Chapter 3

Stephen surveyed the chaos of Gaius Baltar's lab. The erstwhile vice president had either left in a hurry without a chance to tidy it up, or deliberately left behind a mess so that no one could quite figure out what he'd done.

"Where do we start?" asked Gaeta who, as the person with the most knowledge of Baltar's work, had been assigned to work with Stephen and verify the validity of the tests.

"Let's start by working through his notes and then we'll start sorting through the samples."

By the end of the first day Stephen had pretty much worked out what Baltar was trying to do with the Cylon detection test. It was essentially a sound test but, in his opinion, overly elaborate. He felt that he had a good idea as to how he could strip it down, reduce the variability and simplify it significantly, which would increase the throughput and the reliability. Why Baltar had felt he needed radioactive plutonium was beyond his comprehension. Given what they now knew about Gaius Baltar's activities and allegiances he didn't really want to think about what the man had been intending to do with the nuclear device. He was more than happy to get the remains of it out of the lab and returned to Galactica's armoury.

The samples were a different matter. Baltar's approach to running the tests seemed to have been rather random. His progress with testing all the key members of the fleet had also been painfully slow. They found samples from Sharon Valerii (versions 1 and 2) and also from specialist Lammer, whom Lee and Kara had identified as a Cylon. He was still in the brig awaiting confirmation that he was in fact a Cylon before the admiral decided what to do with him. Kara's sample was no where to be found so the Gods only knew what Baltar had done with that. Stephen was also very concerned about how they had been stored, and if that would affect the results, but that couldn't be helped: as far as he was concerned that's what you got from putting biological testing in the hands of a computer scientist!

Stephen and Gaeta worked away through the rest of the week and got everything ready for re-initiating testing. In his reports to the admiral, Gaeta couldn't help but reflect on the superior approach he saw in Stephen's work compared to Baltar's.

Once they were ready to start, Kara came into the lab to give them a new sample. She heaved herself up on to the treatment couch and offered her arm to Stephen with a grin on her face.

"Do your worse, doc!" He took the sample without any fuss, but stopped her as she made to get up.

"Woo, woo, you're not going anywhere just yet. Doc Cottle told me that your blood pressure is a bit erratic and that I needed to keep you lying down for at least ten minutes after taking the sample.

"For that? That wasn't much more than a pin prick!"

"That's as may be, but I for one don't want to have to explain to Lee why you passed out in one of Galactica's corridors."

"OK, OK, you're the boss. Come to think of it I haven't had a chance to sit down all day; I've been doing evaluations of the pilot's landing techniques; 'completely crap' doesn't even begin to cover it! A rest wouldn't go amiss, especially as junior here decided it was a good time to play in the middle of the night so I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Do you know what flavour this one is?"

"Yup; another boy, which is fine by me. It gives Alex a baby brother to play with and I'm used to keeping Adama men in line: Gods know what the female of the species might be like, especially with my genes thrown in as well!"

"I bet Lee wouldn't have minded a little blonde-haired, blue eyed princess to spoil." She gave him a disgusted look.

"Like any child of ours would be allowed to behave like that! No, he wouldn't care if the baby's blue with green spots as long as we're both healthy; he's just so excited about becoming a dad again."

She sat back and watched Stephen work. She gave Gaeta a quick wink and went onto the attack.

"So Whiz, how's your love life?" He just laughed.

"It's been better."

"That's what I thought. We need to sort that out for you. Just leave it to Starbuck the doctor of lerve!"

"Oh Lords, Kara, don't even think about it. I still have nightmares about the last time you tried to fix me up."

"Yeah, well how was I supposed to know that she had sado-masochistic tendencies?"

"I would have thought 'lerve' doctors would have done a little basic research before inflicting people on their victims!"

Gaeta snickered at them, but before he got a chance to hear Kara's reply a PA system announcement called him to CIC, so Stephen and Kara were left alone. He gave her a long look. Despite her laughter, there were dark patches under her eyes and she was even paler than normal.

"Are you sure that you should still be working Kara? You look tired."

"Gee thanks, that's made me feel real good, Whiz!" She gave him a sour look, but then she gave up the pretence and her face took on a more sombre expression. "I'm OK. Helo, who's my deputy, is taking on a lot of the donkey work and anything that I physically can't do, but it's still hard. I mean how do you think you'd feel if you had to carry this lot about," she gestured toward her pregnant belly, "try to be the CAG, look after a toddler and help your disabled other half! Course I'm frakking tired." She looked at him for a long moment as if weighing something up in her mind. It was obvious that she made a decision to get a few things off her chest. Stephen was glad that he could play the role of confidante for her.

"When I was carrying Alex, Lee insisted on waiting on me hand, foot and finger. Drove me absolutely mad! I complained like hell at the time, but now….now he'd love to be able to do it again but he can't: the boot's well and truly on the other foot. You know, every morning I have to dress our eighteen month old son and I have to help Lee to do the same. My beautiful, courageous Lee who could fly rings round Cylon raiders and now I have to put his shoes and socks on for him! Don't get me wrong, I don't resent having to do these things for him one iota, it's just that it tugs at my heart every time I have to do it knowing how hard it must be for him to be so dependent."

"But the pair of you seem so happy."

"That's the ironic thing really: we are. I just wish it could be easier for him and may be one day it will be, but it's taking a long time and a lot of effort on his part. He's determinedly positive, but I see the mask slip sometimes and it just makes me want to scream out at the injustice of it all. Before this all happened we kinda knew that we loved each other, that we were happy together, but life was always such a rush. He was being CAG and I was busy trying to teach new pilots for him. If it wasn't the Cylons then it was the government. If it wasn't the government, then it was some other crisis in the fleet that took up our time. We always thought that we'd have all the time in the world once we'd escaped the Cylons to explore all our feelings for each other. Amazingly naïve really when you think that either of us could have been killed when we went out in our vipers each day, but it was like we thought that we lived charmed lives or something. And then it was almost all taken away from me, and it was then that I realised what I had and what I needed to do. I realised that I was what was holding Lee together. Me, Kara Thrace, renowned screw up who's frakked up every personal relationship she's ever had, and this wonderful, honourable, loving man was hurting so badly that I was the only thing keeping him sane. It broke down the wall that had been holding back my feelings: I just knew that he needed to see everything I felt about him that I'd kept hidden for fear of being hurt or loosing everything. And so I let him all the way in at last and he did the same with me, and now we don't care who knows it and who sees it and it feels wonderful." By the time she finished, her face had taken on a luminous glow and he felt humbled and proud by the way that his friends had risen to the challenge of Lee's injuries.They had used it to strengthen their relationship rather than destroy it. He took her hand in his and raised it to his lips.

"You're a very special woman, Kara Thrace, and Lee is lucky to have you."

"It works both ways, Stephen. He's saved me from myself so many times that I've lost count." He leaned over and placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Why don't you take a quick nap? I'll cover for you."

"Probably won't be any need. What Lee said was right; this is a family ship now. Everybody covers for everybody else because we know we're all we have left."

"Yes, I've sensed that. I hope that when I get these tests done I can join that family."

He started to process her sample as quietly as possible to let her rest. The next time he looked over he realised that Kara was fast asleep. Her hand was draped protectively over her belly and her mouth was half open: she was snoring delicately. He smiled and put a blanket gently over her. As Gaeta came back into the lab he put his fingers to his lips.

"Mr Gaeta, could you let them know in CIC where they can find the CAG if they really, really need her?" he whispered.

-

The results of the tests were clear: Sharon and Lammer were confirmed to be Cylons. Kara definitely wasn't and neither were any of the people who had been on board the Astrella. The crew of the Astrella were now allowed to return to their ship and join the fleet officially. Stephen was going to stay on Galactica as the new chief scientific officer to replace Gaius Baltar: he was heartily glad to be away from captain Mira. He slipped into life aboard Galactica with surprising ease. He worked closely with the admiral and Lee on analysing all the planetary data the Astrella expedition had collected, hoping to identify a suitable planet on which to again try re-colonisation. Kara and Lee introduced him to the crew via an evening playing cards in the rec room. If he noticed Kara's subtle attempts to put him together with the pretty brunette pilot he couldn't quite remember the name of, he didn't show it. He did exchange a smile with Lee at her antics and received a knowing smirk in return! Kara was more successful in persuading him to try flying a viper again. She got him in the mark VII one morning, much to the junior pilots' disgust.

"How come he gets to try out on the mark VII? We never get a go at it." Unfortunately this remark was uttered within Kara's hearing.

"Because, shit for brains, it's Apollo's plane, which he has now assigned to me as the CAG, and as I can't use it at the moment I get to choose who does. As I'd really like it to be in one piece when I can fly again I wouldn't let you anywhere near it, but unlike you Whiz has actually flown a mark VII before. I trust him with it and as it was the last viper mark that he flew, his technique's gonna come back much quicker in something he knows. Now get your sorry ass out of my sight before I re-assign you to late shift permanently."

Everything went surprisingly well with his test. Stephen remembered more than he thought he would. The feel of the plane came back quickly and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed being in a fighter again. By the end of the test the nuggets were no longer questioning whether he should be allowed to fly the mark VII. He was still concerned about flying in a combat situation, but agreed to let Kara put him in the CAP rotation when she had no other options.

If he was going to be flying again Stephen thought that he had better get some conditioning work done in the gym. He knew that Lee had physio sessions there everyday and decided to join him. When he got there it was obvious that Lee had already been at it for sometime. He was on a weight training machine, attempting to do leg strengthening exercises. Even though it was obvious that he had worked to keep himself in reasonable shape, he was dripping with sweat and red in the face with exertion. Stephen was concerned for him.

"Why are you pushing yourself like this Lee? I know you want to improve but it's gonna take a bit of time and patience old friend."

"Hey, not so much of the old! I'm doing it for Kara."

"She seems quite happy with you how you are," Stephen replied gently.

"It's not that, it's for when she has the baby. Galactica's not exactly set up with a great obstetrics service you know. When she was having Alex she had to endure the entire twenty two hour labour with virtually no pain relief. The most comfortable position she could find was standing up, leaning against me. We stood like that for hours, me just rocking her and rubbing her back as she fought through each pain. Doc Cottle said that it was like a little dance! I want to be able to do the same for her when this baby comes. I'd do anything to make it easier for her; she didn't really want to have another baby so soon after Alex."

"That surprises me. She seems really happy about it."

"Yeah, well it came as very welcome news at a bad time. During those early weeks after I'd been injured we thought that our chances of having a bigger family the old fashioned way had gone. It's still not certain that I'll be able to father more children, but that's less of a concern now with this one on the way."

"So what's the problem?"

"It's my arm. The strength is returning to my legs but with only one arm, I can't get the propulsion or balance I need to stand, let alone walk. This thing's useless." He pointed to the artificial arm he was currently using. It was little more than cosmetic.

"May be I can help with that."

"I really wish you could Whiz."

Stephen thought about all he knew of the natural physiology of the human arm and what one might be able to do mechanically to replace it. He started on a design and got so into it that he didn't realise until he'd completed it that he'd worked through the night. Rather bleary-eyed, but excited about his work, he went to find the man with the wherewithal to make it happen.

"Chief Tyrol, I've got a bit of a project that I'm working on. Do you have any of these parts?" He gave the chief a piece of paper. The chief ran his expert eye over the list.

"What are you making?"

"A new arm for Apollo. I could do with some help if you're up for extra work."

"A mechanical arm? Never done anything like that before. Come with me, doc and let's see what we've got." It was clear that the chief was up for the challenge.

Stephen and Tyrol worked away at the mechanical arm: it was a great way for Stephen to get to know someone who he realised was very important on Galactica. They got the basic structure assembled, but when it came to wiring some of the electronics, they ground to a halt. The chief looked over Stephen's shoulder as he tried to thread some wiring into a small opening.

"Oh that's way beyond our capabilities, doc. You need someone with small hands. I'll send you Cally.

Cally approached the lab with excitement bubbling inside her. She would do anything to help Apollo. She had never quite gotten over her crush for him, although she had to admit that his friend was also quite gorgeous and didn't have the added complication of being in love with (and married to) another woman.

Stephen looked up at the tentative knock on the hatch to see a sweet, elfin face surrounded by soft brown hair smiling up at him.

"Reporting as requested, sir." He held out his hand and shook one of hers: she did indeed have very small, delicate hands.

"You must be Cally. Please call me Stephen or Whiz. I have no rank here yet so there's no need for all that 'sir' business." She grinned disarmingly back at him.

They worked away together diligently. It was obvious to him that Cally was a fine technician, despite the fact that she looked to be no more than twelve. It was also obvious to him that she thought the world of the Adamas, especially Lee. She made several suggestions for improvement in the arm, tentatively at first, but with more confidence as he praised her work and accepted her recommendations. The wide smile and blush that accompanied his praise made him feel surprisingly good in return.

They kept working whenever they could get a spare moment. By the end of it Stephen had hardly slept for two nights, so determined was he to finish, and he knew that he looked liked shit. However it was all worth it when his friend came for his first fitting: the look of wonder on Lee's face when he managed to move the fingers for the first time was worth all the hard work.

"I just can't thank you enough Stephen. It's….it's amazing." He gave his friend a fierce hug and then went to do the same to the chief and an ecstatic Cally.

"You guys are the best!"

Kara, who had been watching the proceedings with a keen eye, gave Stephen a quiet hug and a kiss on the cheek. The look on her face told him everything he needed to know about how grateful she was.

"That's about another 10,000 cubits we owe you, Whiz."

"Let's call it quits shall we? If the two of you hadn't given me the courage to quit the military I'd probably be dead now. I guess my life's gotta be worth more than a few thousand cubits."

"Right now, seeing that look on his face, you're worth your weight in gold!"

Author's note: Glad you seem to be enjoying this one: I'm definitely enjoying writing it. I hope it hasn't got too mushy for you. I think I've now pretty much descended from meringue into marshmallow. The next (and last) chapter is shaping up to be even sappier so anyone not partial to hyperglycaemia has been warned!