Z-minus 8 months: Part One

The fleet had been lucky for the past several months – no encounters with Cylon Basestars. Code Two Alert had become the norm, and patrols had become routine. They all knew it wouldn't last, but had hoped it would last a little longer than it did.

They were now jumping on a daily basis, sometimes two or three times a day. They'd tried a couple different strategies, like splitting up when they jumped so that the fleet was in two different locations. Sixteen Vipers had gone along with the half of the fleet that Galactica wasn't with. They'd only recovered five. Predictably, those few fighters had been no match for the Basestar that had found them. That strategy hadn't been reused.

Short on pilots once again, they were working double and sometimes triple shifts in order to keep the required number of craft for a patrol in the air. Kara had been either in her cockpit or on deck during jumps for the past day. All the pilots had been forced to take stims, but it they weren't helping much, if at all.

"Galactica, Starbuck, heading for the deck," she said over the wireless as she headed in.

"Roger, Starbuck. You're clear."

It had been a long twenty-four hours, and she knew she'd only get a short break. Forcing her brain to focus on hitting her landing took just about all the energy she had left. When her Viper was brought down to the hangar deck, she removed her helmet, but just sat there for a long moment in the cockpit, trying to pull herself together. She was cold, shaking, and light-headed to a level she'd never been before, and previously she'd gone far longer than twenty-four hours without sleep.

"You okay, Lieutenant?" a voice asked, and she looked up to see that Cally was standing on the ladder down from her bird.

"I'm fine," she replied, handing the deckhand her helmet. Cally climbed down, giving Kara room to do the same. Tyrol was waiting on the ground as well, eager to get the post-flight started.

Kara managed to climb out of the cockpit, and get both feet on the ladder, but that was the last thing she remembered before blackness enveloped her, and the strange sensation of falling…


Lee looked up at the sound of a knock on his office door. "Sir?" Cally asked as she stuck her head inside. He frowned; it wasn't every day that a deckhand wound up in his office – unless something had gone wrong on deck.

"What happened?"

Cally looked down. "It's Starbuck, Sir…"

He arrived at the Life Station in record time to see that Kara was at least conscious again, and talking with the doctor. "When was the last time you've eaten?" he man asked her.

"What day is it?" Kara dryly replied. Neither Lee nor the physician found that humorous.

"What's going on?" Lee asked, making his presence known.

"That's what I'm trying to ascertain," the doctor told him. "The Lieutenant isn't being very forthcoming."

"Kara, cut the crap." She looked up at her husband, surprised.

"Yes, Sir," she replied, although her tone wasn't any less sarcastic.

"I'm going to do some blood work," the doctor told them both. "We should know more in an hour or so."

"I'm on shift in two," Kara replied.

"You're grounded until the doc clears you," Lee corrected her. She rolled her eyes.

"I'm getting really tired of hearing that." The doctor smiled as he left.

"What happened out there?" Lee asked once they were alone.

"I'm fine, Lee."

"That wasn't what I asked."

Kara sighed. "I don't know. I just felt a little bit light-headed and then as I was getting down, I frakking passed out."

"See, that's the part that's worrying me, because you don't pass out, Kara. Have you seriously not eaten since you started flying?"

"Somebody brought some protein bars down to the deck at some point."

"You took your stims, right?"

"Yeah, Lee, I took my frakking stims, okay? I'm fine, and when that doc comes back, he'll tell you the same thing. And since once he tells you the same thing, I'm going to need to get my ass in a cockpit, you mind if I get a nap in the meantime?"


The tests wound up taking longer than the doctor had expected. And as much as Lee wanted to stay with his wife, if she wasn't flying then someone else had to, and he wound up being that someone else. By the time he'd finished back-to-back shifts on patrol, he was getting antsy as hell to hear what the doctors had found out. Kara never had come out to join the CAP, so that had to mean she wasn't as fine as she'd thought.

When Lee arrived at the Life Station, he saw the doctor before he saw his wife. "You didn't clear Lieutenant Thrace?" he asked the man.

"No."

"Why not? What's wrong?"

"Captain…the Lieutenant is pregnant." The world turned upside down on him in that instant.

"I'm sorry, did you just say – "

"I ran the test three times. Same result."

"How is that possible? She's been getting the injections."

"We've run some diagnostics. Apparently the batches from the last two months have been contaminated."

"The whole thing?"

"Yes, Sir."

"So it might not just be Kara?" The doctor sighed.

"We've been pulling in all the pilots and deckhands that aren't on shift. So far, Lieutenant Thrace, Lieutenant Valerii, Specialist Hernandez, and PO3 Barker have all tested positive." Lee sighed. Anywhere other than Galactica, anytime other than the middle of a war, this would be good news. However, for them, it was worst case scenario.

"Do they all know?"

"Yes, they do. They've all been pulled from active duty." As if we weren't short-handed enough already, he thought to himself. Both Sharon and Kara had been doing a lot of extra shifts lately – apparently too many.

"They all okay?" Lee asked. "With the patrols and the stims and everything?"

"As far as we know. We're monitoring all of them." Lee nodded.

"Thank you, Doctor." He then headed over to see his wife. Kara was turned on her side, her back to the opening in the curtain that surrounded her bed. She didn't move when Lee approached her. "Kara?" he asked, horrified to hear his voice crack. Lee sat on her bed behind her, and only then did he see the tears that were running down her face. "Oh, Gods, Kara," he whispered as he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm sorry, Sir." She could barely force the words out.

"Frak that; Kara, you don't have a CO at the moment, you've just got a husband."

"Lee, the last thing you need is to lose another pilot."

"No, the last thing I need is you feeling like you're alone in this. It's not your fault. There's no…there's no fault, Kara. It's a baby. Our baby."

"This wasn't supposed to happen now."

"Does anything happen when it's 'supposed to'?"

"We're in the middle of a war, Lee. What are we going to do?" A small smile crossed his face.

"Apparently, we're going to be parents."


A couple days later, the shock hadn't worn off completely, but it was starting to. Kara sighed as she checked the flight schedule that was posted outside the hangar deck. "Oh, joy," she told Sharon, who was a few steps behind her. "We've got a shuttle flight in two days, but other than that…"

"I guess it could be worse," Sharon told her. "They didn't have to clear us for shuttles."

"Forgive me if I'm not on my knees thanking them," Kara shot back.

But Sharon was right; at least they still had some options. The Specialist and Petty Officer had been barred from the deck – everything they did had the possibility of being dangerous. And Specialist Allie Hernandez wasn't handling it well.

"Can I help you?" one of the nurses in the Life Station asked when she saw the nineteen-year-old come in the door. Hernandez nodded.

"I need to speak with Major Cottle."

"He's with a patient, but – "

"I can wait." The nurse nodded.

"Okay. Have a seat."

Fifteen minutes later, Cottle approached her. "Specialist? Are you all right?"

"No, Sir. I need to speak with you." He led her to his office, and closed the door behind them.

"What's going on?"

"Sir…I need permission to terminate." The Chief Medical Officer looked at her.

"You know policy, Specialist. If humanity's going to continue, we need every life we can get."

"I know, Sir." He studied her for a moment.

"You have reservations about raising the child?"

"I just…I was having a night with some of the other crewmen, playing cards, drinking some…drinking a lot," she admitted. "It was an accident, Sir. We shouldn't have slept together, but I didn't think…Nothing was supposed to happen. I was supposed to be protected."

"I can appreciate your situation. A lot of lives have been disrupted. If you don't think you'll be prepared or you'd want to care for your child, I can make arrangements with the orphan ship – "

"I don't want to give it up," she interrupted. "I don't want it at all. This wasn't supposed to happen! If I hadn't been getting the injections and this happened, then I wouldn't have any right to complain. And if I had known…there's no way I would have taken the chance."

"I understand that."

"Why am I being forced to live with the consequences of someone else's mistake? I mean, my job, my whole career, my life…" Silence reigned for a long moment.

"You know the policy, Specialist," was all he finally said.

"Permission to speak freely, Sir?"

"Granted," he told her, even though he knew he was going to regret it.

"Frak the policy." With that, she got up and left. Cottle sighed, and then picked up his phone, dialing the number for the hangar deck.

"Is Chief Lewis on-duty?" he asked the crewman who answered on the other end. "Fine," he said when he received an affirmative answer. "Tell him to stop by Major Cottle's office once he gets off. I think we both might have a problem on our hands."


TBC…