Congratulations to arielmoondance. You've won last installment's speculation game with your answer of "some sort of turmoil." :)
Kara was quiet the next morning as she and Lee got ready for the day. She worked her arms into the sleeves of her flight suit while Lee carried on a mostly one-sided conversation about something she wasn't following.
"I'll see you at lunch," Lee said, but Kara barely heard him.
"Hmm?"
"I said I'll see you at lunch."
Kara shook her head.
"Can't. I'm busy," she said truthfully. "Some of the veterans are slipping and it's beginning to trickle down to the nuggets. Then I'm leading the first CAP right after we jump this afternoon."
"OK," Lee nodded.
Kara fiddled with her zipper for longer than necessary, immediately putting Lee on alert.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
Kara jerked her head up to look at Lee. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot
"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered with forced ease.
Lee wasn't convinced, but he was running a bit late and needed to get to CIC.
"OK. I've got to run."
"Alright."
Lee pressed a quick kiss against Kara's lips and had made it all the way to the hatch when she called after him.
"Lee?"
He turned back. "Yeah."
Kara looked as if she had something to say but changed her mind about it. "Never mind. It can wait."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I'll see you tonight."
The morning was largely uneventful. Lee spent most of it in CIC conferring with his XO in preparation for the jump scheduled for that afternoon.
The calculations they'd made to postulate the positions of each ring of beacons had proven to be accurate several times over, so President Roslin decided to jump the entire fleet at once, instead of sending one of the battlestars ahead, only to have a Raptor jump back with news.
Because it was all routine, Lee's mind kept on wandering back to Kara and how jumpy she'd been earlier. Something had happened last night when she accidentally woke him up, and it was bugging her. He ate lunch in his ready room alone, wondering how to best bring up the subject when they were back in their quarters that night. He'd just have to be patient, as she had been with him, and wait until she was ready to talk.
Hoshi's voice brought Lee back to the present. "Message from Colonial One: we are to jump on their count, Commander."
"Ship is ready in all respects, sir," the XO added.
Lee nodded. "Thank you, Colonel. Start the clock."
The XO picked up a handset and keyed the intercom. A chime rang through the ship.
"This is the XO. All hands, standby to jump in…thirty seconds."
Thirty seconds appeared on the screens above the chart table and began counting down.
"Fifteen seconds…ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two…one…jump."
The XO turned the key and everyone aboard felt that familiar sucking sensation in their guts as the battlestar ripped through the fabric of space and time to appear a split second later thousands of light years away.
Lee shook off the all too familiar after effects of a FTL jump and looked up as the DRADIS began to scan the surrounding area.
"Jump complete," the XO said. "All systems are in the green, sir."
"Thank you, XO."
Hoshi spoke up from his station. "Message from Galactica, Commander. All ships in the fleet are accounted for. We are to go ahead with searching for the "
"Whoa," came Lewis' voice from where he stood behind the helm station.
"What is it, Captain?"
"A planet, sir," Lewis said, looking up from the helmsman's readout. "Looks like a gas giant. But we're far enough away from its gravity well for it to have any sort of effect on us."
Lee walked over to stand behind the younger officer. "Will this affect the calculations we're using to search for the rings?"
Lewis shook his head. "Don't think it would change things too much, sir. All the beacons we've found have had rudimentary reaction control systems. But I'll crunch the numbers again to make sure."
"Do it," Lee said. He walked back to his usual spot in CIC and ordered: "Launch CAP."
"CAP is away."
Kara had kept herself busy all morning to try and avoid thinking about that dream, but failed miserably. It had been so disturbingly vivid and played in the back of her mind over and over again. Try as she might, she couldn't get the sight of Leoben's eyes just as he was about to violate her. Kara remembered that look well. Her mother would get that same glint in her eyes after drinking all day and decided to take her frustrations out on her daughter.
It would be a long night of constant pain interrupted only when Socrata Thrace stopped to take a swig from her ever present bottle.
Then there was the second part of that dream. Not disturbing, but just as clear.
She saw herself as a mother. Not once, but three times over.
And she seemed perfectly fine.
Happy and content.
Maybe it was time to tell Lee that she'd been having thoughts about starting a family for nearly a year now.
She wasn't completely sure if she, or he, was ready just yet, but it wouldn't hurt to talk about it. Test the waters and see if Lee was ready.
Just then Kara saw movement in the direction of the gas giant.
She blinked once to make sure that she wasn't seeing things before keying open her wireless to talk to Showboat and Catbird, her wingmen. "Hey, did you see that?"
"See what?"
"Cylon Heavy Raider 10 o'clock high."
"What? I don't see it."
"Ditto."
Kara didn't really hear what they said, though. She called out to Pegasus, "Pegasus. Starbuck. Looks like we've got company. Showboat. Catbird. Stay on my wing. We've got toasters to kill."
Lee looked up at the screens and over at his XO. The colonel gave a little shrug before looking back up himself.
"Screens are clear, Commander."
"Starbuck. Showboat. What Raider? I don't see anything."
"It's right there. Can't you see it? Check your DRADIS."
"There's nothing there."
A crewman looked up from where he'd been running diagnostics from his workstation. "Systems check shows that there's nothing wrong with our DRADIS, sir."
"Galactica confirms. Their screens are clear" Hoshi announced. "There are no Cylons in the vicinity, Commander."
A wireless transmission came in CIC's speakers. "Pegasus. Showboat. Requesting private channel to Pegasus Actual."
Lee picked up a handset and waited as Hoshi flicked several switches before giving him a nod.
"Pegasus Actual. Go ahead, Showboat."
"Commander, Catbird and I are both showing clear screens. I have no idea what's going on with Starbuck, but she thinks she's chasing something."
Lee looked up at the DRADIS to see where Kara was in relation to the fleet. "How's she flying?"
"Steady."
"Stay on her wing and report if there are any changes."
"Roger."
"Stand by, Showboat." Lee pressed the handset in his hand against his shoulder and motioned with his free hand to get his communications officer's attention. "Hoshi, patch me through to Starbuck on another handset."
Hoshi got to work at his station. "Go ahead, sir."
Lee grabbed another handset. "Starbuck. Pegasus. What's going on out there?"
It sounded as if Kara was breathing heavily, but it was hard to tell through the wireless distortion. "I've got a Heavy Raider dead ahead. I'm in pursuit."
"Are you sure?"
"He's right in front of me! We don't usually see these things by themselves. There has to be a basestar nearby. We need more fighters out here."
Lee brought the handset away from his mouth. "Hoshi…"
The lieutenant knew what his CO was trying to say. "Channel's secure, sir. No need to worry about anyone listening in."
"Kara…" Lee said, fighting to keep the worry out of his voice. "There's nothing there."
"The frak there isn't, Lee! Get off your ass and send out the alert fighters!"
There seemed to be no reasoning with Kara. Whatever was going on, she was convinced that she was in pursuit of a Cylon.
Lee brought one handset down to his shoulder and the other one back up to his ear.
"Showboat. Pegasus Actual. Talk to me."
"No change. We're getting pretty close to the gas giant. And-Standby, Actual."
The XO saw on the screens what Showboat was seeing close up. "Commander. DRADIS is showing Starbuck entering the gas giant's atmosphere."
Kara gritted her teeth and tightened her grip around the controls as she gave more juice to her engines. Try as she might, she couldn't close the gap between her Viper and the Heavy Raider. It stayed just outside of the range of her cannon.
She blinked hard. Sweat was pouring into her eyes, making it hard to see, and the lack of sleep was starting to blur her vision.
That Raider was there, right in front of her.
But then it was gone, and in its place, the hazy gasses of the planet's upper atmosphere began to swirl around and around, changing colors from pale blue, and turning into something else entirely.
Bold primary colors swirling to form a mandala.
Like the one on the wall of her Caprican apartment.
Like the one she fell through in her dream.
She'd gone through the mandala and saw what she had been, what she was, and what she could be.
She remembered the words she'd said to herself: "Don't be afraid."
"I'm not afraid," she whispered.
And again, with more conviction: "I'm not afraid."
Somewhere in the distance she thought she heard Lee's voice calling out to her, "Kara…"
"Kara what are you doing?"
"Pegasus. Showboat. Starbuck just went into a nosedive. She's losing altitude fast."
"Stay with her. Try to talk her out of it."
"Copy that."
Showboat took a breath as she flexed her fingers over her controls. She said a silent prayer of thanks that there were three planes on this CAP, because what she was about to do would be near suicide if she attempted it alone.
She keyed her wireless, "Catbird. Did you hear that?"
"Yeah."
"Keep an eye on your altimeter and call out every thousand feet."
"Got it."
"Let's do this. Follow my lead."
"I'm right behind you."
The two Vipers rolled onto their backs and dropped into the gas giant's upper atmosphere, following their leader as she kept on hurtling downwards.
"Starbuck," Showboat called out over the wireless.
"Starbuck. Can you hear me? You're going to have to pull up. You hear me? Pull up."
"I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid."
"Pegasus. Showboat. No change. Starbuck's going to hit the hard deck soon. We can't follow her much longer."
"Kara," Lee said, practically pleading over the wireless. With each passing second, his wife was getting closer and closer to hitting the altitude where atmospheric pressure would crush her Viper's hull. "Can you hear me?"
"Pegasus. Showboat. Starbuck will hit the hard deck in less than a minute."
Lee looked over at Hoshi. "Tell them to get out of there."
Hoshi nodded and spoke into his own headset. "Showboat. Pegasus. Break off. I say again. Break off."
"Kara. Listen to me…"
"Thirty seconds, Commander," someone said.
"Dammit, Starbuck!" Lee roared into the mouthpiece. "You even scratch the paint on that Viper and I'll ground you for the rest of your life! Got it?!?!"
"Dammit, Starbuck! You even scratch the paint on that Viper and I'll ground you for the rest of your life! Got it?!?!"
The sound of Lee's voice roaring through the wireless snapped Kara back to reality.
There was no Raider-no mandala.
Just the increasingly turbulent atmosphere of a gas giant planet and the shrill beeping of alarms telling her about the imminent danger she and her Viper were in.
Her Viper was shaking violently, rattling her teeth as she fought to regain control of the plane. And for a split second, she leveled out, and used the opportunity to point her nose upwards and hit the throttle.
"Pegasus. Showboat. Starbuck just went ballistic. She's gaining altitude."
Lee let out a shaky breath. Now Kara needed to climb back out into open space.
Kara climbed higher and higher. She needed to gain as much altitude as possible in order to escape the pull of the planet's gravity well. The throttle was shoved forward as far as it would go and the engines were beginning to protest at being at full burn for so long.
The g-forces increased. With the weight on her chest seeming to get exponentially heavier with each passing second, making it hard to breath, and in her already exhausted state, Kara couldn't keep her muscles clenched hard enough to keep the blood in her head.
Her vision began to tunnel. She could see less and less until it was as if she was looking at her instruments through pinholes.
"Help me…"
Then blackness.
"Krypter. Krypter. Krypter. This is Showboat, Showboat, Showboat declaring an emergency."
Lee fell forward when he heard those words. His legs were like jelly and he could barely hold himself up with violently trembling arms braced against the lighted chart table.
"Starbuck is in an uncontrolled y-axis spin and z-axis flip. She appears to be unconscious. Send out the SAR bird."
The XO was quickly by Lee's side and helped him stand back up; bracing him until his legs were steady again.
He still held the rail wrapped around the chart table in a death grip, though.
"Pegasus. Athena. I'm in the air and can provide assistance."
All of CIC could see that their Commander was just holding it together, so the XO took charge. "Hoshi, that's a negative on Athena's assist. She's on the other side of the fleet. It'll be faster if we send out our own."
"Yes sir."
"Launch SAR Raptor."
"SAR bird is away."
Lee was barely cognizant of anything that occurred around him. The wireless chatter between Hoshi and the SAR Raptor pilot was all he could hear. And even that sounded distant and barely audible above the sound of blood rushing through his ears.
"Pegasus. Ghostrider. Rescueman is out the hatch."
'Please, dear gods, please,' he prayed silently for the first time since he was a child.
"Cutting her out of her straps now."
'Don't take Kara away from me.'
"Alright. I've got her. Reel us in."
'We've been through so much to get to where we are today.'
"Pegasus. Ghostrider. Rescueman and Starbuck are in the Raptor. We are RTB."
'She's everything to me.'
"Pegasus. Ghostrider. Starbuck's breathing is shallow, pulse is rapid, and she is barely responsive to external stimuli. Requesting a medical team to be standing by for when we touch down."
'I don't know what I'll do without her.'
"Skids down. Maglock secure. Raptor 772 is on the deck," Hoshi announced. "Coming down into the hangar bay now."
The revolving entrance to CIC barely had time to open as Lee dashed out without a second look.
Woohoo! 50 chapters, baby!
What do you think will happen in the next installment?
What do you want to happen?
