Chapter 3

"Oh….my…..Gods!" Kara looked around in awe at Moya's landing and maintenance bays. She stepped down from the raptor, only narrowly avoiding tripping over a DRD which was coming to investigate the new ship. John laughed at the stunned look on her face as he came up to greet them.

"You can imagine how I felt when I first found myself here. Until I fell through that wormhole no one from Earth had ever been farther than our moon before."

John led them through Moya's corridors to granny's kitchen from which the distinctive sound of a screaming child could be heard. They found Noranti attempting for feed some sort of green goop to baby D; judging by the splodges splattered over the floor and walls he was resisting.

"Oh I'm so glad you're back. Your son doesn't seem to like my orlan soup and it's just what he needs for that nasty cough."

Aeryn rushed over and grabbed her son.

"Thanks for watching him Noranti, but if you ever try to feed him one of your recipes again I'll shoot you," she said matter of factly, giving no doubt that she meant it.

The people from Galactica were having trouble ignoring the fact that this strange woman had a glowing third eye, but as John and Aeryn seemed to accept it as normal they thought it best not to comment. Aeryn handed little D over to doc Cottle and stood hopping anxiously from one foot to the other and chewing her thumb as the doc examined him. John stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders in comfort, just as anxious about the doc's prognosis for their son.

"Looks like a simple chest infection; a course of antibiotics should clear it up, but I'll take a blood sample back to Galactica to check there's nothing else lurking." Cottle's no nonsense approach soothed Aeryn's fears and she calmed her son for him as he took out a needle and syringe to prepare a shot.

With that initial worry over, John became the jovial host.

"Now, how 'bout some dinner before we start on the earth stuff? She may not be much with baby food, but generally granny here is a pretty good cook and we've got plenty of fresh provisions on board. One thing I'll say for Rygel and his fellow Hynerians; they know how to pack one hell of a picnic basket!"

Lee and Kara had no idea what a Hynerian was, but the thought of fresh food was just too much for them to resist. In a short time Noranti had cooked something up and they all sat down to eat. The Galactica crew relished the taste of food that was actually worthy of the name, and they also took the chance to get to know their hosts better. John was regaling them with stories of the exploits of their supposed TV namesakes. Kara particularly enjoyed the one about Starbuck striking a match on a Cylon to light his cigar. Lee threw her a knowing warning glance in response to her smirk and the twinkle in her eye.

"Don't even think about it! Not unless you want to be sliced in half before you can enjoy the cigar."

As the conversation flowed back and forth, Kara realised that Lee's initial feelings were pretty perceptive for someone usually so notoriously dense about such things, and for once very accurate. These people were perfectly genuine; mad certainly, but perfectly genuine. It was also apparent that they knew nothing about Cylons beyond John's remembrances of the big chrome toasters.

The party eventually broke up. Noranti took doc Cottle to show him her store of 'medicines' and herbs. Aeryn went to put the baby down for his nap and the others made a start with the star charts. John got Pilot to pull up all the information stored in Moya's memory banks about earth. His appearance on the clam shell was another surprise for the humans, but by this stage they were taking strange beings in their stride and just shrugged at each other then got on with looking at the information Pilot had provided. Kara got bored of this pretty quickly and wandered off into one of the maintenance bays where she had spied some ships earlier. She managed not to laugh too loudly at John's module before her eyes were drawn towards Aeryn's prowler. Kara ran her hands over the sleek black lines of the fighter.

"Wow, I really need to get me one of these."

"You want a ride?" Aeryn asked as she walked in, recognising a fellow pilot. Kara nodded enthusiastically. She climbed into the prowler behind Aeryn who was pulling on a headset.

"Pilot, please inform Crichton and Apollo that we're taking out the prowler." She didn't wait for any acknowledgement, knowing that neither of the men would attempt to argue with them. They shot out of Moya's landing bay and flew in companionable silence for a short while, both enjoying the feel of the plane. Eventually Kara broke the silence with a question she had been pondering.

"How did you do it? How did you give up your military life for a man and a child?"

"I wasn't given much choice really, but it wasn't too hard once I let myself let go and love him. You should try it."

"I tried it once, with Apollo's brother actually. I've still got the scars." Aeryn dipped her head in question.

"He died," Kara stated matter of factly.

"Yes, I know how that feels. It's rather complicated but John had a sort of twin brother who I was in love with and he died. I didn't think anything could ever hurt like that. It took me a long time to realise that it was safe for me to fall in love again. You can't resist it forever, Kara. I've seen the way you look at him and how he looks at you. It reminds me of how I used to be with John. Once it gets you it pulls you in like an irresistible force. The pair of you are just wasting time when you could be happy. I've discovered that worrying about the past and the future can't make that void go away today."

"You might be right and may be some day soon one of us will pluck up the courage and be brave enough to cross the invisible barrier that we've put up between us, but even if we did I don't think I would ever have a child. My mother wasn't exactly a model parent and I can't see myself as being any better."

"Hey, my mother was a homicidal maniac who murdered my father and twice tried to kill me. I didn't let that stop me. I wouldn't have missed having D'Argo for the world."

Sudden flashes near by distracted them. Half a dozen Cylon raiders had jumped in close to the fleet.

"Uh oh, Cylons."

"I take it these ships need destroying?" asked Aeryn with a look of pleasurable anticipation. "Let me show you what my other baby can really do."

Hotdog was leading the CAP as they raced across the fleet to attack the raiders, but having got there they found that they weren't needed. A strange black ship was already shooting the Cylons out of the sky.

"Umm, Galactica, this is Hotdog. Ah, someone else is already engaging the raiders. Do you know who or what that thing is?"

"Negative Hotdog."

The vipers hadn't made it into the fight before the unknown ship had wiped out all of the enemy craft. Suddenly a delighted and unmistakeable scream was heard across the wireless as the last raider disappeared in a cloud of fire.

"Yaaaahoooo. That's the most fun I've ever had as a back seat driver."

"Starbuck? Is that you?"

"Yup, and that fine displaying of flying came to you courtesy of Officer Aeryn Sun and her prowler. You should watch and learn, Hotdog, you might actually pick up something useful for a change."

"Rookie," she explained to Aeryn once the comms were off and they had turned back towards Moya. "Thinks he's the bee's knees even though he's only been flying a viper for about five minutes."

"Well I hope I have some better skills since I've been flying since I was fourteen and I've flown one of these babies since I was sixteen…..Bee's knees? I'll have to ask John about that one; translator microbes couldn't really cope with it."

"Wow! How did you get to fly so young?"

"I didn't choose to join the military, Kara; I was born into it. My people have assigned procreation. When they need a few more troops…."

"Umm, that's….that's…"

"Inhuman? That's the word John always uses." Kara looked at Aeryn with renewed respect since she seemed very human to her.

"I start to see why you wanted this new life."

"Yes and I'd better get back to it before Noranti poisons major Cottle with one of her potions and John completely corrupts your Apollo.

Back on Moya, Lee and John were enjoying some bonding time of their own. They had gotten distracted from studying star charts and all things earthly when John had shown Lee his TV. By now they were well stuck into John's sports videos.

"I've seen 'em all a hundred times before, but its always fun to watch them with someone else who hasn't and I haven't come across that many guys at this end of the universe who appreciate the beauty of arm chair sport!"

John introduced Lee to football and then they had moved onto basketball. They were now discussing the finer points of offensive defence, washed down by several bottles from John's precious store of fellip nectar generously supplied by the Hynerians.

"It isn't beer, but its damn close."

"Ah man, this is good," sighed Lee after taking a long drink. "We haven't had proper alcohol in months. All we've got is the chief's moonshine which fraks….frells with your head after two shots." He savoured the taste of the cool liquid as it slid down his throat.

"Hey, let's get the party really going." John chucked Lee a tube of ice blue liquid and winked. "Raslak chaser!"

Sometime later Lee was trying (not very coherently) to explain the similarities he saw between basketball and pyramid when Pilot's voice informed them that Officer Sun was engaging some strange craft that were apparently Cylon raiders.

"Frak, I should get out there." Lee made to rise but John stopped him.

"Naah, stay where you are. Aeryn can handle them," John said with simple pride. "Poor buggers won't know what hit them."

As if confirming his statement it wasn't long before they heard the sounds of the women coming towards them from the landing bay. They both dived back towards the table and made an extravagant play of studying the star charts again.

"These charts are great and this stuff about Earth is just what we need," said Lee in an unnaturally loud voice. "If it's OK I'll take these back to Galactica. I'd like our resident science boffin, Dr Baltar, to examine them."

"Baltar?" John replied nonchalantly, just as Kara and Aeryn walked in. "But didn't he like betray you all to the Cylons and cause the destruction of the colonies?"

There was a sudden silence in the room as Lee and Kara both stared horror-struck at Crichton.