HOPE EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL BREAK…. TIME TO GET BACK TO THE SUBJECT(S) HAND…

THE DISCLAIMERS BY NOW ARE CLICHÉ; I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT FOR THE FREE-FLOWING GARBAGE THAT COMES OUT OF MY NOGGIN. THE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS AND STORY BASE ARE FROM RDM & SCI-FI.

THERE MIGHT BE A LITTLE SPOILERY IN THIS ONE…. HAVE FUN…

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For what was supposed to be an "easy" day flying CAP, it had become a long one. First, Kat had come down sick and was replaced by some nugget dubbed 'Be-Bop', now Hotdog was acting like there was either something wrong with his stick, or with the hand that was operating it.

"Hey Costanza? Do you need another hand?"

Chuckling came from the nugget, which to Kara was no surprise. She was already flying better her first time out than Kat did. But it still wasn't her place, being the newbie.

"Ok, ok. No commentary from the peanut gallery. Hotdog? Are you having trouble with your equipment, or with the Viper's controls?"

She could barely repress her own giggles.

"Copy that Starbuck. I'm having trouble focusing…. I may have the same thing Kat does."

"Galactica? Starbuck. Dee? Let Captain Kelly know I need another pilot out here. I'm sending Hotdog home."

"Roger that Starbuck. Apollo's already in the tube."

"Copy that Galactica. Starbuck out. Costanza? Go straight to sickbay, you hear me?"

"Roger Starbuck. I'm heading in."

Great. It was bad enough that Lee ignored her every day that she didn't go to Cloud Nine; it was worse when they had to work together. Cool indifference didn't even begin to describe it.

The day's looking up. Yeah, right. Here he comes. She watched him pull alongside Be-Bop, leaving Kara in the lead. Normally, he would have taken that position or as that of her wingman. After all, he was the CAG. Nowadays, he didn't seem to care, as long as he didn't have to work directly with her.

Hour one she had sent Hotdog home. Hour two was spent without much chatter; just the occasional insight to the nugget, or in response to one of her questions. Lee did not speak to Starbuck, and the one time she asked him a direct question, he ignored her altogether. Thus, it was a surprise to her, at the beginning of hour three, when he spoke to her directly.

"Starbuck, do you copy?"

If he could only have seen the sarcastic look on her face. She gritted out a response.

"Yes, sir."

"Don't you think you were a little close on that last pass beside Colonial One?"

She looked over her shoulder and laughed.

"No, sir. I think I did that run just fine."

Lee watched her Viper carefully for a few seconds, then shook his head to clear it a little.

"Okay, fine. Just watch it on the next run."

They passed the Galactica, a refinery ship, and then came alongside the Astral Queen. As they made in round the ship's hull, Apollo swore that Kara was getting too close again.

In her cockpit, Starbuck noticed, too. She had become to feel cold and clammy. Her stomach was queasy. She spoke into the comm. in a low voice.

"I think I'm gonna be sick."

With a swift flick of her left hand, she yanked off her helmet. It did not go unnoticed by Apollo, who had pulled up alongside to check on her Viper's erratic movements. After about two or three heaves, there was a new, shiny color on the cockpit's floor.

"Great. The deck gang's gonna kill me for this one."

"What was that, Starbuck? Where's your helmet?"

Kara looked straight ahead, ignoring Lee. She carefully wiped her mouth clean, and replaced her helmet.

"Not that I could hear you that well with the damned thing off, sir. I think I need to go to sickbay."

A look of concern quickly passed over his features. Another sick pilot.

"Copy that Starbuck. Ask Doc Cottle to check what everyone had in the mess this morning. Too many sick Viper pilots equals no fleet security for the rest of the day."

"Roger Apollo."

Starbuck straightened her flying pattern, trying to land as smoothly as she could so as to not get any more of the puke on her shoes as she had to. Tyrol personally greeted her as she stepped down the ladder, the smell of vomit permeating the surrounding area.

"Frak. Lieutenant, what did you do to my Viper?"

"Let's just say, I'm not looking forward to lunch, Chief."

She walked off the hangar deck and made her way to the sickbay.

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"Ouch! Think you could stick me a little harder!"

Kara hated hospitals, she hated doctors and she really hated the Galactica's sickbay. It came with the wonderful bedside manner of a chain-smoking Doc Cottle.

"Shut up Starbuck. I've already seen you enough times in the past few months to fulfill all the fantasies I've ever had in my life. And all my nightmares. Now suck it up. I've got to run a few blood tests on you…just like everybody else that's come in here via puking their guts out."

Cottle waved sarcastically as he took the vials of her blood and left for the Galactica's tiny lab. She respected the man for being a doctor, but hated him otherwise.

"Fracking doctors."

Hotdog laughed as he tried not to choke on another dry heave. She looked over at Kat, who was sleeping peacefully. Kara decided maybe she should do the same. Until someone interrupted her.

"Hey lady. Long time, no see."

She squinted to see Helo looking down at her. The sight of an actual friend put a smile on her face.

"Hello Karl. How's it going?"

Smiling, he got a little closer to the bed, pulling a spare stool out from under a nearby desk so that he could sit more on her level.

"It's going okay. Cottle says that the baby is okay. Sharon just left from here. Hey, would you believe they've got me flying CAP tomorrow? In a Viper?"

It really wasn't that surprising to her. She had met Karl Agathon in flight school on Caprica. He'd qualified for piloting a Raptor like all ECOs do, but he'd tried his hand at Viper training, too. Wasn't a bad pilot, but he'd decided to stay an ECO after all. A promise to his sister, or something like that.

"Why do they have you flying Helo?"

He smiled and looked around at all the occupied beds in the bay.

"I don't know…something about a mass case of food poisoning? Good thing I don't like eating that much in the mess hall, hmm? What did you guys eat anyway?"

As she sat up, her stomach groaned again. He reached out and handed her an empty wastebasket. She shook her head no.

"No, it's okay. Don't need that just right yet. I, personally, had a lovely course of cereal with reconstituted, powdered milk, along with an appetizer of zambifruit."

Helo grimaced at the thought of the milk, being a little lactose intolerant himself.

"Well hopefully they'll figure out what it is that's making everybody sick. I've got both a Viper shift and a Raptor shift. That makes two CAPs in one day. Nobody's getting any sleep…and you know what happens when we get no sleep."

It was Kara's turn to grimace as she remembered when the Cylons came every 33 minutes. All the pilots had been strung out on stims…some of them developing a rather nasty addiction to them. The thought made her look again at Kat, and Helo followed her gaze in that direction.

"Exactly. Well, I guess I've gotta go. No rest for the weary."

"Hey, Helo?"

"Yeah?"

"Tell Sharon hello for me. I know I haven't gotten down there to see her lately…either one of them. But…"

Helo waved her worries away.

"They're both fine, Kara. I'll let them know you're thinking about them. Get some rest."

He patted the edge of her covers as he tucked her in. It made her think of Apollo, and how he used to do the same thing whenever she wasn't feeling quite herself.

She rolled over, hoping that after a little rest, she could get the hell out of this fracking hole and back out amongst the stars, where she belonged.

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Watch for another installment tonight. This was part one of this chapter. I didn't have enough time to type up the next part yet. I write most of this down on paper, and then hack it out on the comp screen before I upload it for posting here.

Happy reading!