Z-plus 26 months: Part Two
Usually, Kara and Lee tried to work their shifts so that one of them was always with Zak. When that wasn't possible, they had a long list of friends around the ship that were always willing to baby-sit. The next day, Lee was on early shift, and Kara was on mid. While she was working, Lee was supposed to be taking a shuttle over to the Pan Galactic Liner 2086 with Zak. There were still very few children on the Galactica, and therefore, the Life Station didn't keep a supply of all the immunizations that were required. Sharon had taken Hope to the Pan Gal ship the previous afternoon for her vaccinations. The little girl wasn't a fan of needles and had a history of getting air-sick, but the experience hadn't been too traumatic. Kara knew that Zak would be too enthralled with his shuttle flight to pay much attention to the fact that he had to get a shot. He'd only been off Galactica once, and had been too small to remember it.
"Are you sure you want to take him yourself?" Kara asked Lee as she walked with them down to the shuttle bay. "We can all go tomorrow; I'm off." Something was bothering her; she just couldn't put a finger on what it was. Lee, however, was smiling, amused by her concern.
"Kara, relax. We'll be fine. Right, short stuff?"
"Right!" Zak answered, although his mother knew he had no idea what he was replying to.
"Now," Lee told Kara, "Get going, Lieutenant, before I have to write you up for being late to your shift."
"Yeah, sure, Sir." But she headed back towards the hangar bay.
Galactica had its own shuttles, but there were also a couple that were based on other ships that made circuitous routes of the fleet during the day. They could accommodate about twenty passengers, and the midday flight that day was full. Zak's eyes were glued to the window once they'd boarded. His little mouth formed a perfect 'O' once they arrived on the flight deck and then moved out into open space.
"You like that?" Lee asked him.
"Viper!" Zak exclaimed, pointing out the forward windows, and sure enough, he'd sighted down the CAP that was also leaving Galactica.
Kara and Hyper were the Viper pilots that afternoon, while Jammer and Lonestar had the Raptor. "Is that the 1330 shuttle?" she asked Jammer over the wireless. He laughed.
"Well, either that, or the 1530 shuttle is really early."
"You gonna wave, Lieutenant?" Hyper asked as she watched the shuttle make its way towards the Pan Galactic Liner.
"Watch it, you smartasses," Kara shot back. "I'm married to the guy that picks your duty shifts."
Hyper chuckled. "Yes, Sir. Shutting up, Sir."
CAPs were definitely not the most interesting way to spend a few hours. The view of the rather odd fleet of ships was nice, but they'd had the same view almost every day for the past four years – it had gotten old. "Anybody up to steeple-chasing with the refinery ships?" Lonestar suggested.
"Would you write us up for it, Starbuck?" Hyper asked Kara. She grinned.
"Let's keep things interesting – I'll only write up whichever one of you it is that loses."
"Isn't there a regulation against gambling while on-duty, Sir?" Lonestar asked.
"Like steeple-chasing isn't also against regulation?" she shot back.
"Contact," Jammer's voice broke in to their little conversation, and they all got down to business. "Galactica confirms – Cylon Basestar. They're launching Raiders."
"Frak," Kara muttered. "Galactica, Starbuck. We could use some back-up out here."
"Roger, that. Alert fighters are being launched." As they headed away from the fleet to engage the enemy fighters, Kara noticed a few flashes out of the corner of her eye as the civilian ships started jumping. Jammer and Lonestar were already on their way back to Galactica – a firefight was no place for a minimally armed Raptor. Kara winced as a few shots got closer-than-comfort to her right wing.
"Okay," she muttered to the attacking Cylon, which of course couldn't hear her, as she lined up and sprayed some fire at it. "Somebody obviously hasn't informed you of the rules – I get to hit you, not the other way around."
She and Hyper were soon joined by four other Vipers and were given reassurances that a few more pilots were getting set in the tubes. They were responsible for holding the Raiders off for another five minutes until the rest of the civilian ships could get away. Kara just hoped they could all make it through five more minutes.
"I just lost an engine!" she heard Hyper call out.
"Punch it for home; everyone's almost clear," Kara told him. They laid down some cover-fire to let him get away. "Nobody get stupid on me out here," she warned as she saw one of the pilots getting awful close to being tailed by a Cylon. "There better be ten fighters landing on deck when we're done."
"Viper squadron, all civilian ships are away," the launch officer's voice came over the wireless a few moments later. "Return to base; we'll jump upon your arrival."
"You heard the man," Kara told the other pilots. "Let's go." Galactica's port-side guns were blazing, giving them all some cover as they came in. Kara made sure that Hyper had made it back to the deck, and as soon as she heard eight other Vipers come down behind her, she got on the wireless.
"Galactica, Starbuck, all Vipers have been recovered." Ten seconds later, reality began to warp as the ship jumped. Once they came through, the fighters were moved down to the hangar deck.
"How bad did you get my bird beat up this time?" Tyrol asked Kara as he came over to her Viper. She grinned as she removed her helmet and climbed down.
"But Chief, if I didn't get a few dings and holes in your birds, what would you have to do all day?"
He snorted. "Yeah, Lieutenant. I'm always looking for extra work to do."
"I think she's still flyable," she continued their banter.
"Well that's a refreshing change from you."
"Isn't it, though? Is there another Viper available if she's not?" Kara asked him. "I've gotta debrief the gang real quick, and then we'll need to get another CAP back in the air."
"You can always take your husband's bird." Kara shrugged as she walked away.
"Whichever one works," she called back.
"Attention on deck," Hyper told the pilots that were assembled in their seats as Kara entered the ready room. They all got to their feet. Kara didn't wave them back to their seats – they had some business to deal with first.
"Raise your hand if you think you screwed up somehow out there," she told them. They all looked at each other, but no one's arms moved. Kara grinned. "Okay, raise your hand if you think that I think you screwed up somehow out there." Everyone's hands went up. "Now that's more like it! At ease." The other nine pilots sat down.
"They're called combat landings, guys, key word being 'landings'," she said as she stood at the front. "It would be good if you actually managed to stay on the deck after a bounce or two, not four or five or six. If our lives weren't depending upon us jumping as soon as possible, half of you would have gotten a wave-off. If you think you've gotten rusty on this particular skill, feel free to join the nuggets for my next training session and we'll work on it. Also, what's rule number one?"
"Don't frak up?" Killjoy guessed.
"Okay, fine, what's rule number two?" This time there was silence. "Don't freeze. And yes, I'm aware of the complexity involved in not freaking out when you've got a Raider on your tail. But it's a skill that comes with experience, and being able to keep your cool will probably end up saving your hide…On that note, who wants to do a patrol/damage investigation? Any volunteers?"
"My bird's apparently bust," Hyper told her.
"Yeah, you stay; have fun dealing with the Chief."
"I'll go," Dodger told her. Jammer and Lonestar were going back up with the Raptor.
"Excellent. In that case, you're all dismissed."
A half hour later, they had a patrol back in the air, and circling Galactica and inspecting the Battlestar's wounds. Luckily, since they hadn't been hit with any nukes, the exterior damage was pretty minimal. Once they'd finished reporting in, they started making their rounds of the rest of the fleet.
"Somebody needs to teach these guys how to fly in formation," Dodger joked. "Every time I'm out here, the ships are in a different order. Seems like Dradis is the only way you could actually keep track of them all."
"Well, then, Lonestar, is everyone present and accounted for?" Kara asked the ECO. She didn't like how long it took him to answer.
"No, Sir," he finally replied. "I can't find one of the commercial passenger ships."
"Check again."
"I already did. Twice." Kara swallowed hard.
"Which ship, Lonestar?"
"Pan Gal Liner 2086, Sir. It's not with the fleet."
"Galactica, Starbuck," she said over the wireless, and everyone could hear how strained her voice was. "We're missing a ship on Dradis out here." There was no reply. "Galactica, do you read?"
"We read you, Kara," Adama's voice came over the system, and that only served to bring her closer to tears.
"We confirmed that all civilian ships made the jump," she told him.
"No one was left behind," the commander agreed. "Most likely their FTL navigation malfunctioned. We're putting together Raptor search patrols."
"Request permission to join the patrols, Sir?"
"Permission granted. Maintain your post until we have a replacement sent to join the CAP."
Kara didn't even remember getting her Viper back to the ship. Even though there was no such thing as an auto-landing on Galactica, her mind was definitely on autopilot as she brought her bird down to the deck. The next thing she knew, the canopy was being pulled off, and one of the deckhands was standing beside her cockpit, reaching for her helmet. She took the thing off, but didn't let go of it – she'd be putting it back on soon enough.
Once she'd climbed down from her cockpit, she saw Adama standing off to the side, silently waiting for her. She walked over to her father-in-law, eyes flashing with a temper she was barely holding in check. "Why?" she asked. "Why didn't someone tell me? You had to have known the moment we cleared the jump that they were gone."
"I sent a crewman down," he said, his voice quiet. He'd expected her anger and knew it well. "He didn't find you before you went back out on CAP."
"I'm the frakking squadron leader – how hard am I to find?"
"You know I wouldn't try to keep it from you." Her mouth opened, another quick reply about to fly out, but the tears beat the words to it, and she put a hand over her face, turning away, so he wouldn't see. Pilots didn't cry, certainly not on deck, and most especially not if they were named Lieutenant Kara Thrace.
"We're going to find them," Adama told her. "You understand me, Lieutenant?" Kara nodded, bringing herself to a textbook perfect attention stance.
"Yes, Sir."
TBC…
