Time began to pass quickly for Lauren after that. She'd gotten into the habit of retreating to the starboard flight deck whenever she wanted to escape from Cole or any other problems. Within days the entire compliment of Vipers over there was ready for action. She'd found several of the flight crew on the Port side that were happy to come help her, including Sarah. Specialist Peterson had recommended a deck chief to her and she and Specialist Mikos were rapidly becoming a team.

Sander's shooting was still hanging over the entire crew and everyone was treading carefully. The military precision and 'by the book' factor was amped up and Lauren found herself saluting more in a week than she had in a year previously. That also meant that she was on her best behavior which led to the Admiral taking even more notice of her. Unfortunately that also meant that she was soon finding herself giving orders that she didn't like.

The attentiveness of the Admiral coupled with the frequent hit and run attacks on the Cylons were stressful on everyone and tempers soon wore thin. Lauren found herself needing an outlet for her frustration and anger and now that all of the Vipers on her deck were operational she turned to the gym for a release. Because the pilots were now split into two shifts she had several hours a day of free time when they were not actively attacking the Cylons.

Thena and Sarah both joined her and they three of them encouraged each other to push themselves farther and farther. They were in the gym one afternoon when the gossip came rolling through that a Cylon infiltrator had been found on board. The crew was exceptionally hostile to the news and Lauren was afraid that a lynch mob would form. The Admiral put a quick halt to the violent talk and stowed the Cylon in the brig. Several days later the scuttlebutt was that Lt. Thorne had begun interrogating the prisoner. Lauren asked around about the Lieutenant as she had not been a member of the crew and didn't know who he was. What she found out shocked her and she was even more horrified when word began filtering around exactly how Thorne was 'interrogating' the prisoner. Even more disturbing were the screams that began echoing through the halls.

Two days later Lauren overheard a few of the deck crew discussing the fact that Lt. Thorne had invited several of the guards into the brig to 'take liberty' with the prisoner. Not believing that the Admiral would allow such a thing on her ship Lauren went and asked Cain about what she'd heard. The answer she received terrified her.

The Admiral had indeed allowed the torture and rape of the prisoner and she seemed to take pleasure in the fact that she was inflicting such pain on one of the 'things' that had hurt her. Lauren knew that if this was allowed to continue that the situation would rapidly become more violent on the ship. The crew was already primarily male and several of the female crew members had already been harassed by the men.

Lauren soon found herself getting propositioned by the males of the crew and time and again she made her strong 'no' clear. Thena had paired up with one of the guys from the flight crew so she was not harassed as much anymore but Sarah was decidedly easy pickings. The harassment she received was escalating to the point that she wouldn't go anywhere on the ship with out another woman. Then the unthinkable happened and Sarah was raped one night.

Lauren had been on duty when Sarah headed for her rack. Mikos was the one that told her about it. Sarah had been forcefully dragged from her bunk by a drunken Marine and raped brutally. Lauren found her bloody and bruised in the sick bay and the state her friend was in infuriated her to the point of demanding the Admiral put a stop to the men's advances. The Admiral said she'd do what she could about it but Lauren knew that it wouldn't stop.

Two weeks later the Admiral made a decision that shocked the entire crew. She announced that she was going to strip the civilian ship and leave them behind. Her reasoning was that the extra ships were hard to defend and she couldn't waste the resources on them any longer if they were going to make an effective series of attacks against the Cylons. Every attack so far had involved locating a safe haven for the unarmed civilian ships to stay at while the Pegasus jumped into a known hostile territory and attacked. When they jumped back out they would make two small jumps to make sure they weren't being followed back to the civilians. This, she reasoned, was wasting precious fuel and taking more time than was necessary.

She was reasonable enough to make an offer to the civilians that if they wished to be conscripted and serve aboard the Pegasus she would take them on but anyone else was on their own. The backlash of this decision was fierce but there was no swaying of the Admiral once she'd set her mind to something. The civilians actually tried to defend themselves when the crew came to collect any supplies or parts that would aid the military effort. When faced with armed Marines most of the civilians gave in and some even accepted the conscription offer.

Once the civilian ships had been left behind the crew found themselves in a state of despair and anger. Lauren found more and more people were making use of the gym and it pleased her that they were working their frustrations off constructively instead of violently. Although, there was plenty of room for violence as well. Most of that was taken out on the Cylons however and she noticed the kill counts edging higher and higher as the pilots became more and more angry at their situation. Cain had sent down an order previously to begin keeping track of the kills each pilot had. She said it increased morale and developed a sense of competitiveness among the pilots. Lauren thought it just increased the bloodlust. However, she would not argue the Admiral's orders and she soon found herself with a long string of little Cylon Raiders painted under her canopy.

One of the civilians that was taken on from the ships left behind was a man named Peter Laird. He was an aeronautical engineer and he soon found himself being made the main deck chief. Lauren soon made friends with the man because he had a great sense of humor, despite what an ordeal he'd been through. He also had an amazing work ethic and an exceptionally impressive knowledge of all things mechanical.