I thought my head was going to explode while working out the middle bit of this installment. I recommend that you try not to think too much as you read it.
To Kara waking up in the morning usually meant spending a few precious moments enjoying the only bubble of true warmth that existed in all that was left of humanity.
Sitting up after spending a ridiculously muggy night staring at a corrugated metal ceiling really couldn't compare.
But this morning, Kara woke up feeling slightly chilly. She slowly blinked her eyes open and assessed the situation.
A quick visual confirmation showed her that Lee was indeed still in bed with her; sound asleep with his face tucked against her shoulder blade.
One solidly-muscled chest against her back. Check.
Two strong arms holding her close against said chest. Check.
Then what…?
Ah. Her feet, for one reason or another, were no longer covered by the blanket and exposed to the cold air of their quarters instead. That was a quick fix.
Kara gently eased her cold feet back under the blanket and instantly felt warmer, but she wasn't done yet. She bent her knees and angled her feet back until her big toes hit a pair of shins and began burrowing her feet between them.
Ah…that felt better.
For a second at least.
Lee jerked awake, gasping at the sensation of something extremely cold and wiggly making its way between his legs, and moved to get away before he realized that it was just his wife's feet looking for warmth.
He raised his head to see Kara looking amusedly at him over her shoulder.
"Good morning."
"Morning…"
Lee relaxed back onto the mattress and moved to find the comfortable position he had been in before Kara's feet had woken him. But Kara took advantage of Lee's shifting movements to roll over and more firmly press her feet against him even as she cuddled up closer.
"Do you really have to do that?" he asked as they looked at each other while nose to nose.
Their lips were barely brushing together as Kara answered, "You know I do. It was in our vows, remember?"
Chuckling, they closed that short distance between them and kissed slowly, almost lazily, as they usually did when they woke up together; savoring those last moments of complete privacy before their responsibilities dragged them beyond the hatch and back into the thick of things.
"Your hair's getting long," Lee observed as he gently stroked Kara's back. Her hair was brushing against the backs of his hands as they slowly ran up and down her soft skin.
Kara smiled at how inane her husband could be at times-and how much she loved him for it-but it was true: her hair was getting long, falling to the middle of her back. But she didn't really have any intention of cutting it anytime soon. She liked how it looked, even if she was beginning to have a hard time fitting her ponytail beneath her flight helmet.
"Yes it is."
She slung a leg over Lee's hip and hooked her knee so that they were pressed right up against each other and so that he could feel her arousal.
As much as Lee wanted to take this further, he tried to keep his wits about him even as he felt Kara's temperature rise and her hot breath against the skin of his throat.
"I wish we could take the morning off…" he said as he moved his hands lower down her back to still her gently undulating hips. But he only succeeded in pressing them closer together and letting Kara know that he was becoming increasingly aroused as well.
"Hmmm…" Kara purred contentedly against Lee's neck, moving harder against him and delighting in how he was beginning to grind up against her as well.
Lee tried to push Kara's hips back away from him, "But I've got an early meeting over on Colonial One and you have an air group to run."
"Hmmm…" now it was an annoyed moan and she dug her teeth into his flesh in protest. "How much time do we have?"
Lee quickly glanced at the clock and looked back into Kara's hazel eyes. "About thirty minutes."
Kara got that gleam in her eyes that told him that for better or for worse, he was going to definitely remember whatever it was that his sexy wife had just thought up.
"Wanna save water?"
He wasn't surprised that their shower took longer than thirty minutes, especially considering what they had done in lieu of spending most of that time washing.
But that didn't stop Lee from softly muttering a stream of curses as he hurriedly laced up his boots and buttoned up his jacket.
Kara, on the other hand, got dressed almost languidly, grinning widely as she did. In fact, she had only got her flight suit up to her hip when he moved to give her a hurried peck. And of course she had to let it fall to her ankles and grab his head to keep him for a few extra seconds before letting him go.
And that kiss was replaying itself on a loop in his head as he sat through a meeting with his father, the President, and her advisors; the opening topic being algae and seaweed.
"I don't see a downside to harvesting the stuff," one of the advisors was saying. He was a button down type-a retired college professor who had been on a cruise with his wife before the first exodus. "Seaweed is rich in nutrients. If we treat it and freeze dry it, we'll have rations that will last us for years. And it also makes great fertilizer, making my proposal of starting farms from the seeds we have saved on some of the ships much more feasible, Madame President."
Roslin looked at the professor and asked, "Now how long would it be before these farms would produce crops, Doctor?"
"Just a single growing season for the vegetables. But it will take years before we can harvest fresh fruit because we only have fruit seeds and not plants."
"Fresh fruits and vegetables would be good for morale, Madame President," somebody else, Lee had never seen the person before, added.
The discussion then turned to algae and how it would help with the inefficient water recycling systems on the ships that had not been designed for deep space voyages.
Lee simply listened to what everybody else had to say, turning his head in the direction of the voices, occasionally driving his thumb into the pressure point on the back of his hand mostly to drive thoughts of Kara out of his head and to stay awake in the midst of an incredibly boring conversation he had no expertise in. He perked up only when he was asked how the Pegasus' water levels were. To which he answered that they just needed to top off from the planet and they would be fully laden with fresh water.
Soon after that, the President dismissed the civilian advisors and it was just her and the two officers. Roslin looked at the Adama men and immediately got to business.
"Now, gentlemen. Onto the main reason why I called you over. Admiral? I believe you have news."
"Yes, Madame President." Adama shifted in his seat to sit a little straighter as he opened a folder he'd brought with him. "As you are already aware: yesterday, Lieutenant Sharon Agathon was making an orbital survey on the far side of the planet when she picked up a signal on her wireless."
"Much like the proximity signal from the beacon found on that basestar?"
"Yes. So I ordered Raptors from both battlestars to start a search pattern, and as of this morning, we have found four beacons floating out in space."
"And this would bring the total to five, correct?"
Lee spoke up, "Correct, Madame President. I had Lieutenant Hoshi plot out the positions of these beacons in relation to the planet we're currently in orbit of. The four that we found are spaced relatively equal distances apart with the exception one sizeable gap. We're currently assuming that the beacon the Cylons found was originally in that gap."
Roslin looked up from her own copy of the report they were all looking at. "And you're saying that these beacons roughly form a circle with the planet in the middle?"
"Well…yes and no, Madame President." Lee paused for a moment to figure out a way to explain how everything was currently positioned. Even as a seasoned combat pilot, he had a hard time explaining spatial relations in layman's terms.
Then Lee got it. He raised his left hand and joined his forefinger and thumb to form a circle and held his hand so that the President could clearly see the shape he was making.
"This is the current positioning of the beacons, Madame President." He then raised the forefinger of his right hand so that the tip appeared in the middle of the circle. "And this is the planet. Although it appears that the planet is in the middle, it's not really."
Lee rotated his improvised visual aid to show that in reality, his hands were several inches apart.
"The beacons are far out enough so that they're not even technically in the planet's orbit," Adama added. "They all have integrated RCS thrusters and guidance systems that keep them in a steady position relative to the planet instead."
Roslin nodded. "I see…Now what is this about the beacons' signals intersecting with the planet?"
Adama answered, "Simply put, the beacons each emit a signal in a spherical pattern and all the signals intersect on an area of about a hundred square kilometers on the planet's surface."
"And do we know anything about this area?"
The Admiral produced several recon photos taken by Raptors making fly-bys over the area.
"Aerial recon photos don't show much. It's more sparsely wooded than the area surrounding it, but the vegetation has grown enough so that if there is any sign of human intervention, it's been covered."
"So it's not like Kobol and its temples. No major ruins that can be seen from the air."
"No, Madame President. It doesn't seem as if this planet was inhabited for very long, if at all."
"So it might have just been a rest stop for the thirteenth tribe while on their way to Earth. Like we're doing now."
"That is a possibility, yes. I can have an expeditionary team down there by this time tomorrow. It will take some time to thoroughly investigate this area, though."
"Does it look as if we're in a rush, Admiral?" Roslin waved her hands as if to say 'take a look around gentlemen.'
"We have a long way to go before our food supplies are fully replenished.
Adama leaned back in his seat and let out a long breath before speaking. "Then I recommend that before we embark on any sort of expedition in this area, that we mark the beacons' positions and disable them so that they're no longer broadcasting."
Roslin turned her head to look at Lee. "Commander?"
Lee sat up a bit straighter and said, "I concur, Madame President. We don't want the Cylons jumping in on us. Especially at a time like this."
"Very well then."
Lee decided to make a quick stop by the hangar deck after his shift in CIC ended that day to see what sort of new foodstuffs they were going to be eating in the foreseeable future.
Walking along the upper catwalk towards the ladder, he could see that a section of the deck had been cordoned off as a sorting area, guarded by a few marines dressed in their khaki duty uniforms rather than their black fatigues. There was a large pile of what looked like fruit being tended to by civilians from the refugee camp in Pegasus' cargo bay. It wasn't just adults working on the pile though. Even from a distance, Lee could distinctly see children, some of them quite small, running around within the cordon.
He made his way across the deck nodding and acknowledging greetings from the crew as he passed by (he had a standing order not to call attention on deck in the hangar) and was soon by the cordoned off area. The marines had not noticed him coming-they had their backs to the rest of the deck, and were focused solely on the civilians instead.
"Corporal," Lee addressed the NCO in charge of the detail and watched amusedly as the young man jumped in surprise.
The Corporal snapped to attention even as his gaze whipped from his CO to the children running around in front of them. "Commander! Oh! About the kids, sir... Uhm…they were getting kinda restless in the cargo bay, sir…so I thought that-I mean, we're not forcing them to work or anything-they're just having some fun, sir."
Lee waved his hand to calm the guy down. "It's alright, Corporal. As long as they're not in any sort of danger."
"Oh no, sir. We're all watching the children like hawks, sir."
"Good."
As the two men were talking, someone on the other side of the pile of fruit perked up at the sound of Lee's voice and popped her head over the side to make sure she heard right.
Lee saw the blonde curls popping up out of the corner of his eye just before it turned into a blur that made a beeline for his legs.
"Hi, Lee!" the blur yelled out just as it made impact.
"Hey, Kacey!" Lee gently eased the little girl's constantly surprising grip off of his pants legs and knelt down so that they could look at each other.
She was happily smiling today, unlike the first time they met, and the juice stains around her mouth showed that she obviously had been sampling some of the fruit in the pile.
"What are you doing here?" Lee asked.
"I'm helping out…"
"Really?" he reached out and tapped a finger against Kacey's chin. The juice stains were still slightly damp and just beginning to turn sticky. "Are you making sure that everything tastes okay?"
"Uh huh," Kacey giggled before an idea came up in her head. "Wait right here. K?"
And she was off, running past her mother, who had been on the way to join them, to the pile, looking for something she had enjoyed and wanted to share with her friend.
In the meantime, Lee stood up and greeted Kacey's mother. "I'm sorry about Kacey bothering you, Commander Adama. You're probably really busy."
"Oh, no…I just got off duty and-"
He never got to finish his sentence as Kacey came barreling back and shoved something bright red and flecked with yellow into his hand.
"Here!"
Lee smiled as he looked at the fruit Kacey had picked out just for him and then smiled wider at the sight of the little girl jumping up and down waiting for his reaction.
"Thank you. I'm going to take this back so that I can share it with Kara. Okay?"
"K." Kacey gave him a toothy grin as she waved goodbye.
Kara was already in their quarters going through a stack of paperwork when he got back. She was going to ask why he was late coming back, but she saw the bright skin of the fruit standing out in stark contrast to the drab blue of Lee's uniform. It was obvious that he decided to stop by the hangar bay on his way home.
And he'd just happened to have picked something she'd enjoyed immensely during her week on the surface.
"Ooh! I love those," she exclaimed as Lee made his way to the couch. "They taste like really sweet plums."
He sat down beside her and looked at the fruit in his hand distractedly, making no indication that he had even heard what she'd said.
Kara nudged Lee with her elbow until he turned to look at her. "You got just one? You really need to learn how to exert your authority, Commander."
"Oh," he looked back at the red orb he was holding. "Kacey gave it to me."
Kacey?
Oh! That lost little girl they'd taken back to her mother.
"I didn't know you were going to stop by the cargo bay."
"I didn't. She was on the hangar deck. Her mother was working sorting the fruit that was brought up from the surface. She saw me and picked this out from the pile just for me."
"I wouldn't know who was working on that this afternoon. I didn't leave my office after lunch. So Kacey picked this out for you, huh?"
"Yeah. She's a sweet kid."
Kara couldn't exactly classify the smile that spread across her husband's face, but there was something that made her tremble with some kind of nervous excitement as Lee took a bite out of the fruit a little girl had given him and then held in front of her face for her to have a taste.
They were heading somewhere together, she mused as she chewed on her bite of fruit.
There was still a part of her that was urging her to bail as soon as possible. But that part was shut up more easily than ever now. She was in a good place, with a man who loved her unconditionally. And an even larger part of her was eager to see what was in store for them, even if neither of them were fully willing or able to admit what they hoped the future would hold.
Lee's tongue sliding against hers, tasting of plum, as he pulled her up to straddle his lap.
She was more than willing to admit that she wanted that (for the moment at least) as Lee leaned in to press his lips against hers.
Yup. Kacey's back . What did you guys think?
BTW: I'm hoping to hit at least 300 reviews by Chapter 30. Care to help me in achieving this goal?
