Chapter 3
The next time the commander awoke it was to find Lee in his usual seat, but wearing his flight suit.
"Well I see you're dressed for action. What's the plan?"
"I'm not supposed to tell you. Doc's orders. He doesn't want you agitated," his son replied with a wry smile.
"So does this mean that you've you taken my following your instincts advice to new extremes or is this a crazy Starbuck special?" Lee's smile faded at the mention of Starbuck.
"Neither, sir. It's just a straight forward rescue mission."
"Come down off of your high horse Apollo. What's up?"
"I gather you've seen Kara, dad." He seemed to be struggling with some strong emotion. Adama just looked at him so he went on. "How can you so easily forgive her? Why are you always so easy on her and so hard on me?"
"Because, as much as Kara is special to me, you are my son, my flesh and blood. I somehow expect more of you. If I'm hard on you it's because you've always seemed to thrive on being pushed hard. May be I've been wrong all these years son, but in truth I don't know any other way to be with you."
"It's OK dad. It's not you, it's her. She just seems to have this ability to make me angry. We're….we're not on the best of terms at the moment."
"I don't understand it, son. You used to be so close."
"I know, but she did something that I can't forgive, at least not yet, and then I said things to her that she'll probably never forgive. Don't worry about us, dad, we'll figure it out eventually."
"She's not going with you?"
"No, she's still recovering from the injuries she received on Caprica and…. and I've grounded her anyway. You may be able to forgive and forget, but as her CO I won't let her fly with the rest of squadron until she's convinced me that she can be trusted again not to go off and do something crazy that puts the whole team at risk. She needs to understand that the whole fleet doesn't revolve around her."
He stared at his father, a challenge in his eyes. William Adama had a pretty good idea what lay behind Lee's anger at Starbuck, but he didn't push it any further. The boy needed to work out his feelings for himself.
"You said it son, you're her CO. It's up to you who you take on this mission and how you handle your pilots. Good luck Captain!"
"Thank you, sir."
Lee stood up, came to attention and saluted his father before leaving the room at a jog. The commander watched his departing back and hoped he would work through his hostility towards Starbuck without them killing each other. He sighed; his children always seemed to make life so difficult for themselves, and by association, for him, but he needed to move on to deal with other matters.
"Come on in Saul." His XO appeared from behind the curtain where he had been waiting whilst the commander finished his conversation with Lee.
"So are you going to press charges against him?"
"No. By the Gods I want to but I can't afford to loose him at the moment. We've had a full and frank discussion about the incident and he knows that if he ever pulls something like that again I'll have his hide in the brig before you can say 'court martial'. He's accepted that and we're OK, just!"
"Thank you Saul. That's a weight off my mind"
"The kid's really screwed up, Bill. There just seems to be so much anger in him."
"I know, and don't think I don't know where the blame lies for that, but at least we're starting to work our way through it. Although I also think quite a lot of it revolves around Kara."
"Ahh, Starbuck. I wondered when we'd get around to her."
"I know, my other 'soft spot'. Are you throwing her in the brig with the president?"
"No, I'm letting Lee manage her as he seems even angrier with her than I usually am! I'm also letting the president go back to Colonial One, but with a military guard."
"Purely for her protection of course?"
"Of course! We have to let her take back control of the government, Bill. That damned Zarek is out there, talking to anyone with a microphone about military coups and stirring up unrest. We'll have the whole fleet in uproar if we don't let someone take control of the civvies and, much as I hate to say it, the only one that can do it is her."
Adama nodded in reluctant agreement. Tigh went on,
"We agreed that Lee would no longer be her advisor. I've told her that if she wants advice about the military she can come to me."
"Now this I'd like to see!"
"Yes, well she wasn't very happy about it, but she agreed."
I bet I know someone else who wasn't very happy about it, thought Adama. Flirting and more with other men had always been perfectly acceptable behaviour for Ellen, but woe betide Saul if he should even look at another woman. Then again, Ellen would probably make as much hay as she could from calling her husband the personal advisor to the president.
"Roslin's sick, Bill, really sick."
"I was beginning to suspect as much."
"She didn't tell me out right, but Elosha pretty much told me that it was terminal. Lords know what we'll do if she dies before the elections. Zarek will have a field day. They want to take this arrow thing that Starbuck brought back down to Kobol once Lee's team has secured the planet and ensured that it's Cylon-free and I don't really have the heart to stop her."
"Yes, let them do it. If the people see that we are cooperating with this plan it may hopefully stop the unrest. I'll see if I can get any more information from Cottle about how long she's got. I know she's been seeing him, but he's surprisingly hot on patient confidentiality when in comes to non-military personnel."
"Starbuck told you about the other Boomer?" Adama nodded. "Not sure what to do with this one. It claims to be pregnant with Helo's child. Doc confirms the story but has no idea of the mechanics of a human-cylon pregnancy. It's sick if you ask me. Helo's so screwed up about it he doesn't know his ass from his elbow at the moment."
"Is it violent at all?"
"No. I can't figure her..er, it out, but it seems to genuinely have feelings for Helo and the child"
"Let's keep her alive for the time being and see what happens."
"And the other one?" Tigh let the question hang in the air. The commander looked grim.
"Give her a weapon and let her finish off properly what she tried to do to herself before she shot me."
