Prolog:
She stood silent among the weeping willows. The high afternoon sun beat down on the green lush field. The small white stones that peppered it springing up like wildflowers representative of lives come and gone, of duty, of honor, of regrets and remorse. The silver coffin catching the light and reflecting it back to the placid sky. She watched as a boy, not quite yet a man, embraced a sobbing blond haired woman. She watched as he stepped forward and laid a set of wings on the silver coffin. She watched from afar as the firing squad readied their guns. The crack split the silent air like lightening whipping through a peaceful patch of sky. She watched as the stern man took hold of the blond pilot's hand who was trying not to cry. She watched and she was sad.
The stern man would never take hold of her hand like that and the prospect saddened her. She fought for control. He didn't belong in this place, this place of mundane men that wore stogy uniforms and had no passion or spirit. He did not belong lying in a field of trained pilots who flew tactics written in books and practice over and over again. Later they would say that he was not meant to fly. Later they would divide the blame and begin to circulate it. They would say he did not have a feel for flying if they only knew the battle tactics that had raged on inside his head.
He had been her best friend and her solace in a world that professed much and understood little. They had confided in each other completely and lived their relationship secretly. Best friends, who told each other everything, knew everything and were inseparable in mind, body, and spirit. It was love that disturbed the dream. It was love that destroyed the cycle. However, love wears masks and has many faces. He had placed his faith in a young blond flight instructor, a pilot known as Starbuck, but she had led him astray and clouded his mind, destroying his judgment. She saw him as part of a nerdish mold from which she did not let him grow and expand. She hurt him by calling him immature, for though he was younger than her he sought a relationship in which there was a mutual understanding and partnership. She treated him as an inferior, yet he still loved her.
But, love hurt and it stung and one night it drove him into the arms of his best friend. Alcohol was the poison and she was the passion. His friend was unlike any human being on Caprica, however. She was from an old godlike race of creatures that inhabited solar systems in the center of their galaxy. The Istari, known as the Dragon Lords, had long ago made a bargain with their gods. A bargain that came at an ultimate price, but what occurred that night could not so easily be undone.
All had left the site and dispersed when she dared approach the silver coffin. With shaking hands, she touched the golden rim and laid on the lid next to the wings her blood red piece offering, a rose, a rose to signify her breaking, bleeding heart. "I will remember my promise," she whispers as she looks up at the sky. "I will not fail you," as if by divine spirits once the phrase had been uttered a slight breeze picked up and swirled about her ankles lifting up the corners of her yellow sundress and blowing loose tendrils of golden brown hair into her face. So, here at what seems like an ending begins our true tale of one Lieutenant Zachary Adama.
Chapter 1
Four Years Later – The Search for Earth Continues
"Commander," Lieutenant Anastasia Duella turned to Commander Lee "Apollo" Adama of the Battlestar Pegasus. "It's the Cylons, sir. They've found us again."
"I refuse to have a repetition of what occurred on New Caprica," Commander Adama said through clenched teeth. "Squadrons, action stations, set Condition 1 throughout the ship. Launch the alert fighters," he said just as the phone rang. He picked it up to hear his father's voice on the other end.
"Commander, Galactica is launching alert fighters to protect the fleet," Admiral Adama orders from his post aboard the Battlestar Galactica.
"Pegasus is doing the same," Lee answers his father as he grips the side of his command consol.
"Stand by for jump coordinates," Admiral Adama informs his son.
"Standing by, begin jump prep," Lee says to Dee who begins to plot the coordinates that Captain Geata is transmitting from Galactica.
The first wave of Cylon fire from the two base stars hits the Pegasus hard and Lee has to brace himself on the command consol. He's familiar well with the routine that they've been running for the past two years in their endless pursuit to outrun their Cylon enemies and find their new home – Earth. Six months ago they had had a nearly catastrophic encounter with the Cylons. Under the leadership of their former President Giaus Baltar they had settled for a year on a cold, deserted, dying planet that they had named New Caprica. They had gotten sloppy and weak and in their worst moments the Cylons had caught them with their pants down. It had cost a lot to stage a coup, to defeat the Cylons and remove the people from New Caprica. Many lives had been lost in the endeavor and it was only through a stroke of military genius on the part of one Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace that they had managed to come out victorious.
Needless to say that President Baltar was quickly impeached and replaced by President Galen Tyrol who was once Crew Chief aboard the Galactica and who in the first three months of his presidency had done wonders to incorporate civilian and military life, to raise moral in the fleet, and to work with the people and for the people without any major catastrophes. Besides their constant running from the Cylons life had returned back to normal. New Vipers were being built from the materials collected on the mining colony even before the settlement on New Caprica. A ship resembling the Cloud Nine was slowly being constructed bit by bit starting with a hard shell that contained the proper FTL drives. They were surviving except for the fact that they did not have enough pilots to put into the air.
Right now the 40 Viper pilots trying to fend off a slew of Cylon Raiders protected by two Base Stars were getting slaughtered. "Commander jump coordinates have been relayed by Captain Gaeta," Duella said drawing him from his thoughts and back to the present just as the Battlestar shook causing him to loose his balance and grip the consol.
"Our shields can't take too much more of this Commander," she reported as she scanned the ships support system.
"Set the coordinate as soon as the last civilian ship is away and the Galactica has made the jump, we will jump as well. Until then we hold off the Raiders and do the best we can. I want all my pilots back onboard the Pegasus before we jump. Is that understood?"
"Yes Commander," Duella said as she set to work in plotting the coordinates. He remembers well just two years ago when Starbuck saved him from the same fate just at the beginning of the Cylon wars. He had lost his wing and she had rammed her ship into his bringing them both safely onboard the Galactica. "Sir, civilian ships are away and fighters are onboard."
"Jump the ship," Lee says as they make the jump and as always he holds his breath to see what will happen next. He slowly releases it just as they are in the clear. They've made the jump successfully and are now positioned in the middle of the fleet. The phone rings and he picks it up. "Adama here," he says knowing well it's his father.
"Congratulations Commander on another successful jump," Admiral William "Husker" Adama offers congratulations that are as always bland and boring because such jumps have been performed over and over again so that with each successful jump the cause for celebration becomes less and less. The Cylons were coming in hard and fast since they had managed to escape them adopting once again a philosophy of extermination over domination. He's about to reply to his father when Dee's panicked voice cuts in.
"Commander, it's impossible! They've found us again! They've followed us!" she says as the fleet of Cylons begins to appear on Dradis. He knows that the ship cannot take another major hit, but it will have to stand between the fleet and the Clyons threatening to destroy humanity. He braces himself for the challenging battle to come.
She had been part of a convoy mission on their way to rescue a group of TruthSeeirs trapped by the Scurge on the farest moon of Korenth. However, when they had made the jump the coordinates were miscalculated and they had found themselves in the center of a Cylon fleet. Surrounded by a slew of Cylon Raiders protected by two Base Stars her rescue party had managed to engage the enemy long enough to plot the new coordinates and make the jump. However, when she had attempted to do the same she had found her FTL drives malfunctioning. Unable to make the jump, she was forced to use her cloaking device and follow the Cylons for fear of becoming lost in space without a reasonable means of obtaining food, water or fuel.
It hadn't taken her long to figure out that the party that she trailed was a scouting party tracking a signal that appeared weakly on her ships radar. It took her even less time to recognize the fleet they had been tracking once they did manage to find and engage them. She recognized the ships immediately as Caprican Battlestars and the Vipers being launched from the ships were unmistakable. She watched as the already weakened fleet attempted to defeat the Cylon invasion unaware of the tracking device aboard their ship. She knew well the tactics that they would employ for she had studied them at the Academy on Caprica herself. They would launch the alert fighters, set Condition 1 throughout their ships, and plot jump coordinates. She used her hacking device to intercept one of the signals and pick up the jump coordinates. When the fleet jumped, she jumped too and as she expected the Cylons were not far behind.
She watched as the Caprican fleet scrambles to launch their fighters again and then she sees the Base Star preparing to fire. Holding her breath, she waits for the Battlestar's next tactical move.
"Move the Galactica in the line of fire," the stern old Admiral commands his best friend and XO Colonial Tigh. "The Bucket has to take the hits for the Beast," Admiral Adama says using the acronyms that the pilots had efficiently given the two Battlestars.
Lee watches as the Galactica moves into the line of fire. He knows his father is trying to protect him, but if the Galactica is taking hits for the Pegasus how much longer will their deflector shields last before they too are left defenseless.
She sees one Battlestar move in the line of fire and she knows that both shields are about to give way. Something inside her tenses as she prepares for the worst unsure of what she can do to help the fleet before her that faced annihilation.
The consol shakes as Galatica takes another hit and Captain Geata turns to the Admiral his face grave. "Sir, our shields are down! We are unable to support another major hit."
"We will protect this fleet for as long as possible Captian," Admiral Adama said putting on a brave face for his men. However, he knew that there was little else they could to, but be destroyed. The end had come and it had come quickly, but if the Cylon's thought that William Adama would go down easily without a fight, they were sorely mistaken. "Engage the Base Stars at point black range," he said to Captian Geata knowing that he had just signed their death warrant. "If we're going down, we're going down fighting," he said to Colonia Tigh his face set in a tight line.
She could feel that something had changed. In that very instant, the air around her grew incredibility still. She had to make a choice. She watched the Base Star preparing to fire and saw the Battlestar move forward to attack. The Battlestar fired off several rounds from their guns amazingly enough doing real damage to one of the two Base Stars and causing it to jump to another location or face being destroyed. However, the second Base Star prepared to fire and as the shot soared toward the Battlestar she knew well what she had to do.
"Galactica," the Admiral's voice could be heard throughout the Battlestar Galactica, "prepare yourselves for our final hit."
"NO," it tore from her lips without her realizing it. She let go of her controls as her hands flung outward pointing to each of the two Battlestars she shouted, "Inandarium Sen Serad Hid!" The white light that tore forth from her arms incased the two Battlestars in its protective embrace. She felt the tears streaming down her eyes as the shield that she conjured from within herself sustained its first major hit. She watched as the shield held and crackled. The cloaking device forgotten her ship was exposed now between the Cylon Base Star and the two Battlestars.
"Sir, somehow we just sustained the hit," Captain Geata informed Admiral Adama. Shouting could be heard from every hallway of the Galactica as a soldier ran into the CIC out of breath to report that the Galactica was bathed in some sort of white glow. The phone rang and Admiral Adama picked it up.
"Dad, what's going on?" Commander Lee Adam's voice came over the phone both amazed and apprehensive. Admiral Adama transferred to the speaker and the Commander followed suit. Just then Dee's voice interrupted the Commander.
"Excuse me Commander, we are picking up a faint frequency."
"We're picking it up as well," Geata's voice could be heard from the same frequency.
At first she wasn't sure if her commands could be heard or if she had tapped into the wrong frequency, she continued to try and adjust the frequency as she repeated herself. "All Vipers abort attack runs, come on home. All Vipers abort attack runs and come on home."
"Do you hear that sir? - All Vipers…abort attack runs…abort attack runs and come on home." Dee said as everyone waited for the command to come from the Admiral.
"Sir, should we break radio silence?" Geata asked waiting for the command.
"Break radio silence, bring in the Vipers, but be cautious," Adama's frustrated, but authoritative voice could be heard over the speakers.
….to be continued…