The fleet was a beautiful thing to see from the air. Galactica had retaken the lead position in the convoy, with Pegasus trailing just behind to the left and Colonial One high and back on Galactica's right. The assortment of other ships that made up the fleet speckled the darkness like the stars around them.

Once she and her father were back onboard Galactica, Ilana ran through the post-flight and gave her paperwork to the chief. She wasn't sure exactly what to say to Tyrol, and so chose to say nothing at all. Lieutenant Thorne wasn't anyone that she was going to cry over, but he'd still been one of her shipmates and killing people over Cylons was a pretty frakked up concept.

As Ilana jumped down from her Raptor, she noticed a Mark VII parked beside her bird that wasn't normally there. "What are you doing here?" she asked the pilot sitting in the cockpit, stepping up on the ladder to his plane.

"It's my fighter," Lee replied.

"Okay, what's your fighter doing on my ship's hanger deck?"

"Oh, it's your ship, now?" he teased.

"I'm the one who actually sleeps here."

"I believe you need a pair of these before you can call a ship your own," Adama told the pair. They both turned to see him holding his Commander's ranks. New insignia were pinned to his collar.

"Yes, Sir," Ilana said.

"I'm here on the ADMIRAL's orders," Lee told his sister with a bit of a smirk. Tyrol handed Lee a clipboard with his own post-flight paperwork.

"When the two of you are finished," Adama told them, "I'd like to see you both in my quarters." He then headed out of the hangar.

Ilana grinned at her brother as he filled out his form. "Are you done yet?" she sing-songed.

Lee handed the clipboard back to Tyrol. "Let's go."

Adama was waiting at his desk, looking at papers that had been left for him while he was off the ship. "You wanted to see us?" Lee asked as they came in.

"I had something to give you," he said, taking two objects out of a drawer. "Well, these are being returned to you," he amended, handing one small box to Lee, "But these are new," he added for Ilana. Lee was receiving his captain's ranks back while Ilana was finally a full lieutenant. "I thought this should be my first order of business as commander of the fleet again."

"Thank you, Sir," Ilana told him.

"There are going to be a few changes," he told them. "I want you to remain on Pegasus, Lee. They need a CAG and I'd prefer not to have to inflict Starbuck on Fisk so early in his command."

Lee laughed. "I understand."

"Now why do I get the feeling that means that she's going to be inflicted upon Galactica's pilots instead?" Ilana asked her father.

He smiled. "At least most of them are used to her."

"Request transfer back to Pegasus?" Ilana asked. She only half meant it, though, and Adama knew it.

"Request denied. You'll manage."

Two days later, both ships were settling into their new routines. "Starbuck zero-four-niner: CAP is away," Kara reported over wireless as her Viper left the launch tube.

"Roger that," Dualla replied. "Zero-four-niner, Safe flight."

"Safe and 20 frakking minutes late," Ilana muttered to Shadow from her seat in their Raptor. He smirked.

"Did you have a rough night, Starbuck?" Kat ribbed their leader from her Viper.

"You're way out of line," Kara shot back, which basically meant 'yes'. "Just follow my lead and save the attitude for someone who cares." Shadow offered a mock salute, which Kara couldn't possibly see. Ilana tried not to laugh out loud.

"Kat six-seven-zero: request permission to clear guns."

"Roger that, Kat," Kara replied. "Clear your throat."

Ilana was paying more attention to her Dradis screen than to the other two fighters in the air as they flew through the fleet. It was therefore a complete surprise when Kat's gun blew, sending shrapnel flying at both of her companions. Ilana jumped as the front window of her Raptor cracked and started leaking atmosphere. A hole got blown straight through the nose of Kara's Viper.

"Damn it!" she cried as her controls started fritzing out.

"Weapons malfunction!" Kat yelled. "Weapons malfunction! Galactica!"

Kara managed to get her Viper somewhat under control. "Kat, you good?" she asked.

Kat leveled out as well. "Yeah, I'm good, I'm good."

"Athena?" Kara turned her attention to the Raptor on her other side.

Ilana eyed her slowly breaking window. "We're in one piece – for the moment."

"What the hell just happened?" Kat asked.

"Your frakking wing gun blew out," Shadow replied.

"Everybody just keep it steady; we're going home. Galactica, this is Starbuck. I'm declaring an emergency; we've got three busted up birds out here. Requesting priority clearance to land."

"Starbuck, Galactica: flight deck is yours."

As it turned out, the misfire wasn't a misfire at all but the result of sabotage. The perpetrator was a member of a group of a Cylon Peace Movement that was gaining strength within the fleet.

"I don't know who the frak would actually believe this crap," Hotdog commented as he sat in Galactica's mess hall with Ilana, Kat, Shadow, and Racetrack playing cards and drinking. "The Cylons would kill us all on sight if given the opportunity."

"Aw, you don't think they're big teddy bears under the armor plating?" Kat asked with a smirk. He snorted.

"Has anyone ever wondered why?" Racetrack asked. "I mean, really wondered why they attacked us? Not just the normal answer of 'because they hate us,' but why do they hate us this much?"

"Same reason they started the original war?" Shadow offered up.

"Anyone who made the original Cylons would have been gone by now," Ilana pointed out. "Or at least geriatric. We're paying for a past we had nothing to do with."

"You think we'll ever be free of them?" Hotdog asked.

"If so, it'll be long after our fighter jock asses are dead," Kat pointed out. The others snickered lightly; death was something they dealt with constantly, even welcomed on some days.

"Maybe we should give this Peace Movement a couple ships and let them go make friends with the Cylons," Shadow suggested. "That'll be a few less frakking idiots for us to worry about."

"And a few less people in the human race," Racetrack countered. "Frakking idiots or not, we're still all that's left."

"All right, check?" Ilana asked the rest of the table. Everyone laid down their cards. "Full colors," she said with a grin.

"You definitely didn't learn to play from your brother," Hotdog told her as he started to recollect the deck.

"Yeah, you seem to have taken a few pages from the book of Starbuck," Kat added.

"Not likely," Ilana replied as she took her winnings.

Kat raised an eyebrow. "You're not a member of the CAG's fan club?

"We tolerate each other."

"The rest of your family loves her," Shadow pointed out.

"Yeah. Too much, in some cases…She was dating my brother."

A few whoops went up around the table. "I knew it!" Hotdog exclaimed.

"EVERYONE knew it," Kat shot back. "It was pretty obvious to see there was something going on with her and Apollo."

Ilana shook her head. "No, my twin brother. Zak. He died a little more than two years ago."

The mood in the room got a little more somber. "Oh."

"Here," Shadow said, handing her another cup of ambrosia.

"The idea that you can 'drown your sorrows' is a myth," she told him, putting the cup back on the table. "Besides, I've already drank enough. I'm out; I've got a patrol in the morning."

She was already out in the hall before she realized that Shadow had followed her. "Are you turning in, too?" Ilana asked him.

"Figured I might as well. My ass has to be in a Raptor just as early as yours does." They walked together in silence for a few minutes. "Was your brother a pilot, too?" he asked.

"Yeah. It was all he ever wanted… Kara was a flight instructor at the Academy when Zak and I were going through. When he told me he got a girl, I never thought it would be the teacher…He'd have married her, too, if he hadn't smashed his Viper into the ground about four frakking feet short of the Academy flight deck."

"Damn."

"Yeah. Maybe if he hadn't spent so much time drooling over our instructor, he might have learned a little bit more in class. She had no business training him…" She sighed, pulling it back together. "It doesn't matter now. Nothing much matters anymore. If Zak had lived, he and Kara probably would have died together in a nice little house on Caprica a few months ago, so I guess that his death saved her in an odd way. Numbers are all that count these days, right?"

Shadow shrugged. "So they say."

TBC...

feedback is much appreciated 8-)