Needless to say, Kara and Lee weren't thrilled to arrive on Pegasus and find out that Ilana was now calling their old ship home. Lee was upset that his father hadn't told him, not realizing that Adama hadn't had anything to do with Cain's plans to shake up the crews. Things only got worse as Kara got pulled off the Cylon op for opening her mouth during the briefing and Lee was dressed down in front of the whole squad by the CAG. It wasn't a good day.
Ilana's first day on Galactica went somewhat better. Upon moving into one of the two Bravo Squadron bunkrooms, she learned that a couple other pilots had unfortunately also transferred from Pegasus. Gage and Vireem spent a good deal of the afternoon pilot meeting complaining to each other in the back row about how they'd never be able to build up kills for displaying on their Vipers if they had to fly Mark II's.
"You're going to get your own asses tagged if you don't shut up and listen to the briefing for our op," Ilana stage whispered to them. They both flicked her off.
"Friends of yours?" the pilot next to her asked. Helo, she thought his call-sign was.
"Not exactly," Ilana replied. She waited a couple minutes for Hotdog to finish talking and dismiss them all. "Actually, I didn't have many friends left on Pegasus."
"Ah. I know how that feels," Helo said as they headed out onto the deck. "One day, I went on patrol and while I was gone, the world ended. By the time I got back, NOTHING was the same."
Ilana raised an eyebrow. "You're Lieutenant Agathon, aren't you?"
"Guilty as charged. Do I have a reputation?"
"A little bit. You survived on Caprica…and brought back a Cylon."
"Yeah, that's the last few months of my life in a nutshell." Ilana looked up, noticing a crowd gathering around a door at the side of the hangar.
"What's going on over there?"
"The Chief's probably got his still going."
Sure enough, the crowd inside the storage room was passing around cups like they were filled with liquid gold. "Hey, Chief," Gage called out to Tyrol as he came in behind Ilana and Helo. "You deserve a frakking medal. We haven't seen booze for months. This place is a frakking party!"
"I heard you guys even got yourselves a Cylon," Vireem added. "Heard she's a hot one, too."
"Like to get me some of that Cylon stuff," Gage joked. "A little of the oh-yeah, oh-yeah." They both laughed. Ilana noticed that several people around the room – mainly the female members of Galactica's crew – were starting to look a bit uncomfortable.
"That's enough guys," Tyrol told them. "Just shut up."
"Ooh, sensitive," Vireem said. "You got a soft sport for the little robot girl, do you? You remember when Thorne put that 'Please Disturb' sign up on the brig?" he asked Gage.
The other pilot nodded. "I got in line twice."
"I hear that. Remember she was just lying there, with that blank look on her face?"
"Do you mind?" Cally asked, looking pretty disgusted. She and a few other of the deck-girls headed out of the room, which only served to amuse the 'frat boys' more.
"Ooh, frisky," Vireem teased. They wouldn't let up, and Helo was about to take their heads off. Tyrol was working overtime trying to hold the pilot back. Both of them finally left; Ilana assumed they were headed for the brig to see what Lieutenant Thorne – Cain's chief Cylon interrogator – was up to.
"You're both scum," Ilana told the pair of Pegasus pilots as she moved to leave with the last of the other girls still in the room.
"Oh, what, like you feel sorry for the robo-bitch?" one of Galactica's pilots asked her. "I thought Athena was supposed to be Zeus' Daddy's Girl."
"What the frak are you talking about?"
"Nobody clued you in? That Cylon we've got in the brig? Same song, second verse. We thought that copy-A was one of us, that we could trust her. She went on a suicide op to destroy a Basestar – and then came home and tried to kill the Old Man. Two bullets, point blank."
"She got what she deserved," one of the other pilots chimed in. "Too bad it was so quick." They laughed, and poured themselves another round of drinks. Ilana was done listening to them. She left the hangar, heading back for her bunkroom. It seemed like life onboard Galactica had been just as interesting as on Pegasus.
Once Ilana had changed into her flight suit, she stopped by her father's quarters before the op began. She studied him for a moment from her spot in the doorway, seated at his desk and going over paperwork. She never would have known that anything had happened to him if someone hadn't told her. She'd thought he was dead for months, and it seemed the truth was that he easily could have been.
Adama looked up, sensing her presence, and smiled. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Just a minute…How does this look?" she asked, indicating the fact that she was now wearing Galactica's insignia on her left sleeve.
"Perfect. Now all we need to do is fix that patch on your right arm."
Ilana smiled. "Vipers are for you and Lee, Dad. I'm perfectly happy in a Raptor. Someone's gotta be the eyes and ears for the flyboys out there."
"Mmm…Answer a few questions for an old man."
"Uh-oh."
"What's that for?"
"Who's in trouble?"
"No one. Can't a father be curious?"
"Maybe. Depends upon what he wants to know."
"Fisk wasn't the Pegasus' XO when the attack happened, was he?"
Ilana looked up, surprised. "N-no."
"What happened to Colonel Reddon?"
"He was killed, in an op that went bad. We took damage; a station blew out in CIC." Adama studied her for a moment, trying to find the truth in her eyes. It was finally too much; she'd never wanted to have to keep the Pegasus' secrets. "It wasn't an accident," Ilana admitted. He nodded; more details weren't necessary. It was already clear that his ship, his officers, and the whole fleet were likely in danger.
"Thank you," he told her. "Good luck on the op."
"Yes, Sir."
Down on the hangar deck, Ilana was surprised to see Shadow waiting by Raptor 582 instead of Helo. "Where's Lieutenant Agathon?" she asked the ECO.
"You didn't hear?" he replied.
"Hear what?"
"He's on the Pegasus. On 'trial' for murder."
Her eyes widened. "He's what?"
"All right, let's go!" Kat called to everyone assembled on deck before the other pilot could explain. "Good hunting, everybody!"
"You ready?" Shadow asked. Ilana nodded and followed him into their Raptor. Now wasn't the time for questions; they had a job to do.
Galactica was still CAG-less at the moment, which left Alpha Squadron's new leader, Kat, in control of the mixed group of Galactica's Alpha and Bravo Squad pilots that emerged from the ship. Captain Taylor was heading up Pegasus' Blue team. As both groups formed up and got ready for the op, all hell broke loose.
"Attention all Galactica fighters: attack formation. Target: Pegasus," they could hear the order come over their wireless sets.
"What the frak?" one of the Viper pilots asked.
"They did just tell us to target our own ship, didn't they?" Shadow asked Ilana.
"That's what I heard…And I think they heard something similar," she said as she realized that Blue Team was also getting into formation. The two groups of fighters faced off, flying straight for each other, although no one had hit a trigger yet.
"Galactica, Kat," she called over the wireless. "I got inbound Pegasus Vipers coming right at me. Request instructions." There was a long pause as the ships got even closer. "Galactica, Kat: request weapons free. We need your help."
"Kat, Galactica: do not fire unless fired upon. I repeat, do not fire unless fired upon."
A moment later, something happened that no one had ever run simulations for. The two groups sailed straight past each other – although not without a lot of very close calls. Pegasus' Mark VIIs had the advantage when it came to whipping back around to come at them again.
"Galactica, Hotdog!" he called out, "One of them just pulled into my kill slot!"
"Hotdog, watch your six, he's right behind you!" one of the other pilots warned. All of the Vipers were tailing whatever target they could get but still no one was shooting. They were all just waiting for the first frakker's finger to slip on the trigger and then this little game of chicken would turn into a blood bath.
"I've got something on Dradis," Shadow called up. Ilana sighed.
"I wonder if we're all going to kill each other before the Cylons get the chance."
"Single bogey," Shadow continued. "At least, I think. It's jamming me or something; I can barely pick it up…No transponder – it's gotta be a Raider."
"Attention all Galactica Vipers – you've got a Cylon Raider coming right at you," Dee warned them on the wireless. By some miracle, every Viper suddenly stopped chasing after each other and turned on the unidentified craft in what must have looked like a wonderfully orchestrated move to an outside observer and was actually just a stroke of pure luck.
"On my lead!" Kat called to the Galactica pilots as they took off.
"Starbuck to all Vipers," they heard a voice say. "Do not fire. Repeat, do not fire! I'm a friendly, okay? We're all friendlies. So let's just…be friendly."
Ilana sighed. Starbuck wasn't one of her favorite people in the universe, but at the moment, both ship's squadrons probably owed their lives to her antics.
TBC...