Chapter 3
I knocked on the door to Admiral Adama's quarters.
"Come in," came his voice from inside.
I opened the door and entered, closing the door behind myself.
"You asked to see me sir?" I inquired.
"Yes I did," Adama replied standing up from behind his desk.
There was a long moment of silence between us. Adama was staring me down. Even though I was significantly taller than him he still seemed to be larger and more imposing despite his lack of height.
"You have a great deal of skill," Adama said. "You're one of the best Viper pilots I have ever seen in my entire career."
"Thank you s…"
"Don't interrupt me," Adama snapped.
I realized at his point that he wasn't very pleased with what I had done.
"What you did today was incredibly dangerous and reckless," Adama said. "You disobeyed an order and engaged a far numerically superior enemy on your own. Actions like that are likely to get you killed."
"Sir with all due respect I did manage to come out with only minimal damage to my Viper. There were no casualties on our side. I think you should be a little more grateful." I said.
"Don't get me wrong," Adama said. "I'm very thankful we have you. But ships can be replaced, we can't replace people. I don't want good pilots like you going out and getting themselves killed just because they think they have something to prove. Don't think I haven't heard about the rivalry you've already started with Starbuck."
I frowned, clearly Adama had some favouritism towards Starbuck. Normally a military man wouldn't refer to one of his subordinates by their call sign.
"Sir, I don't have anything to prove," I retorted. "I don't care what anyone else thinks about my skill. I know what I can and can't do. If I thought that ten raiders was going to be too much of a problem I wouldn't have taken them on."
"You've only flown two combat missions and yet you're talking like you've been flying for years," Adama said. "Some people might regard that as being arrogant."
"It's not arrogant if you can back it up," I snapped back.
Adama stared at me again, but this time he didn't seem quite so imposing.
"If you keep this up I will revoke your flight status," Adama said.
I felt my rage build up. He couldn't do that. I was his best pilot. He couldn't just revoke my flight status to prove a point.
"Galactica is like a family," Adama explained to me. "And like a family we do things together. We support each other. Now either you start acting like a member of this family or I'll have you mopping corridors faster than you can kill a raider."
"I can kill a raider pretty fast sir," I joked.
Adama wasn't at all impressed with my joke. I sighed, I could think of worse things than being more cautious than I'd like.
"Sir, yes sir. I will start following orders sir." I said saluting.
"Good," Adama said. "You're dismissed."
As I was leaving I passed Apollo going to see his father. Curious I decided to hang around and listen. I pressed my ear up against the door.
"So what were you talking to him about?" Apollo asked his father.
"He directly disobeyed an order and engaged the enemy by himself," Adama said.
"He survived," Apollo said.
"That's not the point," Adama argued. "He was reckless, he disobeyed orders and he nearly got himself killed."
"I don't see you giving Starbuck this lesson," Apollo said.
"Starbuck is an exception," Adama said.
"Well I don't know much about this kid yet," Apollo said. "But in two missions he has junked seventeen raiders. Now I'll admit, he needs to be a bit more of a team player. But I don't think it is right to restrict him from doing what he thinks he can. Right now he's got the mind set that he can do anything and so far it's working, and the last thing we need to do is take that away from him."
There was a pause of silence. I couldn't hear any noise through the door.
"Fine," Adama said finally. "But he's going to be flying wing with Starbuck."
"Sir I think he'd be better with Kat or Hotdog, or even me." Apollo argued.
"My order stands," Adama said.
"Yes sir," Apollo said.
I quickly scurried down the corridor away from Adama's quarters and then waited for Apollo to come by.
"Hey, there you are," I said. "I'm so new to this ship I kind of got lost and forgot where the bunk was."
It was a half truth. I had a rough idea of where to go but I still wasn't completely sure. It didn't matter, Apollo bought the lie.
"No problem," Apollo said. "This is a pretty big ship."
He led me through the corridors towards the bunk.
"So what were you talking to your dad about?" I asked.
"I think that's private," Apollo answered glancing back at me.
"Well if I'd have to take a guess it was about my behaviour on my last flight. I mean you are my direct superior officer." I said.
"Well that's a pretty accurate guess," Apollo said.
"Well what do you think about it?" I asked. "Please be honest with me."
"I think that you're either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid and lucky." Apollo replied. "I don't even know if Starbuck could take on ten Cylon raiders and live to tell about it. You're definitely one of the best two pilots I know, which is why you're going to be flying wing with the other."
My face fell. I had been hoping he'd disobey his father. "I have to fly with Starbuck?" I asked disappointed.
"If you two can learn to work as a team the Cylons won't have a chance," Apollo said.
I didn't completely believe that myself, and I felt Apollo didn't either. But what Admiral Adama had said earlier finally got to me. He had called me arrogant. Up until that point I had looked at my boasting as confidence. But I had previously thought myself to be invincible. While I had only suffered minor damage to the nose of the Viper next time it could be worse. Perhaps learning to work as a team wasn't such a bad idea.
However, when I reached the bunk it didn't appear as though Starbuck was completely up to the idea yet.
"Thanks for knocking out my Viper's radar," Starbuck said sarcastically. "You did a good job."
"You know I took out ten Cylon raiders on my own," I said. "It wouldn't hurt you to be just a little bit impressed with that feat."
"Well aren't you just the modest one," Starbuck said.
"Oh you aren't much better," I retorted. "You have no room to talk. You've broken a lot more rules and regulations than I have."
"Well at the rate you're going you'll break more rules than me before you get more kills," Starbuck said.
"Will you two stop bickering?" Apollo demanded. "As of this moment on you are wing mates, and until you two can learn to co-operate and get along you will remain wing mates."
Starbuck glared at her CAG. I could tell that she deeply resented having to fly with me.
"Apollo you know that I'd rather fly alone." Starbuck said.
"So would I," I added.
"Well this isn't my decision." Apollo said. "You want to complain? Take it up with my father."
With that he left the bunk.
"Listen to me," Starbuck said turning to me menacingly. "I don't like you and I'm pretty sure you don't like me."
"Don't like your breath either," I said fanning the front of my face in disgust as her breath reeked of alcohol.
"Look, we don't have to be friends," Starbuck said. "But we are now forced to be wing mates. Just don't expect me to come running to your aid if you suddenly find a dozen Cylons flying up your ass."
"Really, because I didn't think you'd pass up on a kill," I said.
"If you keep up this reckless behaviour it's eventually going to catch up with you." Starbuck warned.
"You seem fine and you're the queen of reckless behaviour." I said.
"I may still be here," Starbuck said. "But there are a lot of people that aren't because of it."
I didn't have any kind of snappy remark for that. Starbuck suddenly appeared a lot more human as she stood in front of me. Flawed.
"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I've got to head down to the hanger deck."
Before Starbuck could say anything else to me I left the bunk and just ran.
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What's up with that? Read on.
(Forgot to put this in earlier)
Disclaimer: I don't own Battlestar Galactica or its characters, just 'Beanpole.'