeping on the pull-out in the main room. It seems like it's working out so far, though he is something of a neat freak."

Rigel smiled, "That's great! I'm glad it sounds like it's working out for you. What's this you're doing here?"

The girl frowned. "They're talking about starting a school soon, but since there aren't any progress records for our classes, he's trying to evaluate me 'for proper placement.' I told him where I was, but he's given me some homework so he can be sure! Let me tell you, a different ship may be sounding better by the micron."

Rigel chuckled lightly and said, "I don't know. They'd probably make you do the same thing there eventually, and your situation most likely wouldn't be nearly as nice."

The young girl nodded. "Oh, that's true! So I guess I'll see you around?"

Rigel nodded with a smile, and then went to get her tray. A couple of centons later as she sat down opposite Athena, Rigel whispered, "Now what's this big news you were going to tell me about Starbuck?"

"I went and spoke with Father, and then went to the Bridge to see if anyone had seen Starbuck. Colonel Tigh had seen him on the flight deck earlier, so I flipped through the flight deck monitors and kept going until I got an eye-full.

"I couldn't believe it but there was my boyfriend—in a launch tube of all places!—enjoying the embrace of a blond-headed tart wearing a bright red, almost-not-there evening dress. Rigel, I've never been so mad at him in all my life, and you know he's made me mad more than a few times!"

Rigel was very sad for her friend, wondering why she continued to put up with his antics, but Athena continued in a conspiratorial whisper, "I saw the 'Steam Purge' button and couldn't resist. I hit it and a micron later Starbuck was dancing in the exhaust like the little snake he is!"

Her waving upright arm making a writhing motion was too much and Rigel laughed hard for the first time in cycles. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Athena," she started but the lieutenant shook her head.

"Don't be. Starbuck and I are going to have a really serious talk about some things after this. Now, if I can just figure out which parts I'm actually going to say to him."

'***

They finished the last of their meal and said goodbye for the evening, so Rigel decided to go to the gym to exercise before hitting the turbowash and bed.

With the mission having been a success and, based on what she'd heard from Jos and Athena, life seemingly going on, Rigel felt that she needed to start getting back into a regular routine. However, as she passed a station in a lounge still filled with refugees, she decided to check the passenger list one more time. She stood in line for a few centons until her turn came; when it did, she opened the registry database. Running through the list of survivors, she saw that over two thousand more names had been added to the registry during the cycle. Scrolling down the list, searching intently, she came to a sudden stop.

There she saw:

Euberto, agri-farmer, Taura, Livestock Ship

There was a link in the remarks column to the right of that, so with her hand shaking, she clicked on it and the pop-up expanded with a note.

Euberto arrived on the Livestock Ship on a shuttle from the outskirts of the town of Golden City. In addition to a number of survivors including two of his own workers and several neighbors that he picked up along the way, the ship was filled with over 2,000 laying female cluckers and a few males in their crates that were being delivered to his agri-farm at the time of the attack. He also brought at least a six sectar supply of food and supplies for them. Euberto has been placed in charge of building up the Fleet's clucker flock.

After what she had faced in the dark times in her past, Rigel had sworn to never cry again; however, she laughed as tears of happiness streamed down her cheeks as she read the brief note. Donning the station's headset, she placed an inter-ship call to the Livestock Ship. When the comm officer on the other ship answered, she said with a tremulous voice, "Hello, this is Flight Corporal Rigel from the Battlestar Galactica. I'm trying to reach a man named Euberto from Golden City on Taura. Is he really on your ship? He's my uncle."

The End

'***

Author's End Notes:

1. The idea for this story came from noticing that Rigel was one of the people on the Bridge who did not appear to shed tears during the Cylons' attacks on the Colonies. As the destruction played out on the video screens around them, Rigel appeared to resist the urge, leading me to surmise that she had probably already gone through some very dark times during earlier periods in her life. I hope this story has done the idea justice.

2. Like part of the last chapter, most of the dialogue in the first part of this chapter is verbatim from Saga of a Star World. Again, the interpretation of what was seen on-screen is my own.

3. And finally, thanks so much for taking the time to read this story. I appreciate you reading it and would love to hear your thoughts by way of a review or even a PM. Such support encourages me to continue my Battlestar Galactica series in the future. Thank you!