XII

2900 Hours

Louanne Katraine had her eyes closed, her hands on both her breasts, as she rode up and down on her husband. In her mind, Kat had the feeling there was a lot of this going on aboard Galactica, and, as Kara had said earlier, that very few people were sleeping before their mission in the morning. Right now, all she could think about was the feeling of her husband's member sliding in and out of her.

At one point in her life, Kat had felt like she would never amount to anything, lost in a world of drug dealing and petty robbery. Fortunately for her, she was onboard one of the ships that was in space when The Cylons had attacked, her life being spared, and the world she had been prisoner to annihilated in a matter of milliseconds. Unfortunately, before her brush with death near the Algae planet, one of the nightmares from her past had shown up on Galactica, and she had spent one last night with the guy, fraking his brains out, but it had meant nothing to her. He had joined the coup attempt, and now was forever locked up in jail.

But Kat had persevered. She had seen the notice that Galactica was looking to train pilots, and, taking a chance, gave it a shot. Despite the fact that she and her instructor, at the time Lieutenant Kara Thrace, were constantly at odds, Kara saw more than enough in Kat that, despite their animosity, Kat passed flight training. Kara had seen that look in Kat's eyes-a look that very, very few Nuggets ever had, and Starbuck knew Kat would be a one-in-a-million talent in a Viper.

She had been right.

Kat had, to her credit, taken out Scar, the famous Cylon Raider that had killed so many Human pilots. Kat had heroically made it through the Algae Planet horror, which came oh so close to taking her life, and which took her almost six months to recover from. She had been promoted to CAG on Galactica, while Brendan had been moved to CAG on Pegasus, after their banishment from New Caprica, and the two had helped devise the plan that had rescued their brothers and sisters from that rock. When Starbuck had come back, Kat had no problem stepping down to a lower place on the pecking order, and as a bonus, she and Kara had buried their difference, and were not as close as two sisters.

And through all this, Brendan Costanza, Hot Dog, had been with her through all the ups and downs, had been at her side as she recovered from her stim addiction, her occasional bouts with depression and fits of anger, which he had helped her slowly to control. They had finally fallen in love in the hiatus away from New Caprica, the two CAG's spending a lot of time with each other, and realizing that they really did belong together. They had married, and, even with the damage that had been done to her body during the Algae planet mission, they had become parents of a beautiful baby, Kamryn Grace Costanza.

All this passed through her mind as she moved up and down on her husband, hearing him softly moan her name, Kat smiling and moaning herself. They had wanted a long, drawn-out night of gentle love-making for the most part, followed by frantic minutes of fraking to finish off a given session, as Brendan would spill himself deep inside of his wife.

And yet, despite the ecstasy that they were feeling, the raw hunger of sexual satisfaction, they couldn't completely keep their minds off the approaching madness that surely would swallow them up the next day, when the faced off with The Colony.

But Louanne Katraine was a survivor, and more than most people on the ship, she knew she had survived worse-much worse, than what they'd face tomorrow. Yet even so, she poured every ounce of her heart and soul into making love with her husband for hours on end-just in case her confidence was misplaced.\

At 0245, Kara and Laura arrived in the Med Bay, where Laura would help prepare the triage unit with the nurses there. Unfortunately for Cottle, his best nurse, Ishay, would be in CIC during the battle, as she was one of the Final Five Cylons that were tasked with helping to defeat The Colony. Yet the other nurses and the other doctors were all highly skilled and competent, and Cottle was confident that they could do the job. Laura had been practicing with Ishay and the others on what to do since the first Heavy Raider was sent out to search for their quarry.

"Good morning, ladies", Cottle said in his usual, gruff voice. He had a look of stone on his face today, knowing full well he and his colleagues would most likely be very busy into the next day-if Galactica survived the battle. "I won't ask if you got a good night's sleep", he said with an arched eye, "because none of us did, and I'm sure you two were...occupied with other matters."

Both women blushed, which briefly brought a twinkle to Cottle's eyes.

"Just make sure you keep Laura out of trouble, Doc", Kara said with a wry, although almost forced grin. The mission jitters were kicking in, and the other two could see it.

"Can anyone ever keep the President out of trouble?" Cottle shook his head with some mirth of his own. "But I'll do what I can, Starbuck." Cottle moved away to give the President and First Lady a moment together.

""Well", Laura said, a forced smile now on her face, the tension thick on it. "This is where we part ways for now, my love."

Kara grabbed her wife into a fierce embrace, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Gods, I don't want to leave you, honey. I'm so afraid about what's about to happen."

Laura squeezed Kara back, then broke the embrace to look her wife fully in the face. "I am, too, but we talked about trusting one another-all of us. We're fighting for each other and our future. And I know you'll do your job well."

Laura kissed Kara desperately, trying to believe her own words, the two women not caring who saw them in their passion at the moment. Both women burned this kiss into their memory, in case it would be their last one, neither wanting to part, but knowing they must.

"I love you so fraking much, Laura Roslin", Kara said, there lips barely apart now. "I'll have you in my heart during this."

"I love you, too, baby", Laura said, embracing Kara again. "Keep me in your heart-but keep your mind on your job, you got that?"

Kara laughed through her tears, backing up a half step, and saluting. "Yes, Madam President!" The both chuckled, then melted into one final, memorable kiss.

The kiss ended, the embrace faded away, the two women holding hands, until they could only touch the tips of each others' fingers. Kara nodded to her wife.

"Kara?"

Starbuck had just turned away, but turned back around to face Laura. "Yeah, babe?"

"May the gods go with you, my love."

Kara simply nodded, blew Laura a kiss, then headed without a backward glance to the hangar.

CIC

The five Cylons, Ellen, Saul, Galen, Layne, and Tory, had been up most of the night, finishing the data stream that had been put on the upper level of CIC. They had been given help the day before from the Cylons on the Baseship in putting it together, and showing the Final Five exactly how it worked. Natalie Faust had assured them that, once they were immersed in the data stream, their knowledge as Cylons, and what they had accomplished two millennia ago would come back to them, and that they could overcome the hybrid on The Colony.

They had spent several hours, individually, getting accustomed to the date stream.

Admiral Adama had raised an objection that he needed his XO near him during this battle. That had set off an two-hour long discussion the day before about what to do. Ellen, who had been the lead scientists two thousand years earlier, agreed to allow Saul to remain at his station, and that Natalie would remain on Galactica and help run the data stream. Ellen thought that might even be an advantage, since Natalie was intimately familiar with the hybrid.

Bill Adama had met outside of CIC with Kara, Lee, Helo, Athena, Hot Dog, and Kat, finalizing each of their assignments. Kara would take multiple Raptors to the top of The Colony, and lead an infiltration from above; Lee would lead a massive assault directly into the structure, after Galactica rammed head-long into the Cylon base. Humans and humanoid Cylons would make up a part of the assault force, but the "Red Stripes", as the Centurions were called, for the red paint on both sides of their armor, would go in by the dozens.

Kat and Hot Dog were the leaders of the Viper shield that would battle the expected Raiders pouring out of The Colony. Both of them were flying brand-new Vipers that had been constructed on the Baseship. Helo and Athena would be on a Raptor, trying to coordinate the tricky assignment they had been given.

"Just remember", the Admiral said evenly, "there will be hell breaking loose everywhere. Keep a clear eye, and let your training kick in. We're not looking for fancy heroics. We just need to concentrate on our jobs."

After some minor items, the Admiral let them go their separate ways, as he headed back to CIC.

When he arrived, he was flabbergasted at the number of cables that crisscrossed the room that hooked up the data stream to Galactica's systems. The equipment had been taken from a reserve Hybrid area that was on every Baseship, with water and residue still on the different cables.

Bill Adama stepped to his location, moving a rather large cable, then looking at his hands with disgust, and wiping them on his pants, then looking over at Saul.

"Still not too late to flush them all out of the airlock", Tigh quipped.

"Take too much time", Adama deadpanned, Tigh giving that low, grumbling laugh of his.

By 0400, Adama had CIC ready. All the actors were in place. He turned to the FTL station. "Set Condition One throughout the ship, prepare for first jump."

Tigh was on the PA, broadcasting to everyone onboard. "Condition One is now in effect throughout the ship. Stand by for first jump."

They had completed the first two jumps to maneuver into position to attack. Now, they were preparing for the jump that would take them into the belly of the beast. Galactica had come through the first two jumps in decent shape, no major damage reported. Galen nodded in satisfaction when hearing those reports. There's no doubt his suggestion to use the Cylon resin had bought the Old Lady some time. For the last jump, Galen would be at the helm for a short time, as he would drive Galactica head-long into The Colony. Then he would scramble back up top and join the other Cylons to out-flank the hybrid.

As they prepared for the last jump, Adama had gone around the horn to the different areas of the ship, all reported go for battle.

"All stations report, sir", the grizzled XO said, himself feeling the weight of the moment.

Adama turned to Aaron Kelly, at communications. "Connect me with the entire ship." When Kelly indicated it had been done, he nodded at the Admiral.

"This is the Admiral. Just so there'll be no misunderstandings later. Galactica's seen a lot of history; gone through a lot of battles. This will be her last. She will not fail us, if we do not fail her. If we succeed in our mission, Galactica will bring us home. If we don't, it doesn't matter anyway. Action. Stations!"

The die had been cast.