Addy crouched back behind the pilot's seat, hunching down and drawing her knees in close to her chest as the Raptor achieved escape velocity and sped toward outer space. It was very quiet in the cramped confines of the cabin, the silence disturbed by occasional sniffles and broken sobs from the little ship's occupants. Even the pilot, Sharon, seemed to be having trouble controlling her tears at first, but soon activity of flying the ship away from Caprica as quickly as possible distracted her from the grief of leaving her ECO and friend behind. She put the thrusters of the Raptor at maximum levels to build up as much sub-light speed as possible, then silence filled the cabin as the engines off. Addy and the other passengers looked toward their pilot with surprise and fear. Did they just loose power? Were they drifting aimlessly now, easy targets?
"We're going to coast for a while. It will help us avoid to detection and conserve fuel," Sharon announced quietly. "With the engines shut down, they won't give off any power signatures for the Cylons to follow, so we should be safer. When we're farther away, we'll launch a communications pod and hopefully a Colonial ship will come pick up our signal. We don't really have the extra fuel to go anywhere in particular."
A collective breath of relief escaped the small group of Caprican survivors.
Addy's hand tightened momentarily into a fist around the whatever-it-was that her father had given her. She wasn't quite willing to look and see what it was just yet. It was small, and metal. That much she could tell from how it pressed into her palm.
Using her other hand to brush her dusty hair away from her face, she looked at the others who were huddled together, shoulder to shoulder. Of the six other children, none seemed to be younger than six or seven years. The littler ones wouldn't be able to keep up running for so long, Addy suddenly realized, remembering her exhaustion after a few hours of fleeing the nukes. Two girls and five boys. Well, three girls, counting herself.
The bookkeeper, as Addy thought of her, had her books piled on her lap, hands white-knuckled around them as though she were clinging to whatever knowledge they contained for dear life. She could just make out the words on the spine of one, and shook her head as she recognized the title from one of her classes at school. An Exposition on the Prophecies of Pythia. Religious books then. Like that was going to do her a whole lot of good out here in the middle of a war.
The long haired young woman was staring off into space, absently rubbing her slightly rounded stomach and mumbling to herself. Her thick accent seemed to indicate she was from Geminon. And the old lady who was the last to board was fast asleep, her glasses propped up on her head, barely visible against the grey of her hair.
Gaius Baltar was pressed up against her shoulder to Addy's immediate right, and seemed to be doing his best to avoid meeting anyone's eyes. He looked just as tired and upset as the rest of them, but there was a nervous tension to him that the girl could sense through the heavy fabric of her dress sleeve. He was also very fidgety, which made sitting beside him uncomfortable as well as irritating.
Doing her best to ignore him, Addy leaned her head back against the framework of the cabin, closed her eyes. She fell into the dreamless sleep of the exhausted almost instantly.
"Three, two, one, launch."
Sharon's count down woke her a short time later. The girl blearily opened her eyes, and shifted to her left to peer around the edge of the seat. She could just barely see the communications pod shooting away from the ship into deeper space. "Drone deployed and transmitting," the pilot said, her eyes watching the console.
"So now they'll come and find us?" the boy in the right hand seat said, looking hopefully toward Sharon.
Lords of Kobol, I hope so, Addy thought to herself, and tried to stretch as best she could, one limb at a time, while half-heartedly listening in on the conversation. Apparently, the kid up front had a father in the fleet, presumed dead. His name was Boxey, that part she got for sure. What a stupid name.. and I thought Addison was bad, her lips twisted into a wry grin that faded quickly. The Raptor and pilot were both based out of a ship called the Galactica. A battlestar. And one of the first twelve. Addy hadn't even realized any original battlestars were even still operational.
The quiet talking came to an end soon after. She was on the verge of falling asleep again when Gaius Baltar started, no, literally almost jumped out of his skin, knocking her to the side. She glared at him, but he paid no mind, staring open mouthed at some spot just beyond the dozing old woman who was sitting in the ECO chair. The girl had no idea what he was looking at, there was nothing there but the work station, and there weren't any blaring alarms or red lights suddenly flashing. Then he closed his eyes and looked away, as if blocking out some disturbing vision.
No way this guy is worth my father. Or that ECO. No way at all, Addy thought, gulping down a lump in her throat. She stared down at her still-clenched fist. Her hand was beginning to ache. After a moment's hesitation, she turned it over and opened it slowly, finally choosing to look and see what she'd held for so long. Nestled in the palm of her hand was a pendant of some sort... looking closer, she realized suddenly that it was a heart-shaped locket, hanging from intricately braided chain. Etched on the surface of the white gold were the words, 'I love you', entwined with delicate vines sprinkled with red and gold tinged flowers. She held her breath as she opened the locket to view the inside, and then her eyes blurred with tears at the sight of the picture inside. It was identical to the one she'd put into her backpack that morning. That morning. So much had happened it seemed like eons ago.
She closed it with a tiny click and then lifted it to clasp around her neck, closing her eyes and exhaling a deep shuddering breath as she tried not to break down completely.
Suddenly, the wireless com crackled, and a man's voice said, "Boomer, this is Apollo, do you read..?" That'd woken everyone up, and they were all leaning to look toward the front of the Raptor, expressions of hope on their faces. Was their rescue finally here?
Sharon aka 'Boomer' fumbled to grab her headset and put it on, speaking into the microphone, "Boomer here, reading you loud and clear Apollo. And am I ever glad to hear your voice, Captain," she responded, almost laughing with relief.
"It's good to hear you too." Apollo's voice was smooth and confident, which somehow reassured Addy. Somewhere, someone was in charge, and getting stuff done. "Sitrep?" That was a request for a situation report. As in, what the frak is going on there?
Taking a deep breath, Sharon answered, "Well we're drifting here right now, sir, trying to avoid contact with the Cylons. Caprica has been nuked, if you haven't heard. We were escorting the CAG's, I mean Captain Spencer's squadron to Caprica when we got ambushed by two Cylon raiders... " Her voice broke, then she said harshly, "Sir, it was a shooting gallery. We didn't have a chance. Our Raptor took a hit to the fuel line but we were able to limp on to Caprica. After landing, we nearly got run over by people fleeing the cities, got a few survivors on board here. Mostly children." She cleared her throat and then said in a pained voice, "Lieutenant Agathon chose to give up his seat to a civilian." Then her tone hardened, "Doctor Gaius Baltar took his place, and is on board with us now."
There was a moment of silence, and Apollo asked, "Boomer, did you say that Lieutenant Agathon stayed behind? On Caprica? And you have the Gaius Baltar with you?" surprise evident in his tone over the wireless.
"Affirmative, sir." Her tone indicated she had nothing more to say on the matter.
Apollo, whoever he was, got the hint. "Understood. Assure your passengers that we'll be there ASAP. Apollo out."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Help was on the way.
As Sharon started up the engines to the Raptor, the mood in the cabin was much lighter now. Which was a relief to Addy, the silence and aura of fear was starting to get to her. She was still scared, of course, but things seemed to be taking a turn for the better now, at least. No one seemed to be willing to be the first to speak, so finally she asked the pilot, "Is your name really 'Boomer?' I thought that, well I could have sworn I heard your ECO call you Sharon, or something like that."
There was a pause, and then the answer came, "I'm Lieutenant Sharon Valerii. My call sign is 'Boomer'. When pilots go through flight training, we all get different call signs, they're like nicknames that we use when we are in combat or doing ship business. Usually they're originally given by our first flight instructors. Some peoples are given by friends..." Her shoulder lifted in a shrug, "It just depends on the person."
The boy sitting in the chair opposite Boomer piped up, "I'm Boxey. And yes it's my real name and not a nickname," he added with a quick grin.
Addy introduced herself, nervously pushing a swath of her hair away from her cheek, "My name is Addison Lynford. Everyone calls me Addy though."
From there, they each took turns introducing themselves. The middle-aged bookkeeper's name was Edith Lambert. Marsie Colvinius was the young woman with the Geminon accent. She'd been on Caprica visiting family, and was pregnant. Waking from her doze, Portia Moehring was the grey-haired old woman. She gave her name and said nothing else before falling back asleep.
Gaius Baltar cleared his throat, and said in his cultured voice, "I'm Doctor Gaius Baltar," putting the slightest pompous emphasis on his title.
"I saw you on television yesterday," Edith Lambert said, her eyes studying the man's face. "On 'Spotlight'. Guess you were wrong, about how advancing computer technology and AI was a good idea," she stated bitterly.
His face went still at mention of the interview, and he sat up a little straighter, his eyes nervously darting left and right before allowing, "Yes, well..." Unwilling to complete the sentence, he looked down and to his right, clearly removing himself from the conversation.
Addy just shook her head as she stared at him, then turned her attention to the other kids on board, more interested in them than the adults anyway.
Tonio Savri sat directly opposite Addy, and was the oldest of the children on the Raptor. His frame was tall and gangly, and he moved with the awkward grace of someone who was enduring a recent growth spurt. He had nut-brown hued skin and a head crowned with short tightly curled black hair. His eyes were so dark they were almost black. The sixteen year old boy was also the only one lucky enough to have a family member on board in the form of his nine year old brother. While the two brothers did share the same skin tone and hair color, that's where the similarities ended. Riley was short and chubby in contrast to his tall sibling, and his dark eyes sparkled with mischief, where Tonio's were gentle and serious.
The blond haired blue-eyed boy to her left was named Julius Edmondson, of the Edmondsons, he haughtily informed them. He was dressed in a fine silk pair of pajamas and rich blue terry cloth robe, and those were his only possessions. He seemed to regard all of them, with the exception of Gaius Baltar and the pilot, with barely concealed contempt, as if it were beneath him to be in such close personal contact with them. Addy had no trouble whatsoever picturing the twelve year old griping about how the end of the world had the audacity to wake him up before noon. The boy's father had been one of the ones to offer money in exchange for a ride off Caprica.
Carmen Avera made Addy feel like the monster Medusa straight from the old stories. She was a beautiful girl with blond hair that hung straight down her back, and had a natural grace that made her seem more mature than the thirteen years she claimed. She was the only one of them that didn't have smears of dirt and grime on her face and clothing. For all her poise though, her hazel eyes were bright and over-large in her face, showing she was feeling the same stress and worry the rest of them were.
Then, there was Samantha Whalen, a girl with mousy brown hair and equally non-descript brown eyes. She told the rest of them she was ten years old in a voice that was barely loud enough to be heard, even in the quiet confines of the Raptor cabin. Very subdued, she alternated between staring off into space and being overtaken by soft broken sobs.
The youngest of them all was the little boy with tousled sandy brown hair and he looked to be about six or seven years old. No one knew for sure, because he wasn't talking. Addy's mom would have looked at his solemn face and blue eyes and said, "He's looked the wind in the eyes." Meaning, he'd seen things few see and live through, and that had changed him. Oh, he could hear, and was aware of what was going on around him because he was clearly following the conversation. But he had an old man's knowledge of the world in a boy's mind and body, and that had stolen his ability to talk. Maybe permanently.
Marsie, the pregnant woman, studied the child and said quietly, "He's probably in shock. I was one of the first people to the ship, and he was already there... He wasn't with anyone though, no family. Not that I saw."
A beeping alarm went off up front near the pilot. "Dradis contact," Sharon said tersely, then with relief added, "Colonial signal," a moment later. "Looks like our ride is here."
The voice of the man they'd heard earlier came over the wireless, "Boomer, Apollo here. We have you on dradis. How are you and your passengers holding up?"
"Fine sir," Boomer replied with a grin, increasing the thrust on the Raptor's engine and turning it to head in the direction of the other ship's location on dradis.
Changing position so that she was on her knees, Addy peered around Lieutenant Valerii's chair, eager to see their rescue ship. It slowly came into view, a long blue and white shape against the blackness of space, the metal hull housing the FTL drives and engines flared behind it like an exotic flower. Something touched her arm and she started, surprised to find the silent blue-eyed boy at her side. He didn't look at her as he reached out to take her hand in his own much smaller one, his gaze was only for the gaping opening in the passenger ship ahead.
"Landing bay is clear for hands on approach. We will meet you on the hangar deck shortly," Apollo said.
"Copy that, sir," Sharon responded, and slowly glided the ship into the bay.
The Raptor came down surprisingly hard on the deck, the rough landing unbalancing Addy enough that she fell back into Baltar, who immediately shoved her away from him. "Sorry," she muttered, trying to reclaim her balance and finding herself aided by the tugging hand of the little boy. He'd grabbed onto the pilot's chair to keep his feet.
Sharon muttered, "Frakking gimbal," under her breath before glancing back at her passengers, "Sorry 'bout that." Her nimble fingers flipped switches on the console, shutting down the engines and finishing up the landing procedures. There was a metallic thunk as the maglock came on, securing the Raptor to the deck. This time, Addy was more prepared and had her hand on the framework as the deck began to lower, drawing the small ship and its contents into the hangar of the passenger vessel.
All of them stood up now, eager to finally be off the small ship. Addy bent down to pick up her backpack, her other hand still held in the boy's.
Tonio said quietly, "Thank you," to Sharon Valerii, ducking his head down with respect as he regarded her. "None of us would be here, if it weren't for you." Addy joined the others in murmuring, "Thank you," to the young pilot who'd rescued them from the ruins of Caprica. The words seemed inadequate to the enormity of what Valerii had done to get them off the planet and into relative safety.
Sharon flushed a little, saying, "I'm just sorry the ship wasn't big enough to save everyone." Her dark eyes swung accusingly to Gaius Baltar, who looked away. "Excuse me." She began working her way from the cockpit to the door of the Raptor, Boxey right behind her, and Addy pressed herself back to allow the two to pass in the cramped quarters. Sharon slapped the door control with the palm of her hand and waited impatiently for it to hiss open.
The door slowly lowered into a ramp, which Boomer and Boxey immediately clambered down to hop down onto the hangar deck . Wide-eyed, Addy inhaled the metallic scent of the ship as she unconsciously tightened her grip on the little boy's hand. She suddenly felt both nervous and afraid again, not quite ready to leave the Raptor. Doing so was like taking another step into the unknown. She glanced at Tonio and Carmen, and saw the same hesitancy on their faces.
Their welcoming party was small, consisting of only four people. A man dressed in blue coveralls, most likely a deckhand, stood beside two slender professional looking women in creamy white outfits. When no one seemed willing to walk down the ramp, the woman with short dark hair climbed up and gave them a comforting smile as she took Marsie Colvinius by the arm and helped her off the ship. "Come on," said the fourth person, a man in a Colonial fleet flight suit, gesturing her toward him and joining the deckhand in helping her down to the metal flooring.
"Excuse me," Marsie said thickly, "My husband... he is with the Colonial Fleet. In Geminon?" sensing that at the uniformed man was in charge. She looked at his face anxiously, seeking reassurance.
"The Colonial Fleet in Geminon," he repeated, as though trying to make a mental note of it. "I'll see what I can do. If you'll just step right this way?" he suggested, gesturing toward the other woman in white, who smiled welcomingly and led the pregnant woman away from the Raptor.
Addy and the little boy were next to go down the ramp, and as the man held out his hand for her to take, saying, "Come on," encouragingly in a voice that somehow seemed familiar, she realized that he must be 'Apollo'. He was surprisingly young. She supposed she expected that he'd be even older than her father, just from how he'd sounded over the wireless com. But looking at his unlined face and blue eyes, she suddenly doubted he was even out of his twenties. Still, for all his youth, he seemed very much in control of the situation, and the other three 'greeters' clearly deferred to him.
Boomer came over and touched the man's arm to get his attention, saying insistently, "Captain?" before leading him a few steps away to give him a rundown on what had all had happened. "I've got two communications pods left, sir. But that's it. No jiggers, no drones, no markers, nothing."
Moving to stand against the hangar wall while they waited for the rest of the kids to unload, Addy and the little boy both took the opportunity to take in their surroundings. The hangar deck seemed immense to her inexperienced eye, and the Raptor was right behind a small fighter ship that she recognized as a Viper. An old one at that, one that may have even dated back to the first Cylon war.
"Yeah, well, at least you still have your electronics suite," Apollo was saying. "That old crate of mine can barely navigate from A to B," he gestured at the Viper with a hint of disgust.
Sharon immediately said, "That old crate may have saved your life, sir," stiffening as she met his eyes.
Surprised, Apollo cocked his head slightly. "How's that?"
"The Viper Mark Sevens? The Cylons shut them down like they threw a switch or something," Lieutenant Valerii explained quickly. "I've been hearing reports like that from all over. The only fighters that have any success at all are either old or in need of some major overhaul."
The young Captain absorbed that, staring at his Viper thoughtfully, before catching sight of Gaius Baltar leaving the Raptor out of the corner of his eye. Jerking a thumb toward the man, he asked Valerii, "That him?"
"Yeah," she responded balefully, looking over at Baltar. "I hope he's worth it," she said sharply, loudly enough to cause those on the deck to look toward the two officers curiously. Addy's eyebrows shot upwards as Sharon said word for word what she'd been thinking ever since the ECO 'Helo' gave up his seat and allowed Gaius to board in his place. Apparently the girl wasn't the only one to have doubts about the doctor. Abashed, Sharon looked away from Apollo, as though surprised by her own outburst. "Sorry, sir."
"Don't be," Apollo said quietly, admitting, "I hope he's worth it too."
The two women helping with the Caprican survivors began to urge Addy and the others past Apollo and Boomer toward a hatch leading deeper into the belly of the passenger ship. "Doctor Baltar.. " As Gaius passed the two officers, Apollo turned quickly, briefly grabbing hold of the doctor's arm to get his attention before introducing himself, "Captain Lee Adama. The president's asked to see you."
Baltar looked confused for a moment, then said with surprise, "President Adar's alive?"
"No," Lee answered with a slight shake of his head, "I'm afraid Adar is dead. President Laura Roslin was sworn in a few hours ago."
"Who?" Gaius looked blankly at Apollo, clearly not recognizing the name.
The barest hint of a wry smile flickered across the officer's face at that reaction before vanishing, and he gestured toward some stairs. "If you'll come with me, she's this way."
Addy looked back over her shoulder at Boxey, who was staying right at Sharon Valerii's side. He met her eyes briefly before turning to follow Apollo, Boomer and Gaius Baltar up the stairs to the upper deck. He clearly didn't plan on leaving the young lieutenant's side until forced to.
"This way." Her guide's voice got her attention, and the girl stepped through the hatch into a walkway, the other children following behind. There was a quiet murmur of voices echoing in the metal hall from up ahead. "We finished loading all the people from another ship onto this one a little while ago. They're still getting settled in." She hesitated, then added, "I'm Tavani Rosel, by the way, and that's Anna Kersh," indicating the other woman. "We were both junior staff members for Miss Roslin.. I mean President Roslin," she corrected herself, giving a rueful smile. "It's... been a long day and we're still kind of figuring out what is going on."
Edith shifted her books in her arms, then asked pointedly, "What exactly is going on?" The Caprican survivors all looked toward the two staffwomen expectantly.
There was a slight pause as Tavani met Edith's eyes and then looked away. "Here's what we do know... the Cylons have launched massive attacks on all of the Colonies, near as we can tell. We were actually on our way back to Caprica from the Galactica's decommissioning ceremony when we found out."
Addy couldn't quite stifle a whimper, and ducked her head down so that her long hair hid her tears. All of the colonies had been hit then, not just Caprica. It was even worse than she'd imagined. The pregnant Geminon woman broke down, her quiet sobs were soon joined by cries from the others. The relief of being rescued had just been scoured away by realization of how bad things actually were.
Tavani continued quietly, "Right now, it seems like the Cylons are just going around from system to system and cleaning up. They've taken out a lot of the starbases and ships. They've already come after us twice, and thank the gods that Captain Apollo was our escort from the Galactica, he's saved us both times."
Anna, the shorter and darker haired of the two women, rubbed her head with a graceful hand, "I still have a headache from whatever he did the second time, but we're alive, so I can't complain too much. Anyway, a few hours ago, we found out President Adar and most of the cabinet were dead or missing. Laura Roslin, the Secretary of Education under Adar, was next in line of succession, so she was sworn in as the President. Right now, we're engaged in rescue operations and trying to find a safe place to hide from the Cylons." Her expression indicated she sincerely hoped such a place existed.