Thirteen

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Graduation Ceremony

Starbuck got back to Tuzinor just in time to see the graduation ceremony of her class of Rangers. She, along with Boomer and Helo, had been graduated early because of the pressing need for them on the front line as well as their previous military experience. Since then, she had commanded an entire fleet of Whitestars and grown in her role as a leader, which surprised a lot of people, most of all herself.

She looked back at the last few months since the Colonial fleet had encountered the Earth Alliance and realized that she had changed dramatically. Gone were the days of recklessness and rebellion, where she was not afraid to tell anyone anything, no matter how high up the chain of command they were. She still could do that if the need arose, but she realized that there was a time and a place for stuff like that.

They were not really any safer than they had been before they met the Earthers, of course. The Cylons were still out there, and now even more dangerous since they had made common cause with the Drakh in an alliance that baffled many among the Anla'shok. While she hadn't been through the Shadow War or the Drakh plague, she realized faster than almost all the others why the alliance had formed in the first place: convenience. It was much easier for the Cylons and the Drakh to do what they wanted to do together instead of separately, and worry about what they would do after they won later.

It was foolishness, in Starbuck's mind. They may still have a massive offensive capability, but they were beatable, and not as effective as they seemed to be. The defense against the Cylon virus, along with the new weaponry added on to the Colonial ships, had given them the upper hand at the Battle of Babylon 5, and now the Cylons and Drakh were plotting an attack on Earth, which struck her as a desperate, last ditch move to win the war.

She glanced over at the graduates as they walked to the stage, where John Sheridan, in his role as Entil'zha, head of the Rangers, would conduct the ceremony. Instead of diplomas, he would pin the badge of the Anla'shok onto them, which consisted of a human and Minbari figure on opposite sites of a clear precious gem. It was simple and elaborate at the same time, and meant a lot to Starbuck, because it symbolized her rebirth as a person.

Her heart was bursting as Sheridan made his way to Anders, pinning the badge onto his uniform breast and shaking his hand, saying a few words that Starbuck couldn't make out. The entire Caprica Buccaneer team was graduating together, or at least all those who had survived. Starbuck's smile fell as she remembered seeing one of the team members, Sue-Shaun, hooked into a machine that harvesting her eggs. Her heart broke all over again as she remembered Sue-Shaun asking her to kill her as well as the other women hooked up to the machines. She was weakened from the bullet wound she had suffered as well as the operation which she later learned had been to take her left ovary for harvesting, but she wielded the blunt instrument as best she could and destroyed the machine, killing her friend but ending her misery.

She managed to regain her smile when she looked over at Boomer and Helo. The son that Boomer had given birth to was to be named William Agathon, after Admiral Adama. The child was supposedly free of the Cylon influence, and was carefully watched by the Ranger medical staff, many of who had watched over the birth and development of another hybrid child.

That thought brought her eyes over to David Sheridan, who, at seventeen years old, was fast growing into a man. He had his father's good looks and charisma, but his mother's intelligence and common sense. To Starbuck, David was very unlike the seventeen year old boys she had seen in high school. Then again, with the crowd she ran around with back then, the boys were pretty much driven almost exclusively by hormones. David, though, was very much unlike them, which led Starbuck to believe he would eventually become an outstanding Ranger.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the newly commissioned Rangers spoke as one: "I am a Ranger. We walk in the dark places no others will enter. We stand on the bridge and no one may pass. We live for the One. We die for the One." Sheridan dismissed the Rangers and the ceremony ended, with the graduates heading towards their friends and fellow Rangers to socialize after the event.

Anders embraced her with a huge hug, and Starbuck felt wonderful to be in his arms again, for it had been too long since they had been together. "Congratulations!" she said.

"Thanks! Roughest training camp I ever went through, that's for sure! The way I feel right now, though, I could take on those Aerelon bastards all by myself!" Anders replied.

"You know, we really should set up a pyramid court around here! With everything going on, we need to hold onto as much of our culture as we can." Starbuck said.

"What makes you think we don't have one? Rally, Ten-Point, and I built one back behind the barracks on some empty patch of land, and we've been teaching the game to the Earthers and the Minbari."

A voice coughed behind them, and they both turned to see Sheridan behind them. "I hate to interrupt, but I need to talk to Ranger Thrace."

"Trying to steal my woman, eh Sheridan?" Anders said jokingly.

Sheridan laughed and said, "If I were single and thirty years younger, you'd never have a chance!" All three of them laughed as Anders got one last hug in before Starbuck departed with Sheridan to his office. "He's going to make an outstanding Ranger." Sheridan said.

"Never doubted that one bit!" Starbuck said.

Sheridan chuckled and said, "You sound like someone I know all so well."

"Really, sir. Who would that be?"

"Ivanova, of course. You two have a lot more in common that you imagine."

"How is she doing these days? It's been so long since I've seen her." Starbuck said.

"Back on Earth, she's planning the defense of the planet against the attack we know is coming. Cain's been helping her with the planning, and they've done a great deal of work together."

Starbuck was surprised at this, commenting, "I never imagined those two would be able to get along after the scene on the Pegasus."

"Tell me about it! Usually Ivanova's very slow to forgive someone wronging her, but evidently she and Cain make a very good team." They continued the small talk all the way to his office on the grounds of the academy, which was adjacent to the headquarters of the Interstellar Alliance, of which he had recently retired as president.

"Sit, please." Sheridan said. Starbuck took a chair across from his desk as he rounded it and sat down. "I need to ask you for a favor."

"Whatever you need, sir." Starbuck replied.

"My son will be going into the Rangers soon. He's going to not want special treatment, and I am going to oblige him…mostly. There is one thing I do want for him, and that is for his training missions to be with you."

Startled at the thought, Starbuck asked, "Why?"

"Because he needs someone to train him that won't pass him just for my sake. And you're that person."

A flashback of Zak Adama came into her mind, and she managed to stumble out, "Sir, I don't know if that would be a good idea…"

"I know about what happened to Zak." Sheridan said, cutting to the chance.

Starbuck was completely caught off guard by this revelation. "Sir, who told you?"

"Admiral Adama, when I asked his opinion of this matter."

"And what did he say?" Starbuck asked nervously.

"That you were the best one for the job."

Starbuck was a bit thunderstruck by this, so Sheridan went further, saying, "We all make mistakes, Kara. Small mistakes, big mistakes, mistakes that get people killed. Mistakes of the heart that come back to bite us in the ass."

"So, you still want me to have David on board as a trainee when the time comes?"

Sheridan nodded and said, "You've come a long way here, Kara. You've grown a lot, matured a lot. Frankly, just between you and me, you're probably the best Ranger I've seen since a guy named Marcus Cole, and he was pretty damn good."

Starbuck had heard of Marcus from Ivanova, and knew what kind of compliment he was paying her. "I don't know if I would go that far, sir. Sometimes it seems a little whelming still!"

Sheridan chuckled and said, "So did commanding a space station, but I managed to do a good job of it. Trust me, if I didn't think you were up to it, I wouldn't have brought this up."

"Can I ask you something, sir?" Starbuck asked.

"Sure." Sheridan said.

Starbuck told him about what Delenn said about eventually succeeding Ivanova as head of the Anla'shok, when the time came. "Wouldn't it make sense to have your son ascend to that position?"

"I doubt he'll want it, Kara. In fact, when the time comes, I think he may leave the Rangers."

Starbuck was puzzled and asked, "Why do you say that?"

"I'm dying, Kara. I have a few months to live. It's a long story, but my time is running out. Delenn and I have decided to ask Ivanova to take over as head of the Anla'shok upon my death. Knowing her, she'll say yes.

"David will take my death hard. He knows it's coming, but still…it doesn't really matter if it happens suddenly or if you know its coming, death still sucks. I suspect that he'll eventually want to 'find' himself and to be his own man, so to speak."

"What does that have to do with me?" Starbuck asked.

"David is of both races, Kara, Minbari and human. Delenn will probably remain ISA president for as long as she lives, and, given Minbari life spans, will be a long time indeed. We have set up a tradition that one of the two major offices in the ISA would be held by one human and one Minbari, and since David is of both, that disqualifies him, in a sense. Besides, I have the feeling in my bones that he's not going to want to follow in the old man's footsteps, but go on his own road."

"But why me, sir? I've not been here long enough to understand Earth culture, much less Minbari culture!" she asked earnestly.

"We see something in you, Kara. Something that maybe Delenn and myself, and possibly Ivanova, can only see. We've been through the grinder of war, and we know what it takes to bear the responsibilities that we have. You have some of those same abilities, even though you may not think so.

"It's not like you have to decide now, though. Ivanova may be getting up there in age, but she's still got many years left in her. By the time she passes away, you'll be ready to take on the job."

Starbuck thought about it and then said, "Okay, I'll do it. If you believe in me that much, then I'll do it."

Sheridan smiled warmly and got up, reaching across his desk and extended his hand, which Starbuck shook. "Believe me, Starbuck, you can do it. I have faith in you, and so does Delenn. And you know what they say about faith here!"

"Faith manages!" Starbuck said with a smile.

"Abso-fragging-lutely!" Sheridan replied with a laugh.