2/27/05

EXTREMITIES

Chapter 4

"You know, I really should get back to the others. They might be looking for me," Gaius said.

"Don't concern yourself about them. They have enough to worry about with all their wounded. They haven't even noticed your absence yet," the blonde replied.

"Oh, fine," he said, a bit petulantly.

She smiled at him indulgently. "Don't worry about it, Gaius. You don't want to be with them anyway. You need to be here when all the action starts."

"Action? Wh-what action? ...Are there Cylons on the planet?"

She continued to smile enigmatically.

"Well, I-I should go and warn the others..."

"That's not necessary. They're in no immediate danger. We're not interested in them at the moment."

"What are you interested in?"

"The Tomb of Athena."


The captured Raider sat on the starboard side landing pod. At the signal from CIC, Starbuck would launch from here, as the Raider did not fit in the Viper launch tubes. It made things a little trickier, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. She had to wait until the Vipers engaged the incoming Raiders, so that she could 'sneak' into the furball unnoticed by the other Raiders. Her boy had been tagged with a small, wireless transmitter, which would send out a scrambled signal to the Vipers indicating that she was the friendly. Hopefully the Cylons wouldn't pick up the signal as well.

What was taking so long? she fumed. Gods, she hated waiting. She was not a patient person at the best of times, she was definitely not when her friends were out there in the thick of it and she was stuck here, waiting for the go ahead.

She also hated not being in control. She knew that was the main problem she had with this plan; it wasn't hers. Despite her objections to Lee, she knew perfectly well that with any plan, there was a certain amount of variables and it was these variables that defined the risk level. Kara was by no means afraid of taking risks, but she preferred to take them on her own terms. These were Lee's terms.

She had known Lee Adama for a long time. They had gone through Flight Indoctrination, Basic Flight and Viper Training together. She felt she knew his strengths and weaknesses quite well. He was a strong planner and a good leader. He was efficient, competent, intelligent, and logical... Damn, almost sounds like Cylon, she thought, and that was exactly why she doubted his ability to outwit the Cylons. He simply thought too much like them. He was also rigid, idealistic, and self-righteous.

And while she hadn't really seen him in the past two years, she found it very difficult to imagine that he had changed that drastically in that time. This plan was risky and untried. It was not what she would have expected from Lee, so either he had come up with the plan by working well outside of his normal comfort zone, or she had completely misjudged him. Neither thought made her feel much confidence.

At last Dee's voice came over her earpiece, clearing her for launch. The Galactica was positioned so that her starboard side was turned away from the Basestar, so that when Kara launched, she would have some 'cover'. As she did, she heard Dee call out over their scrambled frequency, "Apollo, the cat is outta the bag. Repeat, the cat is outta the bag."

As Starbuck brought her Raider out from beneath the Galactica's bulk, she saw the furball straight ahead of her. Deciding to keep her ship low, she hoped to slip in underneath the thickest part of the action and sidle in close to the Basestar unobserved.

Approaching the action, her instrument panel flashed a warning a couple of times, telling her that she had been 'painted' by some of the Vipers, but since she hadn't been shot at, it was clear that her wireless transmitter seemed to be doing its job. Well, that was one less thing to worry about. She was drawing closer to the Basestar now and she moved her right hand to hover over the control which would release the four homemade E-bombs off her wings.

Suddenly her instrument panel began lighting up, as a strange series of symbols flashed across her computer screen and a complex series of clicks and tones erupted from the Cylon transponder. Checking her display, she saw that another Raider had parked itself on her tail and was apparently trying to communicate with her.

"Damn, how do you say 'frak off' in Cylon?" she wondered aloud, maneuvering her ship to try and shake the Raider off her.

It stayed glued to her tail, although it did not open fire. The high pitched beeps and tones continued to issue from the transponder. Evidently the Raider was more confused than alarmed by her apparently unusual behavior. Jinking erratically a few more times, she abruptly poured on the speed, leaving the other Raider behind as it was still attempting to duplicate her previous maneuver.

Deciding to forgo any further attempts at deception, Starbuck simply sped full throttle towards the looming Basestar. As she came within weapons range, a new set of tones came from the transponder, lower pitched and somehow more authoritative-sounding. She decided it must be the Basestar trying to communicate with her now.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Starbuck mumbled to herself. "Translate this!"

Punching the launch code into her computer, she released her four E-bombs directly into the heart of the Cylon ship. With her wings now clean, she was lighter and even more maneuverable. Rolling to her right, she tumbled away from the Basestar and hauled ass out its weapons range. Once at reasonably safe distance, she paused to watch what happened.

With the impact of the bombs, flashes of light began erupting all along the ship's dark hull, radiating outward from the points of impact. Over the scrambled wireless frequency, she heard Dee call out," Starbuck has drawn first blood! Apollo, you are a go! You are a go!"

Just as Apollo had predicted, once the Basestar took the hits, many of the Raiders seemed to become somewhat disoriented. Others began to drop back to defend their wounded ship. Moving in, the Vipers picked off the confused Raiders and ignored the retreating ones, to unload their own bombs. The Raptors moved in behind the Vipers and added their full payloads as well.

"Good work everybody!" Apollo's voice came over the wireless, "Now, let's back off and give this thing some room to thrash."

As the Vipers moved to join her, Starbuck turned her ship to watch the fireworks. More and more flashes of blue light were erupting on the Basestar's hull. All at once there was a brilliant flash of light and the entire ship went black. The Raiders still flocked around it also went black and began drifting lifelessly; bumping into each other and the Basestar as they apparently lost all power.

Hmm, Starbuck thought, interesting... it didn't blow up. It just sort of... died. Oh well, it was good to know that Lee wasn't right about everything on this mission.

"Okay, that was kind of anti-climactic," Apollo said over the wireless, his voice sounding slightly disappointed. "Alright, all Raptors, buster back to the Galactica. All Vipers, with me. Let's make sure this thing is good and dead. Give it everything you've got."

Starbuck joined the Vipers as they opened fire on the Basestar and the remaining, drifting Raiders. This time they were rewarded with a large and satisfying ball of light as the Cylon ship exploded.


"Sir, the Basestar has been destroyed," Gaeta reported to the Colonel, his grin barely concealed.

A cheer went up among the bridge's crew, but it was quickly stifled by Tigh. "Thank you, Mr. Gaeta," he said loudly. "Dee, bring the Vipers home."

"Aye sir."

"Mr. Gaeta, please have a security team meet me on the hangar deck."

"Sir?"

"You heard me, Mr. Gaeta," Tigh said firmly. "I think Lt. Starbuck and Capt. Apollo have had a long enough parole, don't you? You have the deck," he added as he strode out of CIC.

"Yes sir," Gaeta said quietly, although the XO was already out of earshot. The lieutenant glanced around at the other stunned and apprehensive faces as he went to carry out his orders.


As CAG, Lee was the last pilot to land on the Galactica. Considering the success of the mission, he was expecting an exuberant reception when he raised the canopy of his Viper. Instead, he was greeted by a tense silence and the ground crewmen, who hurried forward to help him removed his helmet and collar, seemed anxious and ill at ease. None of them would meet his eyes.

Confused, he glanced around and saw Starbuck standing in the center of the hangar bay. Her hands were handcuffed in front of her. Col. Tigh stood on one side of her and a Marine on the other. Climbing out of the cockpit, Lee found another Marine waiting for him at the bottom of the ladder. Lee groaned inwardly, but said nothing. Moving to stand in front of the man, he extended his hands out, wrists together. This was starting to become a disturbing regularity.

"I'm sorry, sir," the corporal mumbled as he put the cuffs on the captain. "For what it's worth, a lot of us think the colonel's out of line."

Lee looked up sharply at the man, but made no comment. Glancing around at the gathered pilots and ground crews, he saw many angry expressions. It seemed that at least in this instance, the other pilots were siding with him and Starbuck. The Marine gestured toward the colonel and Lee headed in his direction.

"Now that our little crisis is over with, the two of you are no longer needed," Tigh said. "You will be returned to the brig."

"But sir, the Cylons still know our location. They could return at any time," Lee pointed out.

"I'm aware of that, Captain. I have received word from one of the Raptors searching the planet. They believe they may have spotted the wreckage of the downed Raptor. We will begin evacuating the survivors as quickly as possible and then we will jump the fleet to a new location."

"But sir, we can't just abandon the planet," Kara spoke up. "What about the Arrow?"

"Thanks to you, we can't stay here, Lieutenant. The Cylons are all over this sector and the planet. It wouldn't be safe to try and do anything down there. No, we get our people back and we get the hell out of here... Corporal, please escort these two back to the brig."


"I am so sorry that I got the two of you involved in all of this," Laura said quietly. "It appears that I did so for no reason. Apparently Col. Tigh is not going to relent on his stance, so both of your mutinous actions were for nothing."

"It wasn't your fault, Madam President," Lee said. "We each made our own decisions." He noted that Kara remained conspicuously silent.

Now that the second cell, that had previously housed Sharon, was empty, Lee had been placed in it, while Kara had been placed in the cell with Laura. The two officers had quickly gotten the president caught up on what had been happening. They had been in the cells for almost two hours and already Kara was ready to climb the walls. She wasn't sure how long Tigh intended to keep them here, but she was sure it was going to be too long for her, hell, it already was.

"Well, we now know how to find Kobol," Laura pointed out, trying to inject some hope for the younger people. "Perhaps when the commander regains consciousness, he'll be able to talk some sense into Col. Tigh and we can come back."

"Yeah, if my father regains consciousness," Lee amended darkly.

"Don't talk like that," Laura said quickly, reaching a hand through the bars that separated the two cells, to squeeze Lee's shoulder. "Your father will be alright. I'm sure of it."

Lee flashed her a wan, but grateful, smile. Kara saw this and felt her stomach clench. "Your dad's gonna pull through, Lee," she said. "He's tough. He's a fighter."

The arrival of a visitor for the president interrupted the conversation. Billy entered the holding area carrying a small, leather case. The guard stationed at the door stopped the young man and asked what was in the case.

"Oh, uh, it's the president's medication. She has very bad allergies," Billy said. He gave the guard a long and significant look.

"Right. Okay, carry on," the guard responded returning to her paperwork.

Immediately Lee was suspicious. He glanced over at Kara and saw that she had also caught the mistake. Why hadn't the guard asked to look inside the case? That was standard procedure. He watched with interest as the young aide approached the president's cell.

"Madam President, I brought your allergy medication," Billy said, handing the case through the bars.

"Thank you, Billy," Laura said gratefully. She was several hours overdue for her dose of the Komala Extract. But as she opened the case and looked inside, she found, not only the bottle of extract, but a small handgun as well.

Keeping her face carefully neutral, she removed the plastic bottle, slipped it into the pocket of her suit jacket and discreetly passed the case through the bars to Capt. Apollo, who had moved to lean casually against the bars, slightly behind her. Billy had intelligently placed his body directly in front of Laura, so that he could act as a screen for her activities. Guessing what was in the case, Lee quickly stashed it away. He and Kara had both already pulled off the top portions of their flight suits, which they simply let drape over their belts, and now he tucked the case under these folds.

Moving casually, he went to the rear of his cell, carefully keeping his back to the guard and the surveillance camera mounted on the wall above her head. He glanced over at Kara again and gave her a slight nod. She stood also and moved to the front of her cell, to stand beside the president. Lee pulled the gun from the case and tucked it behind his belt, under the fold of his flight suit. Turning around again, he joined the other two at the front of the cells.

"You ready to play hostage, Billy?" the captain asked the younger man in a very low voice.

"Yes sir, although I'm not sure it'll be necessary."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I told Dee about the Arrow of Apollo and the president's plan to use to try to use it to find the way to Earth. Uh, I didn't mention your illness, Ma'am," he added quickly. "Anyway, she told some other people... It's all over the ship now and most of the crews are supporting you, Madam President. They want you to get down to Kobol."

"Did Dee get you the gun?" Lee asked quietly.

Billy nodded.

"You do realize that you two just organized a full-scale mutiny?"

The young aide swallowed nervously. "Yes sir, I know."

"Well done... Okay, let's do this."

Without any further warning, Lee reached through the bars and grabbed the younger man around the shoulders and pinned him back against the bars. Pulling the gun from his belt, he thrust it against Billy's temple. It was an awkward stance for both men, as Billy was several inches taller than Lee.

"Guard!" Lee called out.

When the young woman looked up, her 'startled' reaction was so obviously feigned that Lee knew immediately that she was in on the plan. It occurred to him then that she had only come on duty about an hour earlier.

"Open the cells," He ordered.

The young woman fumbled in her pockets for the key which unlocked the drawer of her desk. From this, she produced the keys which unlocked the cells. Moving around her desk, she unlocked the door to Kara and Laura's cell first.

As soon as the two women were freed, Lee said, "Kara, disarm her."

Kara moved quickly to obey, taking the sidearm from the holster at the other woman's hip. With Kara now covering the guard with her own weapon, Lee could release Billy and allow the woman to unlock his cell. Once they were all free, they put the guard in Lee's cell and locked her in. She at least would have an excuse for her failure to stop the prisoners from escaping. The camera would back up her story. She might get reprimanded for being negligent, but she wouldn't be accused of mutiny. Moving to the far end of the room, away from the guard and out of sight of the camera, the group continued to make their plans.

"Dee has already made arrangements with the ground crew on duty for there to be a ship ready for you," Billy informed the others. "They couldn't get a Raptor or a shuttle ready without drawing some unwanted attention, so they've gotten that little transport that you brought from Caprica ready." He inclined his head toward Kara as he said this.

"But what about the Arrow of Apollo?" Laura asked. "How do we find it and get it?"

"Don't worry; it's already been taken care of. It's on the transport waiting for you. It was in the colonel's quarters. I went there and, um, got it from his wife." At this last statement, Billy's face turned a light shade of pink.

"Oh? And how did you manage that?" Laura asked pointedly.

"You don't want to know," he said quickly as the color of his face deepened to bright red.

"You're right, I probably don't."

As they made their way to the hangar deck, Lee kept Billy close beside him, in case they needed to use him as a 'hostage' again. But as the younger man had predicted, it proved unnecessary. Most of the people they passed ignored the small group all together. Others simply threw them mildly curious glances. No one tried to stop them the entire way to the hangar deck and when they arrived, they found the Caprican transport ready and waiting to be lifted up to the flight deck above them. No one said a word to them as they quickly boarded, leaving Billy behind.

The Arrow of Apollo was waiting for the president, just as Billy had promised, lying on one of the passenger seats. She picked it up almost lovingly and held it in both of her hands. She thought she could almost feel the power of all the past ages pulsing through the shaft.

Before he closed the airlock door of the ship, Lee turned to Kara saying, "Listen, there's no reason for you to come along. You've already been AWOL once this week, there's no reason to make a second time. I think even I can handle flying this thing, so why don't you sit this one out."

"Lee, I just broke out of the brig, I think it's a little late to be worried about my career now. Besides, I'm not missing out on this little adventure for anything. And you might need me. I mean, have either of you actually read the Scriptures recently?"

Lee and Laura glanced at each other and shrugged. "She has a point, Captain," Laura said.

Without waiting for his response, Kara moved to the open cockpit and deliberately sat herself in the pilot's seat. With a sigh, Lee swallowed his irritation, swung the hatch door closed and gave the wheel lock a hard spin. Glancing over to see that Laura was settled in toward the back of the ship, he went to join Kara in the cockpit, sliding into the co-pilot's seat without a word.

Kara radioed up to Dee in CIC. "Dee, we're ready to go. Can you get us out of here?"

"Yep, you're cleared for launch." The petty officer's voice was much quieter than usual. She was obviously trying not to be overheard. "Don't worry, Gaeta and I have got you covered. The coordinates for the Raptor crash site has been programmed into your ship's computer if you want to use that as a reference point. Good luck."

"Thanks, Dee, you too."

Kara flashed a quick thumb's up sign at one of the ground crewmen, who nodded and darted off. Minutes later, they felt the hydraulic platform begin to lift them up to the flight deck directly above them. Once the platform was locked into place in the floor of the flight deck, Kara began the pre-launch procedures. Although still angry with each other, she and Lee moved through the long-memorized check list quickly and efficiently. Looking up and seeing that the pod's doors were opening, she ignited the engines and released the magnetic locks in the landing struts, which secured the ship to the deck. Giving a short burst on the vertical thrusters, the ship lifted from the deck. Engaging the engines, they sped out of the landing pod and into the open space beyond.

Waiting only long enough to move them clear of the Galactica, Kara spun up the FTL drive and jumped them to the planet. Seconds later, they emerged from their jump, with the beautiful sight of the blue and white sphere of Kobol looming large in their viewscreen. Programming the autopilot to follow the pre-set coordinates to the crash site, Kara activated it and turned to face Lee.

"Okay, I have had just about enough of your crap. What is up your ass, Lee?" Her voice was tight with her suppressed emotions, but she kept it pitched low so she would not be overheard by the president in the rear of the ship. "Is this about Baltar? Are you still pissed at me for sleeping with him? I apologized for that. What more do you want from me? It's not like it's even any of your business."

"No, you're right; it isn't any of my business. But, you know, I can't help wondering, considering your history... Did you screw around on Zac?"

Kara's jaw dropped. "How dare you?" she whispered.

"Oh please, Kara, that pedestal is a little too high for you, don't you think? You forget how well I know you. Answer the question!"

"No," she breathed, barely choking the word out. "Do you even believe me?"

"No, not really," he said softly. Standing, he left the cockpit to join the president in the passenger area.

He had deliberately chosen to sit several seats away from Laura, but as soon as he had settled into his seat, she moved to sit beside him. "Is everything alright? Is there something I should know about?" she asked quietly.

Lee sighed, he and Kara had tried to keep their voices low, but obviously Laura had overheard enough to know there was a great deal of tension between the two pilots. "No, sir, everything is fine," he said, with what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

"Are you sure? You and Lt. Thrace don't seem very happy with each other. Please tell me this doesn't have anything to do with me."

"No, no, sir, it has nothing to do with you."

"That's good. I need all the support I can get and, at the moment, the two of you are the only allies I have. I need the two of you to be strong for me."

Feeling appropriately chastened, Lee said, "Yes, sir, understood."

"Thank you," Laura whispered and reached over to squeeze his hand.


Maneuvering the ship expertly, Kara set it down close to the site of the downed Raptor. There was a second Raptor at the site as well and as the three approached, they could see a couple of stretchers being loaded into this ship. Chief Tyrol met them, as they walked up.

"Since when do we have a Caprican mini-bus as part of the fleet?" he asked by way of greeting.

"It's a long story, Chief," Kara said. "I'll tell you all about it later."

"Oh, I can't wait, this ought to be good."

"It's good to see that you're alright, Chief," Lee said.

"Thank you, sir."

"Were there any casualties?" Laura asked.

"Uh, thankfully, no, although there were a couple of serious injuries... Uh, with all due respect, why are you here, Madam President?"

"The president has business here," Lee said mysteriously, his tone indicating that the chief should not inquire further.

"Okay, sure, whatever."

"Where is Dr. Baltar?" Laura asked, looking around at the gathered survivors. "Has he already returned to the Galactica?"

"Uh, no, sir, we're not sure where the doctor is."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he was here initially and he seemed to be relatively unhurt, but when we decided to try and move to a more secure location, we discovered that he was gone. He must have wandered off during all the confusion. I'm sorry, sir. We should have kept a closer eye on him."

"It's alright, Chief, it's not your fault. I'm sure you had enough to worry about."

"By the way," Lee spoke up, "where's Crashdown? Shouldn't he be in charge of the evacuation?"

"Uh, yes sir, he's with the wounded, making sure they get loaded in alright."

The captain nodded. "Well, do let him know we're here. We may be down here for a while. Have you seen any sign of the Cylons?"

"No sir, we haven't."

"That's good. Alright then, carry on, Chief. We'll keep an eye out for Dr. Baltar."

Giving the three a brief salute, Tyrol returned to helping with the wounded. Lee and Kara turned to look expectantly at Laura. "Where to now?" Lee asked.

Laura looked around for a moment, hoping to see some sort of a clue as to which direction they should go. Off in the distance, toward the north, she thought she could see the top of a white dome peaking just above a rise in the terrain.

"That way," she said, gesturing toward the dome.

Lee and Kara exchanged glances. "Alright let's go, we're going to start losing light soon," Lee said.

To be continued...