Chapter 12:

The current cycle:

"CLEAR! Three! Two! One!"

The electric charge was released with a sudden ZZZZAAAAAPPPP and a distinct smell of ozone filled the air.

'***

Another short interlude:

My pain continued, unending, for some interminable period, when suddenly, it increased one-hundred fold and, instead of continuing to be tormented with the ongoing, unbearable wait for the arrival of pesky flying babies and unendurably horrific harp music, I am gasping, grasping, starving for air like one of the evil ones thrown into the burning lake. Oh, Lords! This so isn't right, this punishment that you're dumping on me! If this is in fact the Hades place, I'm beginning to hate it a lot more than I ever dreamed would be possible. And Lords, maybe it's just me, but if by some chance this is actually the heaven place, I hate to tell you but you need to make some improvements; it's currently seriously overrated!

Yes, Lords, I'm really sorry for all the bad things I did, especially to Danae and Karpos, and, Lords, I'm even considering doing penance for kissing Atreus, as good as that was! Oh, please, Lords, let me breathe! Please! Please! Let me breathe! LET ME BREATHE!

Then, there, as the Lords finally take pity on me and grant my request, allowing cool air to suddenly flood into my oxygen-deprived lungs, a very bright, very blinding light suddenly appears before me….

'***

The current cycle, a moment later:

"Aaahhkkhh!…Iihh..iehf...if you...if you don't get that…blasted light...out of my eyes...I swear...I'll kill you...when I can finally get up," mumbled Jostine as clearly and as authoritatively as she could while lying dazed and partially exposed on the deck with her armored enviro-suit spread open and athletic bra cut so the Med Tech could reach her chest with the electro paddles.

"That's my girl!" exclaimed Ensign Walrach, flipping off the light he was shining in her eyes and gently pushing the paddles away before the Med Tech could shock her again. Then, he helped pull her suit closed to cover the nasty red marks on her chest and the inner edges of her smallish though shapely feminine curves. There were a couple of juvenile snickers as he did it quickly but rather deliberately, carefully averting his gaze, which apparently, in the eyes of the other trainees, answered a bet that had been wagered in the barracks among some of them in the past few sectons as Walrach and Jostine had been seen growing steadily closer to each other. He quickly assumed a junior officer look, flashing a very preturbed frown at the trainees, sternly saying, "Can it!" Then, he turned his attention solely to her. "Jos! Sweetheart! You're alive! You can't believe the scare you gave us, girl!"

"You?" she croaked incredulously, reaching up unsteadily to take his hand. "You had a scare? I'm on a mission to rescue two brave lost Warriors on a distant moon...with some type of secret alien technology when I'm shot next to one of the alien machines. Wally, do you know what it said on its side? "Mega Corp Crusher Machine, Caprica City, Caprica"! Oo-oh! That sounds so very alien to me! There, shot by Cylons that I couldn't kill even though I know I hit them-multiple times!-and I die and am stuck in Hades dreading what's to come for what seems like eternity...before waking up here with all of you trying to ogle my little girls and electrocute me! Don't you think I'm a little ahead of you in the scare-of-the-cycle department?" She gave a deep seated frown at him as she continued, "Well, don't you? Now, Wally are you going to tell me what's going on? Wally?" Because of her condition and the rapid pace at which she'd delivered it, she was almost out of breath when she finished her little tirade.

Walrach patted her hand, pulling it up to his cheek while fighting the tear in his eye, but the Med Tech interrupted and said, "Trainee Jostine, you really need to relax for now. I'm going to give you a little shot to help."

She turned her head slightly to him and was raising her other hand toward him to ward him off, but she was a moment too late. Just as he pricked her skin, she said, "Listen, buster! Don't you even tink abou dobn bat…." and her eyelids fluttered lightly and closed.

'***

A few centars later in the Recovery Ward of the Life Sciences Station on the Galactica:

He silently stepped into the room and up behind her, clenching his unlit fumarello in his teeth. Sliding his arms around her, he said, "Hello, Beautiful. How's our young patient?"

Cassiopeia, who had been caring for Jostine for the past half centar or so since she had arrived back on the Galactica, had just sat down a couple of centons earlier and had been lost in concentration, studying yet another ever-more-complicated medical issue on the monitor in front of her while her patient continued to sleep. Cassie jumped slightly on his unannounced arrival. "Oh, Starbuck! You startled me!" she said as she rose and turned toward him to wrap her arms around him as well. Starbuck chuckled and, quickly losing the fumarello, joined with her in a much more sizzling kiss than she had even dared anticipate.

"Wow! I didn't think you were going to be back until tonight," she said at just above a whisper as she pushed him away, trying to restore at least a bit of decorum to the situation in case anyone else entered the room. Fortunately, there were no patients other than Jostine in a private room off the main ward, so she relaxed a bit when she saw that Jostine's visitors were still in the room talking quietly while awaiting her awakening. "Not that I mind that you're back early, but..."

"Trainee Jostine's accident changed all the plans. She's one of our best young recruits and we're worried about her, but we're also concerned that what happened to her might happen to someone else," Starbuck replied in an equally low voice as he moved in and held her once more. "Therefore, Apollo and I agreed to cancel the rest of the exercise and we got everyone back here to resume training. We were planning to do a post-op review, too, but Commander Adama has issued new orders related to the upcoming resupply effort. He wants one more survey of a couple of planets before we start, so Apollo's personally taking the review session, Sheba, Jolly, and a bunch of people are stepping in to help with the training, and Boomer and I are assigned to fly the survey mission. Boomer's gone on to lay in the course and take a closer look at anything we're expecting to encounter along the way. Assuming all goes as expected, we should be back in about two cycles or so."

Cassie looked at him with a great deal of concern on her face. "Oh, Starbuck, do be careful! Please come home safely!"

"You know me, sweetheart, I always do," he said with a grin. And sliding his hands down her back and giving a little squeeze, he added playfully, "And when I do..."

Eyes widening in surprise, she bobbed upward slightly before settling back to her normal height, as she quickly raised his hands back up to a more respectable level. "Star-buck!" Then, with a tiny hint of irritation mixed with just the right touch of poutiness, she went on, "So our plans for tomorrow evening are shot…?" If she remembered correctly, this was at least the fourth time in a row that their plans were having to be postponed. Cassie glanced around once more, making sure that the area was still clear except for those in Jostine's room, hoping that no one had seen the latest little display.

"Yeah, again," he sighed. "Yes, I'm so sorry, Cassie, but I'll make it up to you soon, I promise." Glancing at his chrono, he continued, "I've got less than eight centons to be in the mission briefing room in Alpha Bay, so that gives you about two centons to tell me how our young trainee's doing and then give me a proper sendoff."

"Two, huh? I don't know, after that kiss a couple of centons ago and that little tweak, that just doesn't seem like enough time to do it properly," replied Cassie with a grin, giving him a gentle push back toward a nearby supply closet after a final check to confirm that the medical bay was still clear.

Once inside it, Cassie hit the door closer button and looped her hands behind Starbuck's neck just as his back encountered the shelf behind him.

Her face close to his neck and ear, she quickly whispered a one sentence update on her patient, her lips almost brushing his skin as she spoke, the heat of her breath almost electric in its intensity, followed by the tiniest of caresses from her lips, and he believed, the very tip of her tongue as she finished.

Starbuck closed his eyes and breathed deeply, almost sighing, "Wow is right!" only to feel her fingertip on his lips, quietening him.

He opened his eyes again when he felt her drawing back, seeing her looking at him questioningly. He had just enough time to half raise a questioning eyebrow in return before she was back, melding her lips against his hungrily, exploring, returning the passion she'd experienced from him just a couple of centons earlier.

It was then Starbuck's turn to loose a low moan as she broke off again, once more giving him that playful smile and look again, before she whispered, "Only about a centon left. Are you...really...really...sure about that time?"

He grinned back at her for just a micron before moving back toward her waiting lips. "Mmmm, when you put it like that, we'll make it three more centons. I'll run…."

'***