Ch 16
Somehow after the chaos died down, Lee found himself floating in his Viper with no controls. He called for help but he was unsure of where it could possibly come from. The ship he'd been escorting somehow managed to maneuver around to pull him into it's cargo bay. When he got the news of the attack he didn't know what to make of it. Unfortunately he was also once more attacked by the weasel PR man who insisted that he take charge. All Lee could think about was what the implication of a Cylon attack meant to him and his family.
Things seemed to calm down a bit when he realized that the Secretary of Education was fully capable of handling the crisis at hand. Once they made it to the cockpit and verified that the worst had in fact happened Lee realized that he had to figure out a way to defend this ship. But first, apparently he needed to be used as a witness to the emergency swearing in of the new president. He stood beside her and wondered if someone so far down the chain in the government could indeed be capable of taking charge.
Then she did indeed take charge and she began ordering that the pilot search for other survivors. Lee agreed with her plan and continued to try to make sense of what had happened. He asked around searching for news of events and he found little. His mind just couldn't grasp it all and he decided that he needed to turn his mind to other things. When he finally got in touch with Galactica and he heard his father's voice and the order to jump to meet them, he railed at the idea. He was in total agreement with the new President about finding as many survivors as they could.
His father and he argued about the decision and Lee finally took charge and cut his father off. Then the pilot advised them that they had just gotten another Cylon ID'd on the Dradis. Lee's mind raced for a solution to the problem and then he heard the worst news possible, they had nukes. He only had time for one crazy stunt and it probably wouldn't even work.
The rest of the day went by with an amazing speed and everyone was soon feeling the effects of the stress. Lee finally had a few moments to sit and take it all in and try to make sense of it all. He'd been hearing reports of the attack and at one point someone had said they had a list of the worst destruction. When he heard that Picon had been one of the first and hardest hit his mind simply froze. It couldn't be true. He checked and double checked the piece of paper in front of him and there it was. The base on Picon was utterly destroyed.
His chest became tight and he could hardly breathe at the thought. He could only hope that Lauren had somehow either not made it to the base yet or been elsewhere when it was hit. He managed to scan the rest of the report and look at the impossibly large losses. He laid his head back on the seat and prayed silently to whatever Gods could hear him that if they had to take Lauren from him that they care for her and bring them back together in a better place. Then he once more turned his attention to the matters at hand.