Chapter 13

Lee came into the lab behind Kara, locked the door and made a surreptitious assessment of their position. Baltar was standing with one of the blond Cylons that they had fought on the previous day. There were two others, both different models, working in the lab. He saw Kara raise her weapon towards Baltar and speak to raise their notice to their entrance.

"Well hello Mr Vice president. Fancy seeing you here!" Baltar and the blond Cylon turned.

"Starbuck and Apollo again. You two really don't know when to give up do you?" Six smiled her sickly smile at them.

"I wasn't talking to you bitch."

Gaius was starting to recover from his shock of seeing Starbuck.

"No need for language like that, Captain Thrace, especially not in front of my child. You're just in time to meet our new daughter. You can be the first to congratulate us." He raised the small bundle in his arms, so that Kara noticed for the first time what he was holding.

"Yes, we'd so like her to meet your son." The sickly smile was still there, but the Cylon's voice was pure steel. Lee didn't like the look on her face and drew Alex round to his front where he could better protect him. His son was grizzling, obviously disturbed by the gun fire. Lee pulled him close and kissed the top of his head to try and soothe him, whilst still keeping his weapon trained on the other two Cylons, who had stepped towards him on Six' words.

Kara's grin faded completely as she took in the scene before her and her mind started to fill in the blanks as to what had been going on in this lab.

"I don't think that I want any child of mine anywhere near one yours. You've had a baby with a Cylon? You're even more perverted than I thought. I can't believe that's your child."

"Oh but she is," replied Six. "The first successful human-Cylon hybrid, created here in this lab." Kara snorted

"Created! And what are you? The proud mother? I don't believe this. It's not a child; it's a machine."

"She's not a machine. She's a real baby created from Gaius' DNA and from mine." Six' voice had started to rise in volume and vehemence. Kara realised that she was getting to the Cylon and went for the jugular.

"This is just sick. You're sick! All you've got is a synthetic child. I'm sorry, but you're deluding yourself if you think that thing is a real baby. It's just like you: synthetic, made, a machine. I know that you want what I've got; a child conceived naturally with the man you love, born out of your body. You can have no concept of the joy of bringing a child that you've nurtured inside you into the world, nursing him from your own body." As she said it she knew that it was true. Her child was a gift beyond price and she would do anything to stop the Cylons from harming him in any way. She almost felt sorry for this blond aberration, who obviously wanted to experience this joy so much herself that she had gone to the trouble of making herself a baby. But this was a momentary feeling and she decided to really dig the knife in to provoke the reaction that she was after. "You can't give Gaius a child created by love, whereas it would be easy for me. Lee hardly did more than look at me and I was pregnant. I could easily give Gaius a child." She looked at Baltar suggestively and caressed her stomach, making exaggerated circling movements with her hand. She smiled serenely at Six. The goaded Cylon snarled and threw herself at Kara's midriff. Kara brought her knee up sharply and it connected with Six' face, knocking her off balance. As she fell back onto the floor Kara put her foot down on the Cylon's throat, pressing enough to cut off her air supply.

"Don't you ever think that you can get away with threatening me or my family." She carefully aimed her weapon and fired; a clean shot between the eyes.

The two other Cylons started towards Kara, but Lee dealt with them efficiently. There were sounds of someone trying to get in from the corridor outside, but they still had to deal with Baltar. Gaius carefully laid the Cylon child down and came over to look at the body of Six.

"Never mind. There's plenty more where she came from. Unless you'd like to fulfil your offer, Starbuck?" He smiled at her lasciviously and ran a hand down her arm.

Lee stepped up between them and stood in front of Kara, glaring at Baltar.

"No you don't, Baltar. Step back."

"Marking your property major Adama?"

"You should know that I'm nobody's property, Gaius. I'm with Lee because I choose to be and because I happen to be in love with him." She glanced at Lee in what she hoped was a "shut up and let me run with this" type of way. She moved up to Baltar and whispered in his ear. "He can make me feel more just by the slightest touch of his hand than you managed pumping away for what seemed like hours. No wonder my mind wandered off on to more pleasant thoughts." She could feel Baltar tense up; he believed that his prowess with women was legion. He looked at Kara and then to Lee with loathing. Lee just shrugged his shoulders and smiled back at Gaius.

"Hey, I'm not complaining. I know who won that particular battle. She does have such a fine way with words doesn't she?"

Kara went on, leaning right into Baltar's face so that he couldn't ignore her words.

"You're nothing but an egotistical, self-obsessed little shit who sold out his entire people because some Cylon bitch was able to lead him by his dick. Well it's time the people got some revenge and I'm here to do it for them." She pulled out her gun and held it to his temple. The sounds outside the door became louder and suddenly another model Six came blasting through the door. She threw herself at Kara. They landed in a heap on the floor. The Cylon had the advantage as she started to punch Kara to get her to drop her weapon, but Kara managed to hang on to it and gave as good as she got. Lee and Baltar both moved towards the struggling women as more blond Cylons ploughed into the room. Kara's grip on her gun slipped after a particularly violent punch to her shoulder. It fell to the floor and fired. Surprised by the sudden retort they stopped their fight for a moment and turned to see one of the men falling to the ground.

"No!"

Six leapt away from Kara and grabbed the falling Baltar as a patch of red started to spread across his white shirt. He was dead before they hit the ground: a shot straight through the heart. Six started to scream and cry in agony. The other models came and crowded round her and they all started to keen and cry.

Lee pulled Kara to her feet. She was breathing a little heavily and holding her side. There was a low rumbling noise in the distance. Glancing at his watch, Lee realised that it was probably their explosive charges.

"Are you OK? We need to get out of here quickly. This place is either about to go up or we're gonna have a lot of very pissed Cylons after us."

"Yeah, job done! I just need a moment to get my breath back. What is it with that toaster and my ribs?"

Lee held the snivelling Alex closely to him as they sprinted back out into the corridor, the sound of Six' wailing following them.

−

"Execute jump, Captain Gaeta." The admiral's quiet, tense voice reflected the determination felt by all of Galactica's crew. The move that they were about to pull was incredibly dangerous. They planned to jump within a hair's breath of the Cylon base star to fire their last remaining nuclear warhead at its most vulnerable spot. If they missed their mark by a small amount they could jump in right on top of the other ship or too far away and allow it time to respond. The whole thing required precision and split second timing, but if the admiral was confident that they could do it, then so were they. They felt the familiar sensation of the jump, but were ready to spring into action as soon as it was completed.

"Report."

Gaeta had a quick look at his monitors. A satisfied smile came on to his face.

"We're in position A, sir!"

"Well done. Fire warhead. Launch alert fighters. Execute."

"Missile away, sir."

"Ahead full thrust to starboard. Execute."

They needed to get the Galactica away from the base star as quickly as possible. If the missile shot was successful she was so close that they would be caught in the fall out. If it wasn't then they needed to re-group for another attack; what with the admiral didn't know, but there was no going back before they had dealt with that ship now that they had come. Everyone watched the track of the missile on dradis. It looked like a direct hit. There were a few shouts of triumph around the CIC, but a glance from the admiral quelled them. They weren't out of this yet. Hotdog's voice came over the radio.

"Woo hoo; it's going up like a frakking Colonial day firework party!"

Slider's more reserved voice brought them back to reality.

"Galactica, you're gonna need to move much more quickly."

Before his sentence had even finished the ship was rocked by a shower of debris and fall out hitting its port side. The ship lurched violently and all power went out but came back on soon enough.

"Damage report!" demanded the admiral.

"Er…nothing major sir. The shielding seems to have done its job."

"Good. Now you can all cheer!"

A cacophony of noise broke out around the CIC. The admiral quietly shook the hands of his acting XO and acting CAG. He wouldn't be able to celebrate properly until he knew that his family were safe.

−

Lee and Kara took the corridor in the opposite direction from where they had come. They had no idea where they were going, but were hoping that it lead to the landing bay where the transport and raiders had landed earlier. The low rumbling had turned into the unmistakeable sound of a full scale explosion. It went on and on and got louder: the tank that they had rigged had obviously contained something very explosive and it seemed to have triggered the down-stream chain reaction that they had been hoping for.

"Gods, we're good!" panted Kara as they ran.

"Yeah, but don't get too cocky before we get ourselves out of here."

What was worrying them slightly was that there was a noise of crashing and banging getting closer behind them down the corridor. They stopped at a corner and took a quick look round it. A little way further the passageway opened out into what was obviously the landing bay area. The problem was the pair of Cylon centurions on guard at the entrance. The rumbling noise behind them got louder and they turned to see a wall of water crashing down the corridor towards them.

"I told you that pipe brought water from the lake! Death by water or Cylon?"

"Definitely Cylon." They charged round the corner, weapons firing. The centurions brought up their guns to fire but were distracted by the wave of water cascading down the corridor towards them. Their distraction allowed Lee and Kara to hit them and shoot past into the hanger. They pressed themselves back against the wall as the water came flowing in, taking out a number of Cylons in its path. The flow into the larger area took out some of its force but the area started to fill up quickly. They hugged the edge of the vast cavern and started towards the ships on the other side. The Cylons seemed to be in a panic. It was so unusual to see them like this. They were running every which way and seemed to be trying to get the transport and the other ships in to the air.

"Has our little extravaganza managed this or do you think that your father has come up with some plan to engage the base star?"

"Not sure. I hope it's the latter or this might be a very short trip off the planet."

The advantage of all this confusion was that they seemed to be ignored, at least for the time being. The launch deck was on a higher level of rock and so the ships were protected from the water. They were obviously still deep within the mountain as launch tubes had been channelled out of the rock. One of the raiders was already in a launch tube and they headed for that one. Kara took out the two Cylons that were working on the raider, which was powering up, ready to take off. She quickly found the entrance button and then slashed her way into the interior. Three close range shots into its brain silenced the engines and she got to work hacking the brain out. Lee sealed the tube door then took off his pack and concealed Alex behind a storage bin. Sounds from outside indicated that the Cylons had regained their interest in them and were trying to get the door opened so Lee took guard by the entrance. As it started to open he sprayed the Cylons with machine gun fire. They were starting to get low on ammunition. A second wave of Cylons trying to get through the door finished up the rounds in the machine gun and he tossed it away.

"Kara, quick! We're gonna have company," came Lee's shout as the door slid open again and half a dozen Cylons piled through. Lee quickly took out the first two then fired at the door controls and it thudded shut, hopefully permanently. Fortunately the Cylons weren't armed so it was really an unfair fight. One of them started heading towards the raider as Kara came out feet first. Lee swore but managed to get a shot off to kill the Cylon before it could attack her, but one of its partners knocked the gun from his hand and he had to resort to hand-to-hand combat. He could see two centurions coming up the launch tube, obviously from another entrance: they spelled much more trouble. He tried to grab his gun back but couldn't quite reach as his opponent held him down.

"Any more explosive rounds, Kara?" he shouted. She managed to look up at him and he nodded in the direction of the approaching centurions. She kicked the Cylon that she was fighting in the face and it gave her a second to dive for her other gun. One of the centurions had started to fire and she heard Lee's grunt of pain. She managed to take out one of the centurions before her adversary launched himself back at her.

"You OK?"

"Just dandy! Got me in the arm, nothing too drastic."

Kara could hear Alex crying above the noise. She wanted to get to him to shush him but she just couldn't get away from the Cylon that she was fighting. Eventually she managed to blast it and started to run towards where the baby was hidden. Unfortunately the last of the Cylon centurions had obviously heard him and was moving towards him ahead of her. She needed to reload her gun.

"Lee!" she screamed. He turned and took in the situation at a glance. Kara couldn't get the damned empty chamber out of her gun to re-load. The centurion raised its gun arm and aimed directly towards Alex' hiding place. Lee finally managed to finish off the Cylon he was fighting and charged in. As the centurion started to fire he threw himself over his son. Kara at last managed to re-load her gun and fired, killing the Cylon before it could get off any more shots.

That was the last one; they had survived. She rushed over to where Alex was now screaming fit to burst and picked him up quickly. He was covered in blood.

"Oh thank the Gods, Lee, he's OK," she said, as a quick check revealed that he was unhurt. Her brain suddenly registered that if the blood wasn't his then it had to be Lee's. She turned to where her husband lay unmoving.

"Lee! Lee! Oh, no, don't you do this to me, don't you dare do this to me." She checked for a pulse and was relieved to find one, weak and erratic but there, but the pool of blood collecting around him was growing. She found several bullet holes in the back of his jacket. His left arm was a mangled mess and he had a deep wound above his left eye where a bullet had caught the side of his face. This was definitely beyond her first aid capabilities. She took an instant decision; regardless of the possible presence of a base star, she had to get them out of here and get him to the medics as quickly as possible. She clambered back into the raider, hacked at the last of the connections and threw out the brain. She secured Alex who had by now reached the gulping stage, but who started screaming again, no doubt in objection to the smell inside the raider. She then went back to drag Lee's unconscious body into the ship, trying to ignore the trail of blood he left behind.

"Stay with me Lee" she whispered to him as she squeezed in next to him.

She powered up the ship and took off, praying that the Galactica would be there and that they had taken care of the base star. She had never been gladder to see the old hunk of metal when she came out of the ionosphere and saw its welcoming bulk. She was thankful that she still had one of their radios.

"Galactica, this is Starbuck, do you read me?" Nothing but static. She repeated the hail again. She caught the glimpse of two raiders coming after her. After the third time of hailing Galactica she was starting to get seriously worried when a voice came back.

"Starbuck, this is Galactica. Good to hear your voice. What is your position?"

"I'm in the first raider approaching Galactica so for frak sake tell the CAP not to fire on me, but to take out the two guys chasing me. Get the landing bay clear 'cos I'm coming in in a hurry. I want a medical team standing by and make sure it's Cottle. And you'd better tell the admiral that he needs to be there."

"Roger that Starbuck," replied the concerned voice from the radio.

The CAP approached but instead of firing two of them formed a formation guard around Starbuck's ship as the others charged off to take on the pursuing raiders. Kara brought the raider to a shuddering halt on the landing bay. Cottle was there when they hit the deck, looking grim as she helped them drag Lee out of the raider.

"I can't get a pulse." Cottle stated, grim faced. They got an oxygen mask on him quickly. One of the medics leapt onto the gurney and started CPR as the others pushed the gurney at pace towards sickbay.

Once the medics had rushed off, she pulled the now sleeping Alex from the raider, marvelling at the resilience of children, and collapsed on to the deck with him in her arms and finally gave way to tears. That was how the admiral found her a few minutes later, guided by Tyrol. He didn't say anything but got down on the floor next to her and held her while she cried, moaning Lee's name over and over.

−

Author's note: How was that for you? Couldn't resist the cliffhanger: you know how I usually love a happy ending, but is this the time when I give in to the temptation for a weepy?