Chapter 66 – Mission from Earth

Mission Day One

Stinger stretched his legs out on the control panel ahead of him and yawned widely. He took a sip of coffee from his flask as he stared out the front of the raptor at the beautiful green and blue planet ahead of them. It was a view that never got boring, even as he sat for hours on his patrol duty.

"Where would you want to settle on Earth?" He asked without tearing his eyes away.

"Somewhere hot," replied Baxter from the rear, "and full of lots of naked women."

Stinger grinned and took another sip of coffee, "is that all you care about Bax?"

"Damn straight! Did you see some of the footage the Beast managed to pick up, amazing!"

Stinger was all too aware that the Pegasus had managed to pick up footage from Earth, including what appeared to be Earth's version of pornography. "You've been living on a Battlestar too long."

Baxter laughed and walked up to the front of the raptor, leaning himself up against the chairs, "Come on Stinger, even you must be bored with the same faces."

"It's not something that bothers me these days."

"Bullshit. Come on, tell me that you at least watched that footage?"

"Everyone did, Narcho had it on loop for a week in the mess."

"You can't tell me it didn't turn you on," replied Baxter slapping his hand against the chair.

Stinger yawned, "reminded me of the entertainment you used to get in the seedy parts of Libron."

"Frak, we really need to find you a woman sir."

"It never ceases to amaze me that every time we're out here all you do is talk about the women instead of being taken in by that beautiful planet, the reason why we hauled our asses across space for nearly a year."

"Is that why you came sir? I came along to blow stuff up and find women," replied Baxter.

Stinger shook his head and drank some more coffee, the banter starting to grate at him. All he wanted to do was sit and stare at the planet. He imagined living there, wishing that his family was there with him. He was vaguely aware of Baxter giving up and walking back to the rear of the raptor but didn't care. He settled back down into his chair and focused back on the planet. He had just managed to block out the hum of the ship around him when Baxter's voice broke through again.

"Sir!"

Stinger muttered, "for frak sake, what is it now, more Earth porn?"

"I'm getting something on dradis."

That caught Stinger's attention, he leapt from his chair into the rear, spilling his coffee. "You sure?"

Baxter pointed at the dradis, "it's Colonial Sir."

"Frak me. Helmets on, let's go and say hello." Stinger made his way back up to the front of the ship and pulled his helmet on firmly. He manoeuvred the ship around and set off on a intercept course, slowing as the other raptor neared. He pulled alongside and signalled to Baxter to open a comm channel. "This is raptor 295, please identify yourself."

Stinger couldn't help but smile when he heard Starbuck's voice reply, "I never thought I would be happy to hear your voice Stinger." But then he pulled himself together, remembering that they hadn't heard from their comrades for weeks and anything could have happened back down on Earth.

"Starbuck? Is that really you?" he asked, and then shifted in his seat. "You look as if you're ship is drifting, is your axial position altered?" He looked back at Baxter as Starbuck responded casually and then informed them that she was carrying some interesting passengers, and asked "what do you think?"

Baxter shrugged, "sounds legit."

Stinger sighed and then peered out of his side window, seeing Starbuck sitting next to someone he didn't recognise, "What the frak are you wearing Sir?"

"Long story Stinger. Looking forward to sharing it back on the Beast though and not out here." Stinger could hear her voice faulter. "Stinger, my kids…"

"Causing havoc sir, but they're fine," the line went dead and Stinger imagined that Starbuck was relieved. He also knew that there was no way she would allow any danger to get near the Pegasus when her kids were on board. He motioned to Baxter and said into the comm "I'm sending over the jump co-ordinates to you now, what do you want me to tell Fisk?"

"That we're friendlies and not to blow us out of the sky."

"Who else is with you?"

"Oh, just me, Helo and some people from Earth."

Stinger frowned, "and the others?"

"Back on Earth. Listen, tell Fisk that we've all come unarmed, but with supplies, including toothpaste."

Stinger raised an eyebrow, "Okay Starbuck, spooling up our FTL now." He manoeuvred the ship around then the ship jumped away, materialising close to the Pegasus. "Open up a comm to the CIC, I need to talk to Fisk." There was a pause as Shaw communicated that Fisk was on his way so Stinger took the opportunity to twist in his seat and asked Baxter, "what do you think?" without expecting a sensible reply.

"I had a fight with Narcho last week when he used my toothpaste by accident. We need the supplies, so I say let them on board."

Stinger nodded. Having been the officer to split up the fight that had quickly degenerated into a six person pile up, he was all too aware that they were in desperate need of extra supplies, The voice of Fisk brought his attention back to the present. The Commander's questions were standard, which he answered without much emotion or conviction, until Fisk's asked "did Starbuck sound normal?"

"She confirmed that she wasn't under duress."

"That could mean nothing if she's been brainwashed."

Stinger thought for a moment, there had been some hesitation in her voice but nothing that had made him think that something was wrong. "She was her normal brash self, but a bit guarded." That seemed to appease the Commander who ordered him to return to the ship. Stinger shrugged, "guess we're finally going to meet some people from Earth." He shifted the raptor round and headed for home.

"I really hope there are some ladies."

"Let's not create an inter-species incident Bax, they're strictly off limits. Besides I could only see a guy so you're probably out of luck."

"Frak, but at least they've brought supplies."

"I can't wait to see the fallout," replied Stinger as they entered the landing pod, recalling the utter chaos which had spread through the ship when they had found extra supplies on their trip back to the Colonies. It had taken him a week to recover. Whatever these people from Earth were like, it was definitely going to be an interesting couple of days.

ooooo

Kara didn't know quite what to expect upon her return, but she had placed her bets on Fisk not being too pleased to see her. She had not been disappointed, the Commander had been curt and long winded over the comm before they landed. She had only been partially listening to his drone, after ordering her to ensure that their guests should be cut off from their exchange. It would have been easier to just switch off the translator, but Kara didn't get the chance to inform the Commander.

The Commander had looked equally pensive as they had disembarked the raptor, surrounded by swathes of crew members who had flocked to the deck to see the spectacle and all of the ship's marines who were aiming their guns at them. It had taken some persuasion to get Fisk to make them stand down. Fisk's first meeting with Ford had then verged on cringeworthy as he had looked dumbstruck at the man's ability to salute. Kara had bitten back a smirk as she had informed Fisk that they had developed the ability to communicate with them and could understand everything she said.

Mercifully, Kara had managed to obtain a reprieve from her debriefing until the following morning. She had wanted to spend the rest the day embracing her children but Lena and Joseph had other plans. It had taken hours to try and calm them down and the twins had most definitely found their lungs whilst she had been away. They had finally started to show signs of tiring down when a marine had arrived with direct orders from Fisk for Kara to report to doc Philips for a full medical.

Now as Kara sat in lifestation, part of her longed for the peaceful sanctity of her cell on Earth, snuggled beneath the bedsheets with Lee gently warming her. Whilst she couldn't bear to spend another moment away from their kids, their shrills cries were nearly bringing her to the brink of madness. They had finally gone down for their nap on a bed in lifestation when she was in the middle of a scan.

"Come on doc, how long is this going to take?" she sighed. "I've been here for frakking hours."

Philips raised an eyebrow, "this would go quicker if you weren't complaining all of the time or chasing after your kids."

Kara rolled her eyes, "I feel fine, put that in your records."

She was acutely aware of Helo, who was sat opposite her, smirking at her as Hera sat quietly on the floor compliantly drawing a picture. At least he had been put through the same medical humiliation as she had. Philips was finishing his fourth check of her pulse rate when Ishay walked over with a chart and handed it to Philips with a small smile. The doctor spent a few minutes leafing through the paperwork, his face unemotive.

Kara fidgeted with impatience, "what is it doc, am I about to drop down dead?"

"That's not funny," replied Philips dryly, "especially coming from you."

"Look doc, I really appreciate all of the tests and having to pee in a cup twice, but I have things to do."

"Shhh," replied the doctor, holding up his hand as he read another page with a frown.

"What?"

Philips placed the chart to the side, "you're fine."

"Well that's good right? I can go?"

"No one on this ship is fine Major, except for you two."

"What the frak does that mean?"

Philips sighed, "everyone on this ship would fail a Colonial fleet medical. You're all under nourished, haven't seen daylight in a year, are probably suffering from innumerable mental health conditions and are borderline alcoholics. I haven't seen a medical come back this fine since the cylons attacked."

"Does that mean I can go now?" asked Kara scrunching up her nose.

"No, open your mouth." Kara sighed and then opened her mouth, glaring at Helo who was finding the situation far too amusing. Philips took a small mirror and a light and looked inside her mouth, "frak me."

Kara pulled back, "what?"

"They even filled the hole in your tooth."

Kara shrugged, remembering that Philips had previously told her of the problem with her tooth. "I wondered why it had stopped hurting."

"Whatever the intentions of your captors on Earth were, hurting you wasn't one of them, your overall fitness has dramatically improved."

"So I'm cleared for flight duty?"

"In my opinion you are still frakking crazy, but that doesn't seem to matter as long as you can still fly."

"Thanks doc," replied Kara bluntly.

Philips walked away saying "you're both free to go" over his shoulder.

Kara pushed herself off of the bed and sighed. She was finally free, but she was still trapped waiting for her kids to wake up. Helo, on the other hand picked up Hera who was smiling contently.

"Did I ever mention how much I hate you Helo?" said Kara.

Helo laughed, "I only have one kid to deal with Starbuck. You should use the time to start writing your report."

Kara shrugged, "I was planning to wing it with Fisk tomorrow, besides even if I get started there's no way that they will let me finish it."

"Good luck with that," replied Helo and then began to walk away.

"There is something that I wanted to ask you," said Kara, stopping Helo in his tracks.

"Shoot."

"I need to know what happened on that hub." Helo looked slightly taken aback. "Look, I had a frakking long time in isolation to think about it. I saw that cylon talking to you and Lee and I don't think it was just the fact that she was naked that captured your full attention. She was telling you something, something important."

Helo frowned, "Starbuck I…"

"I just want to know what she said."

"I'm not the person who can tell you that, you need to talk to your husband."

"I haven't really had the opportunity to do that, what with being constantly watched and studied and all."

Helo obviously looked uncomfortable with the conversation, "Look, Starbuck, I know that we go way back and that we know frak loads of secrets about each other, but this is something else. What that cylon told us, Apollo and I agreed as we were running out of there that we wouldn't tell anyone, not until we returned to New Caprica."

"Leoben said that she was looking for the five, is that what she told you?"

Helo paused gently pulling Hera's hand away as she tugged at his dog tags, "look, I also had too much time to think in that cell, trust me when I say that answering your question right now will not help anything. You need to talk to Apollo."

Kara nodded in acceptance but she couldn't help how frustrated she was feeling. She'd had a lot of thinking time in that white room, her mind frequently returning to her time in the hub.

"Moma?" came Joseph's sleepy voice.

Kara turned away from Helo and smiled at her mercifully placid son. He looked so much like Lee as he looked up at her and reached out his arms to be picked up. It never ceased to amaze her how just one simple movement was enough to wash away all of the frustrations of the previous few hours. She picked up Joseph and cuddled him into her arms. She could hear Helo quietly retreating with his daughter, but bit back the urge to confront him again knowing that when Helo gave his word that he would never break it. That was the reason why the origins of her callsign remained a well-guarded secret.

Kara was determined to know what the cylon had told them, but she would have to wait until Lee finally got home.

ooooo

Day Two

Kara sighed as she waited impatiently outside Fisk's quarters at 0830 hours, waiting to be granted admittance. She had arrived early, hoping to get the briefing over and done with, but the frakker had already kept her waiting for 30 minutes.

Finally a marine emerged from inside and motioned for her to enter before taking up his normal guard position outside. It was fortunate that he had arrived now, because Kara had been ready to bash down the hatch. She was tired and the last thing she wanted to do was get an earful from Fisk about all of the things she must have done wrong.

"Frak me," she sighed to herself as she paused briefly before the hatch, psyching herself up into 'officer mode'. She entered the room and immediately stood to attention in front of the Commander and saluted sharply.

"At ease Major," replied Fisk coolly and indicated for her to take a seat on the sofa opposite him. He then poured her a coffee, placing it down gently. "Apologies for keeping you waiting, I wanted to finish reading Lieutenant Agathon's report which he provided to me early this morning."

Kara suppressed the urge to curse, making a mental note to kick his ass later. "Helo's already had his debriefing?"

Fisk nodded, "there wasn't much to discuss, the details are in this report. I believe you can fill in the rest." Kara took a sip of her coffee and grimaced, she had forgotten how bad it tasted having gotten used to the luxuries of Earth. "I see Philips has given you a clean bill of health."

"Apparently so, Sir," replied Kara. "I think they tried to look after us on Earth, despite locking us up."

Fisk nodded, "before we discuss Earth, I've read Helo's report about what happened when he entered the hub. It appears he and Major Adama managed to get cut off, which probably saved their life and explains why they didn't get killed with the rest. I don't need to cover that with you, what I am interested in is what happened when you found them."

"Sir?" asked Kara, trying to probe whether Helo had actually told him about the cylon, despite what he had told her in lifestation.

"You found them further in the ship, hiding in an area which he described as being full of multiple copies of the cylon model we know as D'Anna Biers. They were boxed just like that Leoben cylon said they had been."

"Yes sir."

"However you and your team arrived before they had a chance to wake them up. Is that correct?"

Kara bit the inside of her mouth, knowing that Helo had lied in his report, "I couldn't see what was in the room so cannot confirm that Sir. We were on a clock. I saw they were there and blew a hole in the wall to get them out. I didn't have a chance to see if there were any cylons inside."

Fisk nodded and turned the page of Helo's report. "And by this time you had told most of your team to already turn back, having already established that there were no other survivors?"

"Yes sir."

Fisk nodded in apparent approval, "you'll be pleased to know that they all made it back to the Pegasus, along with the rest of your landing party."

Kara felt a slight pang of guilt that she hadn't really thought about the rest of her team, "how many did we lose from the first landing party?"

"Apart from the raptor that got away with its two crew members, only Adama and Agathon survived."

Kara muttered "frak" as she leant back on the sofa. "Do we even have enough marines to defend the ship?"

"Pilots have been filling in the cracks."

"Frak me."

"Do you think that if you were in charge things would have turned out differently?"

Kara took another sip of coffee, pulling back her urge to be too truthful, "I don't know Sir."

"Somehow I find that hard to believe," replied Fisk. "What would you have done?"

"I would've gone in with guns blazing sir," she shrugged in response, "just to be sure."

Fisk nodded, "Stinger is also of the opinion that the failure of the mission was his fault." Kara didn't respond, guessing that speaking her mind now would not go down too well. What she really wanted to shout was that she knew it was a bad plan and knew that it was going to go badly wrong. "I see you don't contradict that."

"It was a difficult mission sir."

Fisk chuckled slightly, "You've been learning the Adama art of diplomacy I see, about time."

Kara smiled briefly and then suddenly remembered Stinger referring to her as sir. "You've demoted him," she stated slightly bitterly.

"He demoted himself, lost his nerve after the mission. He's been doing a half-assed job with Showboat while we wait for a CAG who doesn't cave under the pressure."

Kara resisted the urge to roll her eyes, knowing where this conversation was going, "I thought I was too crazy for the job."

"You are, but you're also the best officer I have at the moment. So as of now you're retaining your role as CAG."

"Thank you sir," replied Kara without much conviction, although she had to admit that her debriefing was going much better than she had anticipated.

Fisk turned over another page in the report, "I won't go over Agathon's account of your return to the raptor, that all looks text book." Kara silently thanked Helo for not reporting Lee's incident and how she had gone back for him, she really didn't need another lecture about letting her emotions take over. "It's what happened on the raptor where Agathon's report gets a little vague."

"Right," sighed Kara sensing that the briefing was going to go south very quickly.

"What happened on that raptor? I want to hear your version."

Kara drank down the rest of her coffee, placed the cup down and then began, "We were under fire, the ship suffered damage and Skulls was injured so I took over the comm. The jump co-ordinates had gone so I made the decision to jump blind."

"Pretty gutsy."

Kara shrugged, "it was either that or be destroyed, just like the Pegasus did when the cylons invaded."

"Yes," replied Fisk brusquely and then moved on, "so you jumped blind and just happened to jump further than any raptor has done before, arriving right at Earth's door?"

Kara felt her cheeks heat up, knowing that it sounded incredible, "I can't explain it sir, somehow I just knew what co-ordinates to input, it felt right."

Fisk leant back in his chair, obviously unimpressed and a little confused, "I suppose that's marginally less crazy than following pains in your head."

"And it was right, I found Earth didn't I?"

"Don't push it Major," warned Fisk. "I can't even begin to wrap my head around all of this mystical, destiny stuff. So let's stick to the facts. Agathon reports that the jump knocked you all out and the ship was dead."

"Yes sir. We didn't realise we were being pulled by the Earth's gravity until it was too late. We managed to get partial yaw back, but that's it."

"And in order to control the angle of descent you blew an oxygen tank?"

"Yes sir."

Fisk shook his head, but not in anger, "after you broke through the atmos you took over control of the raptor from Racetrack?"

"Not straight away, but yes, I took over."

"Couldn't she hack it?"

"Racetrack's a good pilot, but no-one has attempted such a crazy ass landing before," Kara shrugged, "considering the whole frakked up situation was my fault, I thought the least I could do was try and land her bird."

"Fair enough," replied Fisk taking another drink of coffee. "Agathon's notes get a little vague from here, he notes seeing settlements and then hitting the ground. It might be easier to just read out his description, I don't know how she frakking did it, but somehow Starbuck landed the bird."

Kara smiled, "I wouldn't really call it a landing, but we hit the floor reasonably intact sir."

Fisk laughed briefly, "again I am at a loss as to how I am going to right this up. I might just copy Agathon's words along with writing up a Commendation for you." Kara couldn't help the surprise that came across her face. "What were you expecting, a reprimand?"

"I thought you might chew my ass out for a bit longer," replied Kara honestly. "Thank you sir."

"Don't be too grateful, I'm sure there will be something in your debriefing that I can chew your ass out for. Tell me about what happened after you landed, Agathon tells me you were locked into individual rooms."

Kara set out the basics of what she remembered, skirting over her little escape bid for the time being, and finishing with setting out the information which she had told her captors.

Fisk looked unimpressed and Kara sensed that the time had come to get her ass kicked, "so you told complete strangers everything?"

"No sir, I gave them the bare details. We had to tell them something, they had already worked out what Athena is, she was being held in a cell."

"They took you to see her or told you that?"

"Not quite. Lee and I were taken to the same cells for a time, but it gave us a chance to agree that we needed to tell them something nearing the truth if we'd ever want to get out."

"Do I want to know why you were taken down to the cells, or will it just piss me off?" asked Fisk looking at the bruise to her eye.

"It's probably best not to know sir."

"Right. So you to told them about the destruction of the Colonies and that the cylons were looking for Earth?"

Kara shrugged, "yes, they obviously believed me because they locked me straight back in my room for days."

"Then what?"

"We were brought in front of a larger panel and made to repeat it all again, it was really frakking annoying. All they were really interested in were our and the cylon's weapons capabilities." Kara set out what she could remember from the panel and the events that had brought her back home. She had kept it brief, skirting over anything that Fisk might raise an eyebrow to.

"Anything else to add?" asked Fisk when Kara had finished.

"Nope, I'll set it all out in my written report tomorrow."

Fisk nodded, "so what should we do with our new guests for the next 28 days?"

"Show them around? Let them see that we're not a threat to them?"

"As long as none of them come near me or the CIC I'm fine with that, and they're not to walk about without an escort. What sort of people are they?"

Kara shrugged, "they seem okay, two of them are military and not that different from us."

"I want four crew members, including you to take responsibility for supervising them."

Kara's initial thought was to request to supervise the pilot, but part of her was beginning to tolerate Ford's company, not that she would let him know that. "I can supervise the leader and sort out the rest."

"Very good Major."

"Is that all Sir?"

"You're dismissed." Kara wasted no time, she stood up quickly, saluted sharply and then turned to exit. "I assume you no longer feel any pains in your head."

Kara turned back, "None at all."

"That must be a good feeling." Kara couldn't help the slight look of fear that washed over her face. "What is it?" Kara hesitated, hating that being locked up in a cell had given her far too much time to think. Fisk's voice softened, "sit back down Major, what's on your mind?"

Kara sat back down, "You know that feeling when there's something you need to do but you cannot remember what it is?" Fisk nodded. "I've had that feeling my whole life and now it's gone."

"Doesn't that make you feel free?"

Kara shrugged, "it makes me feel expendable, sir. I've done my job now and there's no need for the Gods to keep me around."

Fisk frowned, "so what, you think that you will just go poof and disappear?" Kara shifted nervously in her seat, slightly embarrassed. "That sounds like a great movie with a crap ending because the writers couldn't decide how to frakking end it. The real reason why you've survived out there until now is because you're the best damned pilot the Colonial fleet has ever seen, and as far as I can see that hasn't changed."

Kara pulled a half smile, slightly surprised at Fisk's sudden warmth and pep talk. "I see your point."

"Now maybe the cylons will catch you out, just like any other pilot, but that won't be because of some frakked up destiny." Kara could feel her face flush, ashamed to have let down her guard with Fisk of all people, but she also felt the weight on her shoulders lessen. "Your dismissed."

"Thank you sir," replied Kara and made short work of exiting the quarters, taking a deep breath when she had stepped outside. She hoped the Commander was right and that he paranoia was all made up in her frakked up head. She was a different person now, not the same hot headed viper ace who didn't give a frak if she lived or died as long as she was remembered. Now, all she wanted was a future with Lee and her family and she was absolutely terrified that destiny was going to tear that apart.