Chapter 3
Kara hoped for a quiet CAP to allow her a chance to work out what she was going to say to Lee when he finally got back to Galactica or what she was going to do to him if he didn't. However, this was not meant to be because Dee's voice came over the radio before she had barely had a chance to set the positions of her wingmen.
"Starbuck, Galactica. Please proceed to co-ordinates epsilon gamma. We have a ship leaving the fleet without authorisation."
"Roger that Galactica, we're on our way."
Starbuck instructed her team and swung her viper around, sprinting across the fleet to where one of the ships was indeed moving away from the others and heading towards the planet. The Virgon Express was one of the smallest ships in the fleet, with less than fifty people on board, and was easily surrounded by the three vipers. Its sudden escort didn't seem to have any impact on its flight; instead the ship fired its thrusters and speeded up, to dive towards the planet at breakneck speed.
"Galactica, Starbuck. We are in position. What are your orders?"
"Starbuck, stand-by for Galactica Actual." There was a moment of silence, followed by the deep, familiar voice.
"Get as close as you can Starbuck and get them to stop. If they won't stop then fire a couple of warning shots."
Starbuck brought her viper in as close to the ship as possible; she could practically see right into the cockpit.
"Virgon Express, this is Galactica combat air patrol. You are ordered to disengage from your current course and return to the fleet." There was no reply and no change in the ship's course.
"Virgon Express. I repeat. You are ordered to return to the fleet." When there was still no reply she signalled to Slider and Kat to move back and took careful aim with her guns. The shots whistled past the cockpit of the ship, close enough to make it rock but not close enough to cause any damage. Still they maintained radio silence and continued on their desperate flight towards the planet.
"Galactica, Starbuck. They're not responding. Warning shots were ineffective."
"Then put them under full missile lock. If that doesn't stop them then you are to take a shot that will damage and halt the ship but not destroy it."
"Sorry? Can you repeat that sir?"
"You heard me Starbuck. Take the shot: they're committing mutiny."
Kara swore profusely under her breath, but pulled her viper around and targeted the ship's thrusters.
"What the frak are you doing, Starbuck?" Came Kat's incredulous voice across the radio.
"My job, apparently. I need you guys to get missile lock on these idiots too…. Virgon Express this is your final warning. I have you in my sights and I am ordered to fire if you don't stop." This at last got a response. She could imagine the panic in the ship as the missile lock sirens started beeping in the cockpit.
"Galactica combat air patrol, what the frak do you think you're doing? We're civilians!"
"Just following orders. Now get your butt back to the fleet, asshole, before my finger accidentally slips on this firing button!"
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Back in CIC the admiral let out a sigh of relief as the blip on dradis signalling the Virgon Express started to move back towards the fleet. Gaeta approached him, inevitable report in hand. He handed it to him but hung around looking as if he wanted to say something.
"What is it lieutenant?"
"Pardon the question sir, but was that really necessary?"
"Yes it was lieutenant. Can you imagine what would happen next if we had let that ship go to the planet? Which one do you think would be the next to leave?"
"Would that be so bad, sir? They've been in space for so long. The passengers on that ship are amongst those who haven't had the trip yet. Why can't we just let them go to the planet?"
"And have almost 50,000 people wandering around a planet with no shelter or provisions? No lieutenant, when this colonisation takes place it needs to be done in an orderly fashion. Until then we take similar action with any ship that attempts to leave without authorisation. Hopefully the little display today will have sent fair warning to all the ship's captains that we're serious about this." He knew that he would probably get an irate call from Billy or worse, the president, about this incident but he felt fully justified that it was the right thing to do.
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By the time she got back from CAP at the end of a long day Kara's mood had hit an all time low. Having had a chance to think about what she had almost done on that patrol, the incident with the Virgon Express had really shaken her up. She couldn't believe that the old man had actually ordered her to fire on a ship of the fleet when no Cylon infiltration was involved. She just couldn't understand how they had come to a point of turning their guns on their own. As she climbed wearily down from her viper she noticed Lee's mark VII parked on the hanger deck. That meant that he had finally got the message and returned to Galactica. It didn't mean that she was any less pissed off with him, probably the opposite; it shouldn't take her shouting and threatening him to make him come home. Right now she didn't think it was even safe for her to see him. She just needed some space and down time alone.
When she entered their quarters Lee was rolling around on the floor with a delighted Alex. I bet the little bugger behaves like a perfect angel with him, she thought savagely. She couldn't help herself having a quick gibe at her husband.
"So glad that you could finally join us, major. Now I get a chance to go running for the first time in a week." She started to get her gear out of the locker.
"Kara, I had to pull a whole ball full of strings to be here. I thought you wanted us to spend this evening together?" He asked, confused by her attitude.
"No, what I wanted Lee was a break and that's what I intend to take." She left the room, slamming the hatch viciously behind her.
As she ran round the corridors of Galactica, trying to calm her frayed nerves, she came across possibly the last person she wanted to see right now: her father-in-law.
"Evening Starbuck. What do you hear?"
"Sorry sir, not really in the mood for that right now. And the only thing I'm going to do if I grab a gun is shoot the frakking cat, so it's probably wise to keep me away from firearms at the moment. Oh and sir, don't ever ask me to fire my guns at another human being again." So saying, she sprinted off down the corridor, leaving Adama looking after her, a concerned expression on his face. He knew he should chastise her for such insubordination, but he was just plain worried about her.
−
Lee looked up from his thankless task of trying to get Alex to eat some food without spitting or throwing it, to see his father standing in the door way.
"Hey, dad. You want to try with him? I'm fed up of getting covered in this pap."
"Nope; Grandpas only have to do the nice jobs!" He sat down on the couch. "I've just seen Kara. Thought I ought to check that you were still breathing."
"Yeah, she's not in the best of moods."
"That's an understatement. I think she's in the gym now as I've had reports of strong men fleeing from the sight of her pummelling the punch bag."
"Better that than me! I think she's just tired. This hasn't been easy on her with me not here and Alex teething. I've been wondering dad, could you cope without her up here for a day or so? I've checked the schedules and she hasn't had a full day off in a month. I'd like to take her back to New Kobol with me."
"A day of R&R in the sun would probably do her good. You should take some time to be with her. I'm pretty sure that if I checked your shift pattern there wouldn't be many blanks there either. How's it going down there?"
"I think we're making good progress. The scientists have identified a number of potential non-poisonous food sources and we've finished the first of the communal shelters."
"What about Dr Baltar?" The vice-president was nominally supposed to be in charge of the civilian efforts on the planet.
"Well our esteemed vice-president does seem to be running around a lot, making a great deal of noise, but in my opinion achieving very little. I have no idea how we've let that man get into such a powerful position. The team just humours him. He's now decided that he needs to lead an expedition further to the west of our main site, with a team of scientists. Something about researching potential power sources. He's taking two of the engineers and I'm giving him a couple of marines to make sure that he doesn't get himself into more trouble that he needs rescuing from. They're supposed to be starting out tomorrow; at least it gets him out of my hair."
"Fine, but make sure that the marines are people you really trust. We need to keep up the pretence of treating him like the vice-president, but I want you to make sure that he's kept an eye on at all times." Lee looked at him oddly when he didn't go on any further, but let the comment go.
"Sure thing, dad."
"Well, I'm going to get out of here before Kara comes back. She's almost as frakked off with me as she is with you. We had our first runner today while she was on CAP and I had to be pretty tough on them to prevent any repeats."
−
When Kara came back she went and showered and then got into the bed without a word. Lee decided that talking obviously wasn't an option and slid into the bed beside her. He put his arms around her and leaned in to place a soft kiss on her neck. She was so tense she almost twanged. With a flick of her shoulders she shrugged him off.
"No Lee if you think that you can just have sex with me and this will all go away then you can think again."
She turned away from him. Lee lay back, being careful not to touch her, and wondered what the hell had happened in the days since he had last been on Galactica. Sure, things had been frantic recently, with the seemingly endless search and assessment of potential planets, but they'd been OK, hadn't they? He struggled to remember the last time the pair of them had just been able to sit down and have a quiet meal together. May be that was it. Kara wasn't one to crave his attention, often the opposite in fact, but even she needed a little TLC every now and then. He vowed that he would take her down to New Kobol and they would get a day together as a family with no interruptions from either of their jobs.
Kara stared at the wall and willed herself not to cry. She had no idea why she was being like this with him. If she was honest with herself, all she wanted right now was to feel his arms around her and his gentle voice telling her that everything would be alright, but something in her just couldn't accept that comfort. The endless sleepless nights of the last week had afforded her plenty of time to think. She couldn't tell him that alone in the quiet of the night all her inner demons that Lee had managed to chase away had started to creep back. They whispered that the reason he stayed away and seemed almost oblivious to her recently was that he didn't really love her: she wasn't worthy of being loved by him. They told her that she had somehow frakked up their relationship; whatever happened was bound to be all her fault; that she couldn't expect to hold the love of a decent man: He only stayed with her because of his son. What would happen when they finally moved to the planet? Would he want to stay on as CAG of Galactica? Would she want to stay? What would happen if one of them decided to stay and the other decided to go to the planet? How could she remain in the world she was comfortable with up here when she really knew that her son deserved to be raised on New Kobol? All these questions and the ever conflicting answers seemed to be constantly swirling around in her head these days, so she reacted in the classic Starbuck fashion to try and forget them: put up your fists and fight.
Lee's deep breathing beside her told her that he was asleep, so she allowed herself to let go a few tears. Eventually, exhaustion took over and she finally fell asleep.
−
Despite the fact that they had gone to sleep on opposite sides of the bed, when Kara awoke in the morning they were in their usual tight ball of intertwined legs and arms. She sneaked a look up at Lee's face to find him awake and watching her.
"Hey," she ventured.
"Hey yourself."
"What, have I grown horns or something?" she said when he just carried on staring at her.
"No, I was just enjoying seeing you so peaceful."
"Yeah, must have been a nice change." It was the closest she was going to get to an apology for her behaviour the night before.
"Kara, sweetheart, listen to me." The term of endearment let her know that he was about to say something serious. She wasn't sure if she wanted to hear it. "I know you're tired and Alex has been difficult and I know that I haven't been any help at all. I also know the kind of thoughts that start to run through your head when things get to you like that. I want you to know that I love you more than you could ever realise. I will never leave you while I still have breath in my body. Even when duty drags me away, I'm thinking about you almost all of the time, even when I shouldn't be."
She could only look at him, her eyes huge pools in her face. What he was saying was so close to what she had been thinking about the night before that it made her realise just how well he knew her. All of a sudden she seemed to have no control over her emotions and the tears started to run down her cheeks.
"Oh, Lee" was all she could squeak out. He pulled her close.
"Shhh, shhh, it's OK. I think it's about time we had some down time together, don't you think? I've cleared it with the old man for you to come back with me to the planet for a day or so. We can just laze in the sun, explore; anything you want."
"Yeah, that sounds good. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm up and down like a frakking yo-yo at the moment."
"You couldn't be pregnant again could you Kara?" he tried to keep his tone level, to keep the note of hope out of it. He loved being a father. As far as he was concerned they couldn't have too many children, but he knew that he wasn't the key player in that particular decision. He also realised that broaching the subject with Kara before their first was even a year old was a sure fire way of getting castrated.
"No, definitely not pregnant. Which reminds me, I must make an appointment to get my next jab." Lee decided that it might be worth living dangerously.
"We've never really talked about whether we want to have more children." She looked at him incredulously
"You're priceless Lee. We've just had one of our biggest arguments ever; I even threatened to throw you out, and you want to talk about whether we want more kids. I can hardly cope with the one I've got at the moment!"
"OK so may be my timing's not great but we really should talk about it."
"We'll talk about it sometime Lee, just not now."
"You're right. Of course you're right. And I can think of much better things that we could be doing right now!" He bent his head to kiss her, his hands moving in a soft caress across her body. Her response was uncharacteristically tentative at first but a whispered "I love you" from him melted her restraint away. He quickly pulled the shirt she had slept in over her head and returned for a deeper kiss, his hands moving to her breasts to circle their already hardening tips. He was just about to move lower when a loud wailing started on the other side of the room. Lee groaned and dropped his head on to Kara's chest in defeat. She just laughed.
"He's your son!"
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