Battlestar Galactica Ghost ship Chapter 2, a battlestar galactica: 2003 fanfic

Disclaimer –

"Knight Sabers" or "Bubblegum Crisis" characters are the property of Artmic and Youmex, No infringement of Copyright is intended.

The character "Daigo Ajax" is my own,

Battlestar Galactica

'Ghost Ship'

Chapter One

11 MONTHS SINCE THE COLONIAL HOLOCAUST

"Galactica Approach, this is Mining shuttle Bravo Rig 4" Said the young teenager in the shuttles pilot seat as he slowly made corrections to his approach vector.

"Mining Bravo Rig 4 shuttle, this is Galactica, approach port landing bay, hands on, speed one-zero-zero, checkers red, call the ball." Replied the Galactica landing officer over the radio.

"Easy kid" replied the more older man in the seat next to the younger pilot "Bring your Vector up just five more 5 Degrees and start to slow to moving thrusters once we're inside the pod"

"Aye Sir" replied the young pilot in training.

"Easy Kid just bring her up another two degrees, otherwise we're end up having a Ramp Strike on our hands" the young pilot nodded as he began to correct his shuttle approach once again.

"Galactica, This is Rig 4, 250,000,000 Lbs, Green lights across the board I have the ball" he stated keying the radio mike.

"Roger that" replied the Galactica landing officer as the shuttle craft entered the flight pod and slowed to a dead stop above the Galactica main elevator shaft, slowly the shuttle touched down with a large clank onto the metal surface. The older man unbuckled his seat restraint as the shuttle slowly sank into the hanger bay. "Start powering down the engines and then help unload the materials. I've got some business to concluded Rick" he said moving from the cockpit, as the pilot confirmed his order and started the process to power down the shuttle.

The old man reached the rear compartment when he felt the thump as the elevator shaft above them closed shut. He waited for few minutes while the shuttle was towed into the hanger bay to unload its supplies of material goods. As the shuttle entered the pressurised bay, green lights on the sensor panel lit up. To confirm that it was okay to finally open the shuttle hatch. He pulled on the latch so he could rotated it round, finally a loud clank meant that the door was opening,

As soon as the large door opened the shuttle compartment was flooded with the should of the busy hanger instead of the silent humming of the shuttles engines. The old man emerged from the shuttle and stood on top of one of the wings as he watched the Galactica crew go about their business.

"Captain Ajax?" someone said to him catching the old mans attention.

"What's up?" the older and more weathered Daigo Ajax as he turned and looked at the man who had just called his name.

"I'm Chief Tyrol" said the man wearing a colonial Fleet Orange Jumpsuit.

"Pleasure to meet you Chief" responded Daigo as he walked up to the edge of the shuttle wing before leaping down to the hanger deck. "But I'll be happier if you called me Major and not Captain"

"I'm sorry Sir but military statue 43-B state that only Military ranks can be used by colonial officers during a time at war" Tyrol stated, Daigo just stared at him with out a sense of expression on his face, Slowly he reached down into the duffle bag he had brought with him and pulled out a worn leather jacket. Tyrol watched as Daigo pulled it on over the black civilian flight suit he was wearing, Tyrol stared at the garment and at the patches that were sown onto the jacket. It was endowed with patches of Battlestar and Viper squadrons that Tyrol could only dream about.

"Statue 127-A also states that any former member of the Colonial military retains their rank even after being discharged from the service"

"Sorry Sir" Tyrol finally stutter out "I wasn't aware that you were military"

"I was a space Jockey and I'll always be a space Jockey" Daigo answered back "Now instead of teaching punk nosed nuggets how to fly Vipers, I'm now teaching kids how to fly shuttle craft" he said turning his attention back to the mining transport shuttle.

"You mind pointing me towards the nest, it been a long time since I stepped on one of these old birds"

"It that way on level 15, Beta section" answered Tyrol as he pointed towards the bow of the Battlestar.

"Oh and chief, can you check the shuttle gimble, she wasn't very smooth in mid-flight" The Chief nodded before Daigo started to walk off.

"I'll get right on it" answered Tyrol

Starbuck knew she had a winning hand, the only problem was most of her competition also knew what she was holding. The deck of full colour cards had become so worn out, everyone knew which card was which by looking at the back of the card

"I'm folding" said Kat throwing her cards at the discard pile in the centre of the table

"Oh Come on Kat at lest play" answered Starbuck as she threw her own cards down in frustration.

"It's not worth playing until we get a new deck" Kat responded as she picked up her tankard and began to take a sip from it.

"And were in the frakking world are we find a new set of cards?" replied Starbuck as the door to the Pilots Bar known to them as the Nest, slammed closed. Her line of sight trained by years of combat training travelled up to investigate the cause of the sound.

"Frak me" she said in shock as she saw who had just entered the bar to her she was seeing a ghost walking into the bar

"Well Well Kara it's been so long and is that's all you got to say to me?" Daigo Ajax said as he stared across the bar at Starbuck. Everyone else in the room stared back and forth as they watched their speechless CAG Starbuck staring at a grinning Daigo

"Arr… Starbuck who's he?" asked Kat as she leaned over. There was a quick murmur on what their relationship might be by the Pilots and officers in the nest, ranging from former lovers to her former flight instructor.

"Well my darling daughter, aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?" after that remark there were a few more gaping holes as pilots jaws dropped in shock.

"Father?" was the concurring answer from the pilots in the room whose brains were still working.

Kara Thrace brain meanwhile was working on the quickest tactical way out of the Nest. Daigo meanwhile was making his way over to the bar when he felt a tug on his sleeve. Turning to see a some what unusual expression on his daughters face as she spoke up to him.

"Follow me now" she ordered as she jumped to her feet and stormed out of the bar. Daigo just shrugged at the rest of the pilots as he followed suite.

As he reached the outside hall he found Starbuck waiting for him, she didn't look very happy to see him. He knew that their last conversation didn't end on a well note but he expected her to be happy to see him.

"Well father?"

"Well what?" he answered back

"Well what the Frak is what I mean, the last time I heard from you that you were on Picion, telling me that you were taking some civilian instructor post, I been thinking that you were dead" the last statement was followed out by an uncontrollable outburst of crying as Starbuck latched onto her father.

"I'm sorry Kara" he answered as he wrapped his big arms around her in a hug "But I had my reasons Kara, mainly because I had to captain my own ship and crew like you had to keep order around all those hot headed pilots"

"Hun? What ships?" she looked up in a questioning glance, he just smiled as he touched the top of her lip with finger to silence her,

"Come on I want to see those Viper your flying" Daigo said as he led her away in a hugging embrace.

"So why didn't you try contacting me? Asked Kara as they entered the hanger deck.

"Don't you think that I tired? That first month after the Cylon attack the communications between the fleet was a shambles" he paused for a second to reflect "While I had only taken the captaining job on the Mining ship Majahual to get from Picon to Caprica, It was a simple babysitting job until the ship picked up a seasoned crew at Caprica" For Kara she just seemed to squish tighter to her old man.

"God Kara you haven't hugged me this hard since you has nightmares when you were a kid" Kara punched him in the rib with a half hearted laugh. "Now that the kid I raised"

"Sir?" Daigo turned to see Chief Tyrol standing in front of his shuttle, standing with him was the young pilot that Daigo was training named Rick Conrad. Both of them were covered in a black slime liquid which could have only been coolant.

"What the frak happened?" Daigo asked as he rose in eyebrow in a questioning glance at the two of them.

"You were right" replied Tyrol "the gimble flow regulator was blocked, if we hadn't found this problem now it would have caused the shuttle craft to explode in mid flight" Daigo stared in shock.

"Just how long till we can get her flying again?" he said referring to the shuttle.

"I would say at lest three days, we need to strip the coolant feeder to find the blockage" he paused to look back "But I would say longer as she badly needs a service"

"You're kidding me" replied Daigo as he stared back at Tyrol, Tyrol just shocked his head. "Frakcarb" Daigo turned and looked at Kara "guess you aren't getting rid of me so soon" both Tyrol and the young shuttle pilot glanced at each other through the corner of theirs eyes. Both of them knew their respected co-worker were to be a bit of a grouch at times and tender not to express their emotion to anyone they knew.

"Right we better let the colonel know that the shuttles going to be parked here longer then it was originally intended" said Kara grabbing a hold of her father jacket and dragged him away. Both Tyrol and Rick stared off as they watched them walk away.

"Amazing"

"You're telling me"

The Galactica CIC was a buzz of activity as they were currently busy reloading supplies from the main fleet after returning from patrolling the Asteroid field that the Majahual had been mining in.

"Colonel Tigh" said Starbuck as she entered and saluted the Galactica XO

"What the frak is it Starbuck, can't you see I'm busy?" responded Tigh as he shifted through a pile of paperwork.

"Sorry Sir, but the Majahual Shuttle number 4 has had engine problems and Chief Tyrol been forced to ground it"

"So what does that have to do with me?" asked Tigh as he looked back up from his pile of paperwork, his dislike for Starbuck growing even more.

"It would be me, I'm Major Daigo Ajax the commander of the Majahual" Daigo stepped forward. He had never met Tigh before, but he had heard about him through his friends and the reports since joining the fleet. Some people who said he was a brilliant XO in his own right when you needed him to be, but a lousy person to be your friend. Other then that he really didn't know the guy, but at the moment the way he was interacting with his daughter he wanted to slug him.

"So?' asked Tigh turning his attention to Daigo, a vein started to form as Daigo cooled his jets.

"As I'm trying to do is inform you, that due to the next FTL jump being in 8 hour my shuttle and I are grounded in your hanger until repairs are complete"

"Is that all?"

"Yes"

"Fine Mister Ajax, just report when your shuttle ready to leave" answered Tigh as he picked up his pile of paperwork and moved off to some corner to finish his paperwork.

"God I'm beginning to hate that guy and I've just met him" replied Daigo as he and Kara walked down the corridor from the Galactica CIC

"He can do that to you Dad"

Both of them were walking in silence when they suddenly bumped into Lt Felix Gaeta, who was walking the other way. "Sorry Captain" he said turning to Kara, looking like he was about to drop from exhaustion.

"You okay Gaeta, you look like frak" asked Kara out of symphony

"Sorry Captain, just that we're short staffed at the moment because of the Pegasus command officers problem, we all been reshuffled around duty. Colonel Tigh is suffering the most at the moment"

"Don't let that old crack pot off that easy" responded Kara as she crossed her arms and stared at Gaeta.

"Well he the XO Starbuck, I have no say in the matter" Daigo turned and added his years of wisdom to the conversation.

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire" at that both Kara and Felix burst out in a fit of giggles like school children as they heard Daigo quote

"Were did you pick that up?" asked Gaeta his mood slightly improved.

"Oh god" Mumbled Daigo as he scratched his chin to remember "Long ago on my first tour, a man who would later become my commanding officer taught me that quote" Suddenly there mood was broken with an announcement over the ship address system.

"Captain Ajax report to Admiral Adama officer, repeat Captain Ajax to report to Admiral Adama office"

"Oh boy, I wonder what I done now?" Said Daigo grinning mike a school boy sent to the princable office for doing something wrong.

"Look I catch you two later, got to go see what old Husker wants" and with that the older man turned and left the two younger to themselves.