AN: Just thought I'd put in another little clarification that apparently wasn't as obvious as I thought it was (sorry): this is set about a year before the epilogue to Chance. So Carrie's only 16, Zak and Hope are 24, Evan's 20, and you can make up your own ages for Kara and Lee ;-) However old you think they are now, plus 25. Adama's in his mid-eighties, I guess...Okay, that is all; we now return to your regularly scheduled fanfic.
Zak Adama already had grown up, at least enough to be able to fly like his sister so desperately wanted. While she spent a morning with stories from the past, he spent it in a Viper cockpit, out on a patrol. "Hey, form up," he called over the wireless as they approached one of the ships with an observation deck.
The two Vipers came together, flying side-by-side while he Raptor trailed just below and behind. They all took a pass directly by the large windows before the Vipers broke off, turning back for another pass by themselves.
"Nice, guys," the Raptor ECO, Whip, commented.
"We aim to please," Jinx replied from the other Viper.
Zak laughed. "All right, same deal next time we go by Colonial One."
When patrols were quiet, there wasn't much to do except some showy flying for any spectators they might have. They had time to work on breaking the end-over-end flip time for a Mark IVa, or come up with new ideas for three-man formations, such as the maneuver Zak liked to call a Raptor sandwich. The last time they'd tried that, though, the other Viper pilot had been screwing around a bit too much and wound up scraping his tail on the Raptor's underside. The CPO had not been happy with any of them, so they hadn't attempted the trick out again – at least not yet, anyway.
"Anybody in the mood for a sandwich?" he asked after they'd finished their flyby on the president's ship.
"A what?" Jinx asked.
"Forget it," Wraith, the Raptor pilot, instantly said. "I don't need my ass chewed out again."
"You're not gonna get your ass chewed out, because we're going to pull it off this time."
"No."
"What the frak are you talking about?" Jinx inquired.
"If you've gotta ask, you don't want to know," Whip told her. "Looks like Orion woke up on the wrong side of his rack this morning – the stupid side."
Next thing the two in the Raptor knew, Zak had inverted his Viper, and was flying directly above them, close enough that they could see each other through their canopies. "Son of a…" Wraith muttered as he threw on the reverse thrusters, putting some distance between them. "Frak, man, if you're gonna do something like that, give some warning first!"
Zak grinned. "That would take all the fun out of it."
Then again, maybe he hadn't grown up.
When Carrie had moved into the deckhands' bunks, her parents had made it conditional upon the fact that they all find a way to separate military from family. Lee had grown up as a 'little soldier' with his father, and didn't want the same thing to happen with his children, especially since both of their parents were officers. So they all made sure that schedules were arranged such that they could have a meal together at least once a week. They ate in the Adamas' quarters instead of the mess hall so they could all be totally informal. Zak and Carrie hadn't seen a need for the dinners in the beginning, but they now looked forward to them.
Lee looked up when he heard a knock on the door to his office, and Zak came inside a moment later. "I didn't think you knew what the word early meant," he ribbed his son. Zak smiled.
"Yeah, well, I got done down in the hangar, and I was wondering if I could use your phone before dinner."
Lee nodded with a smile. "Go ahead. I'm going to head on; don't be late enough that your mother has to come looking for you."
Zak laughed. "Yes, Sir."
Once he was alone in his father's office, he picked up the phone and got the operator to connect him to the Aquarian Traveler–63856. The ship had served as an orphanage in the early years after the Colonial Holocaust, and now doubled as a school ship for all of the fleet's children. Lee and Kara had tried to get both Zak and Carrie to board there for their secondary school years, but they were far too in love with their lives on Galactica to consider it. However, the things they loved about the Battlestar had never been of interest to Zak's best friend, Hope Tyrol. She'd gone to school on the Traveler when she was twelve, and had become an art teacher there after graduation.
It took a few transfers, but he finally got a line through to Hope. Zak usually used the dinners with his parents as a reminder to try to call her. "What's the good word?" she asked once someone finally gave her a phone.
"Nothing much. Dinner night, so I thought I'd try finding you. Your brothers and parents say hello."
"Tell them I said the same and I miss them. I was hoping to get a shuttle over to Galactica last week, but pretty much everyone over here wound up catching a bug."
Zak laughed. "Yeah, keep your germs to yourself."
"Were you out on patrol today?"
"Yep."
"Mmm, I thought so. I glanced out the window and saw some smartass fooling around with a Viper like a child, so I knew it had to be you."
"Hey!"
"Are you denying it?"
"No, but still! That's Lieutenant Smartass to you."
"Oh, yes, Sir!"
"Besides, I'm First Wing – I can get away with it."
"My Lords, how long has it been since I talked to you? When did you make First Wing?"
"A couple weeks ago." There was pause as recognition dawned. Within the squadrons, there was only one way to get promoted, and it wasn't pleasant.
"So that means Sarah…"
"No. She's Bravo Leader now. We lost Curly."
"KIA or an accident?"
"In action. He took a couple Cylons with him."
"Good…How are you guys doing on numbers?"
"We're still all right; been lucky lately other than that day. There should be another training group starting in a few weeks. Why? You want to come back and join up?"
Hope scoffed. "Yeah, sure, Zak. That'll happen."
"You're doing okay over there, though, right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I love it here, other than missing you guys."
"Well, if you don't hop a shuttle home soon, I'll send Evan over in a Raptor to get you."
Hope laughed. "All right, all right. I'll do what I can. Be careful, Orion. The scorpion always comes back," she cautioned, referring to the legend behind his call sign. Zak smiled.
"But that's why I'm up in the sky – he's on my turf up there."
"Mom was about to send me after you," Carrie told her brother as she saw him enter their family's quarters.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm here now," he shot back. She just smiled as she helped Lee set out the dishes from the mess hall with their dinner. Kara came out of the bathroom with a pitcher of water.
"Oh, you did manage to find your way down here," she ragged on her son. He raised a hand in salute.
"Reporting for dinner, Sir."
"Shut up, brat," she told him. They all sat down at the little table in the middle of the room. Their quarters were just barely big enough.
"How's basic flight going?" Lee asked Carrie.
"It'd be going a lot better if I could fly something other than shuttles."
"Have patience."
"What's that?" she shot back.
"Don't look at me," Kara said as Lee turned to her. "I don't know what it is either."
"I think I got her share," Zak commented.
"Since when?" Lee asked. The girls laughed.
"You spent the morning with your grandfather, right?" Kara asked Carrie. She nodded. "How's he doing?"
"Fine. We started a new book. He was going to take a nap after I left."
"You tired him out in a couple hours?" Lee inquired.
"He said he didn't sleep well. We're supposed to get through another chapter tomorrow. It's a pretty interesting book."
"Which one?" Zak asked. The siblings were oblivious to the concerned looks that their parents were giving each other.
"It's called 'Foreverland'. Did you ever read it, Dad?"
"Yeah, in grade school. It's a good one. Keep an eye on your grandfather, though, okay? He's been blowing off the Doc recently." Carrie shrugged.
"I wouldn't want to get stuck with a bunch of needles if I was him, either. All they ever do is take blood."
"They gotta drink something," Zak wise-cracked. His sister laughed, and the subject was soon dropped, but wouldn't be forgotten – at least not for long.
TBC...
