Note: Okay, faithful readers, I've managed to keep your attention thus far. I want to thank all of you who have been reading, both those who have provided reviews and those who have chosen to remain silent as you read. I appreciate all of you and your interest in my story. Now, let's see if you can figure out what is going to happen in this chapter. Let me know if I manage to surprise you.

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

When the raider jumped back into normal space, Kara saw nothing but stars in her field of view. It took her a few moments to orient herself to her new surroundings, which was not helped by the fact her eyes were still filled with tears after her last words to Lee. Kara quickly let her training kick in and pushed her emotions aside.

"Okay, I jumped, where the frak am I?" she asked herself.

Kara turned her raider, and as she did, a planet came into her field of view. She had seen it too many times not to recognize it.

"Oh, I am good," she said to herself. "I am REALLY GOOD!" She laughed at her own accomplishment with a clear tone of satisfaction. "I'm home! Oh, Lee, I wish you were here with me to see it one more time." The sadness returned once again, and even though she had not been away from him long, Kara already missed him. "I just hope you forgive me, baby," she said to Lee, even though he wasn't there to hear the words.

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Lee stormed onto the CIC in a mix of panic and rage, not knowing where Kara was or why she jumped away. He hadn't bothered changing out of his flight suit, and his head was soaked with sweat from the emotional high he had been on since seeing Kara vanish.

"Any word?" asked Lee, as he walked up to his father and Colonel Tigh.

"Nothing from Starbuck," said Tigh. "I still can't believe she did this, even if she was asked to do it by the frakking President?"

"Wha…what?" asked Lee. "What the frak is going on!"

"Apparently, President Roslin coerced Starbuck into jumping back to Caprica," said Adama. "We just got off the wireless with her."

"CAPRICA!" yelled Lee. "What could she POSSIBLY want her to do that for!"

"The President believes that the Arrow of Apollo, located in a museum in Delphi, will help us find Earth," said Adama, his voice filled with contained anger.

"It's frakking NONSENSE!" said Tigh. "The woman has cracked!"

"I still can't believe this!" said Lee. "I can't believe Kara would go for a stunt like that!"

"Starbuck has always been impulsive!" said Tigh. "You both know it, even though you indulge her in it too much!"

"But she wouldn't have done something like this," said Lee. "She wouldn't have just jumped and left behind everything! Commander, I couldn't help but overhear what she said over the com to you. What did she mean you lied to her?"

"About Earth," said Adama. "I lied about knowing where Earth was. Roslin knew it. She must have told her."

"I can't believe she would do that," said Lee. "I mean, the President…"

"She's not the President anymore," said Tigh. "The Commander has ordered her to step down, or be forcibly removed."

"Wait, do we have that authority?" asked Lee.

"Yes," said Adama. "She undermined a military operation in direct violation of my agreement with her regarding separation of military and civilian concerns. She suborned mutiny on MY SHIP! And she turned Starbuck against me."

"Well, I think you've done that already lately," said Lee, half-sarcastically.

"Lee, now is not the time," said Adama.

"No, maybe it IS the time!" said Lee, forcefully. "If you hadn't annulled our marriage…"

"If you hadn't disobeyed orders, you wouldn't have put me in the position to alienate her in the FIRST PLACE!" replied Adama, with a low growl.

"Gentlemen, we can save recriminations on that issue for later," said Tigh. "And just for the tally books, the President knew about your orders annulling Lee's and Starbuck's marriage, didn't she?"

Adama and Lee both looked pointedly at Tigh. "She did," said Adama.

"Who's to say that frakked-up woman didn't exploit Starbuck's emotions on that issues as well?" said Tigh.

Lee's face turned red with anger. "That BITCH!" he said, with quiet fury. "She manipulated Kara, that frakking BITCH!"

"Lee, calm down!" said Adama. "We can ask Roslin exactly what she did to get Kara to jump to Caprica AFTER we have her behind bars!"

"What about going after Kara?" asked Lee.

"We can't be concerned with that now," said Tigh. "If she jumped back there…"

"We'll see if we can figure out something later," interrupted Adama, preventing Tigh from finishing his thought and worrying Lee any more than he was. "In the meantime, we have a dangerous woman in charge of the government, and a crew still strapped on Kobol by a Cylon base ship. I have an idea about the latter. In the meantime, Colonel, plan an op to remove Roslin by force if necessary. Lee, you will assist him."

"With pleasure," said Lee.

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"I love you Lee," thought Kara, as she charged the blonde Cylon she had been fighting with and losing to over the past few minutes of agony. This was her last shot at victory, and it was one that could get her killed. Her last thoughts were of Lee as she plunged with the Cylon over the edge of the hole. They landed with a humungous thud that temporarily knocked the wind out of Kara.

As she lay there, half dazed from the impact, Kara could hear someone call her name, but it sounded like it was echoing from miles away. An eternity seemed to pass until strong hands lifted her off of the fallen Cylon, who was apparently dead, and leaned her against the wall. The hands were strong, yet gentle, as they rested her against the wall, and for a moment, Kara thought it might be Lee.

"Lee," she whispered, thinking he might have somehow come to Caprica after her.

"Kara, it's me," said the voice. "It's Karl Agathon. It's Helo."

Kara's eyes began to focus on the familiar face in front of her. She smiled as she recognized it. Although she was initially disappointed that it wasn't Lee, she was more than happy to see her old friend staring at her with a mixture of concern and happiness.

"You are the LAST person I thought I would EVER see again!" said Helo, with enthusiasm.

Kara put her hands on Helo's shoulders, partly to convince herself it was really Helo and partly to show her joy at seeing him. "I thought you were dead! It's good to see you!" she said, with a big grin on her face.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kara saw movement up above on the level she fell from. When she looked up, Kara saw a familiar figure standing there with a look of apprehension on her face.

"Boomer," thought Kara, as she looked at the woman with shock. "What is she doing here? She's back on Galactica? How…"

In that moment, truth became clear to Kara. She glanced at the dead Cylon woman lying on the ground, and then looked back at Boomer with growing panic. "No!" she thought.

Kara instinctively pulled Helo's pistol from its holster, and moved to fire at Boomer. "She's a CYLON!" screamed Kara. Helo knocked the gun away from Kara as she fired. The shot missed, and Boomer ran away.

"No, Kara!" shouted Helo. "Don't shoot, she's pregnant!"

Kara looked at Helo with a mixture of rage, fear, confusion, and pain. It was all too much for her, and she finally just collapsed back against the wall with a cry that said "ENOUGH!" in ways that the word alone could never express.

"Frak, Lee, I left you behind for this!" she thought to herself.

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Lee and his father both watched as Laura Roslin quietly stepped into her cell in Galactica's brig. The operation went off without a hitch, and fortunately for all, Roslin decided to surrender without allowing bloodshed. As they all stood there with guns pointed at each other before the President surrendered, a voice in the back of Lee's mind was telling him that this was wrong, that they were sacrificing their democracy for a military dictatorship. But Lee's anger at Laura Roslin for what she did to manipulate Kara silenced those logical thoughts. When Roslin surrendered, Lee personally escorted the President into custody.

"I'm surprised at you, Captain," said Roslin, as he led her away from her disarmed guards.

"I could say the same, Miss Roslin!" said Lee, with a note of sarcasm and anger.

Now, Laura Roslin stared at the two Adamas from behind bars with quiet dignity, attempting to shame the two men for what they had done. The Commander did not flinch outwardly, and neither did Lee. But that little voice in the back of Lee's mind was still telling the young man this was wrong.

As the two Adamas walked down the corridor away from the brig, they didn't say anything at first. Finally, Lee closed his eyes, and asked the question that was in the back of his mind.

"Dad," he said, calling the old man that for the first time since the latter annulled Lee's marriage. "Did we do right?"

Adama looked at his son, then faced forward once again as they walked. "Honestly, I don't know. But as I once told you, a man faces his actions and accepts the consequences, and learns to live with them every day. We'll have to do that now. But we couldn't let her continue in the seat of government, not with her religious ideology influencing her actions and compelling her to undermine the authority of the officers who command this fleet's only line of defense. Whether that was right or not; that's not so easy to answer. In the meantime, we have two of your pilots meeting us in CIC so we can congratulate them on a job well done."

"At least we know they did right," said Lee.

"Yes, they did," said Adama.

The two men continued their walk to CIC in silence, both men considering the consequences of all they had done. When they got there, they found Boomer and Racetrack standing with big smiles on their faces, apparently flushed with triumph after having successfully destroyed the Cylon base ship orbiting Caprica using a daring tactic devised by the Commander himself, though it was based on Kara's original idea. Colonel Tigh was finishing shaking their hands in congratulations, and walked away towards the opposite end of the CIC.

Both Commander Adama and Captain Adama walked over to the two pilots. Lee stepped off to the side to allow his father to congratulate them first. The elder Adama shook hands with Racetrack first, then Lee followed suit as his father went to shake Boomer's hand.

But Lee was startled when a loud boom reverberated just a few inches away from him. Lee watched in horror, as his father was knocked backward by the impact of a bullet into his chest. He had little time to react as Boomer, the one who had apparently shot the old man, then turned her gun towards Lee. He was just barely able to grab Boomer's arm before she fired at him. The bullet slammed into Lee and sent him flying to the deck, as two Marines finally tackled Boomer. Lee's universe became one of pain as he felt the physical pain from being shot and the emotional pain of seeing blood pouring out of his father as Tigh and Gaeta pulled him onto the conference table.

End of Chapter Twenty-Seven. Chapter Twenty-Eight coming soon. As always, feedback/reviews are welcomed and appreciated.