The Chief spent the next few days trying to be as aloof as possible. Securing a raptor and clearance was not an easy task. He had managed to be the only one with a duty shift on the hanger deck at midnight the next day, with a raptor securely there. Everyone thought the raptor was badly damaged, but he had fixed it during his off-hours. The window of opportunity was there, and all he needed was the clearance.

Well, clearance and to pilot a raptor away from of the fleet, which he wasn't really qualified to do, find Sharon using coordinates he had seen in a dream, and come back in one piece and hope that a court martial was the worst thing he would face.

I must be out of my mind he thought on a regular basis.

As far as he knew, nobody knew what he was up too, though he had a feeling Cally suspected something. She had taken to giving him a lot of "Don't-do-anything-stupid" looks lately. Helo also had caught him in his secret rearranging of duty shifts twice. He had to make up some half-ass excuses that would be amazed if Helo believed. He considered asking Helo to come with him, which would certainly solve his piloting problem, but he wouldn't ask Helo to risk this much.

Clearance was his biggest problem at the moment. He wasn't in a position to be searching for a clearance code without rousing suspicion. Not that he hadn't tried, but it only managed to arouse suspicion. Sometimes he wondered if he should even bother, but the Chief knew that without clearance, he probably wouldn't get off the hangerdeck.

But as his window of opportunity approached, he realized that he didn't have a choice. It would take weeks to organize another one and Sharon would probably be dead by then. So that night he headed down to the hangerdeck, with a slight pit in his stomach.

He then headed to the raptor, with the supposed intention of checking the heating coils, when he realized someone had sealed it shut.

"Noticed have you" The Chief turned around and saw Helo standing right behind him.

"What's going on?" he asked attempting to sounding innocent. "I was checking the coils on that and..."

"You can drop the charade Chief, you fixed the coils three days ago, yu were going to use that raptor to rescue Sharon. Though how you're going to get out of here without clearance is beyond me."

"I don't know what you're talking about I..." Helo cut him off again

"You're trail wasn't exactly hard to follow. Did you really think I would believe you switched Cally off this shift because there was a pyramid game she wanted to go to?" nobody plays Pyramid at midnight." The Chief winced at the memory, he had wished since then that he had thought of a better excuse. "I set myself up for a shift with Racetrack, and put her off on the way down here, we have a few minutes."

"And I suppose you're just going to turn me in?" Helo shook his head.

"I'm here to make you an offer. I can give you a clearance code and pilot the raptor, but only if you take me along."

"I can't ask you to do that," the Chief said automatically.

"You're not asking, I'm volunteering." Helo responded "And face facts, you need me, You won't get off the hangerdeck without a clearance code and even if you do. You aren't qualified to fly a raptor. I am." There was too much truth in this to ignore, but the Chief was still reluctant.

'You'd be risking everything..."

"I love Sharon too remember." That was all it took.

"Ok" the Chief, said finally "C'mon, we have to get going."

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