"Constanza, straighten out your wings," Lee instructed. He groaned as he watched the young nugget correct his Viper too much and started drifting the opposite way. He wasn't going to coddle them, though, so he let it go. "That was a good attack run except you forgot the most crucial part of the exercise. You left your leader behind in order to get the kill. The glory of doing that will only feel good for the few seconds you have before you die. Nuggets, that is rule number one. Never leave your leader. They are the leader for a reason. They know what's going on at every corner and they know it from every angle. Stick with the leader and you have a good chance of staying alive. Do you understand?"

Lee waited until he heard the majority of his students answer. "Thrace, Katraine, I want you two to try the Hades Ring maneuver we were talking about yesterday. Remember to keep it tight and watch out for the other guy."

Lee heard a chipper confirmation from Kat and an not-so-happy growl from Starbuck as he watched them start the maneuver. He probably would have scolded any of the other nuggets if they had given him such attitude over the comms, but in this situation, he could sympathize. They had been flying for over three hours now with Lee rattling off random flight patterns for them to try in order to get a feel for the cockpit. Most of the nuggets completed them, although it was far from textbook perfect. There were a few light scrapes and even a small moment where he thought he might actually lose one of his students.

Throughout it all, there was one constant. Starbuck flew as if she had been doing it for years. He asked her to do a maneuver. She performed it damn near perfect. He was on the verge of asking her to do more advanced maneuvers with him and probably would have if it didn't leave the rest of the nuggets unprotected.

Kat's voice cut through his thoughts, and Lee realized that they were done with the maneuver. "Anything else you want to throw at us, sir?"

Lee cleared his throat. This was getting a little out of hand. "Can anyone tell me why Kat has no reason to sound so cocky?"

He waited for a moment until Saunders answered. "Because her last turn was a little shaky and she doesn't seem to have a feel for the thrusters yet, sir."

"Very good." Lee glanced over at the Viper flying in perfect sync next to him. He had no fraking clue how she was holding that thing so steady this early in her training. "Thrace, maybe you can shed a little more light onto this topic."

He could practically see her hesitation as Kara tried to think up a nice way to say what he was asking her to. "Sir, you've had me paired up with Kat on all the maneuvers."

"What the frak is that supposed to mean, Starbuck?" Kat demanded. "Did they not teach you the concept of wingmen on that pyramid pitch?"

"Katraine, you would be wise to stay quiet while your wingman is speaking. You might learn something," Apollo scolded. "Now, what were you saying, Thrace?"

"All I meant is I don't think Kat would have done as well if she was paired up with someone else."

Lee could hear Kat growl a low 'frak you' over her comm. "Watch your mouth, Katraine."

"I'm sorry, sir, but I don't know where she gets off saying those things."

"Tomorrow's lesson is going to be on self-evaluation. You could all use the practice," Lee said, already thinking up what he could teach them. "Thrace is right about you, Kat. Your flying has been outstanding for a first run, but it's nowhere near the level it needs to be if you want to be a permanent fixture on Galactica. I'm going to switch up the wingman assignments to see if Thrace's theory is correct."

"Can I volunteer myself to replace Kat?" Constanza asked.

"Someone's got a crush," Perry taunted.

"He just knows he needs the help," Kara interjected.

"I don't need your fraking help," Constanza hissed, instantly on the defensive. "I just thought you might want to fly with a real pilot for once."

"I am going to kick your ass when we get back on the ground," Kat threatened.

"All right, nuggets. Settle down. I want you to do one last run and then we can call it a day. This one involves keeping your nose up off-" Lee's voice cut off as multiple dots suddenly popped up on the screen in front of him. "Frak!" he yelled. "Galactica, we have multiple contacts." He could hear the sounds of the nuggets buzzing in his ear as he desperately figured out what could be done. The alert fighters were probably already mid-launch, but he had taken his students far away from the Fleet to protect it in case there was an accident. They wouldn't have help for at least the next few minutes. "Nuggets, turn it around and head for home. That is an order so do not argue with me."

Lee didn't get any words of confirmation, but he did watch the Vipers around him turn tail and thrust across the sky. "Keep it together and whatever you do, do not let up on the thrust until you feel Galactica underneath your bird." Closing his eyes, he took one last breath before flipping his Viper on its nose. He stared down the eight approaching Raiders. There were seven of the normal variety and one that looked like it was hopped up on stims. He had never seen anything like it before. Lee pushed that thought to the side. There wasn't time to be analyzing the new ship right now. He had to focus on what he knew. He could take out at least half of them before things got too tough. He just hoped the nuggets stayed focused and got themselves back to the ship.

Lee immediately focused in on the ship he had never seen before. As curious as he was to take a closer look, he knew he couldn't let it get out of this battle unscathed. That which you don't know is all the more dangerous.

It wasn't easy, but Lee kept his head in the game and took out the larger Raider and one of the normal-size ones within the first few moments of battle. The element of surprise seemed to be on his side. He had his sites set on a third when it blew up by itself. He looked on in confusion as a Viper buzzed over his cockpit and took on another enemy ship. "What the frak are you doing, Thrace?"

"I'm not letting you commit suicide," she growled as she spun her ship into an attack spiral.

"You need to get back to Galactica before you get yourself killed."

"I need to stay here because you're going to get yourself killed," she corrected, shooting down another Raider. "They're already half gone, Captain."

Lee realized she was right. It had only been about twenty seconds and the enemy force was already cut in half. He had no idea how the frak Kara was piloting her ship in combat. This was supposed to be the first time she had taken one in the air.

"You do realize when we get back, I'm going to have to throw you in hack for disobeying orders." Lee turned his Viper on end and took out two more Raiders.

"Looking forward to it, sir," she yelled.

Lee was about to respond when he watched the seventh Raider explode. A large chunk of its front head winged out to clip Kara's Viper, and smoke filled the air. "Starbuck, report," Apollo shouted. There was no response and he watched her ship slowly glide down toward the moon below. A faint buzzing rang in his ear, giving him enough time to lessen the impact as the last Raider fired on him. His cockpit lights flickered, but Lee ignored them. He had about ten seconds to kill this toaster if he wanted to keep sight of Kara's falling Viper. If he lost her, then there was no way to figure out where she had landed.

It took him three seconds to get a lock and five more to fire the missiles, but the job was done. The sky was clear of everything except Cylon debris.

Lee watched his panel flicker again and realized that his Viper was probably about to shutdown. Groaning at the idea of losing his Mark VII, he spiraled down to pull up parallel to the other falling Viper. "Starbuck, can you hear me?" There was still no answer.

Lee did the only thing he could. He talked her though the landing even though he knew she couldn't respond. There was a small chance that she could still hear him. He watched her Viper make a shaky entrance into the atmosphere and realized this was probably the best landing he had ever seen come out of a damaged bird. He dropped his ship in next to her and let out the breath he didn't even know he was holding. "Galactica, Apollo. Starbuck and I have landed on the surface of the moon." His only response was dead air. "Repeat, we are on the surface of the moon." There was still no response, and Lee wondered if maybe it was his comm that had been damaged.

Lee activated the emergency beacon on his Viper, even though he was pretty sure that was down, too. Sighing, he pushed the cockpit hatch open and slowly lowered himself to the ground, using the Viper wing as support. He was impressed to see Starbuck doing the same. Reaching into the small survival pack he had taken from the cockpit, he pulled out the atmosphere tester.

"Anything good?" Kara asked coming up next to him.

"Absolutely nothing," Lee said, throwing the tube to the ground. He looked down at her air gauge and then at his own. "We both have about an hour oxygen left. We either need to find a way off this planet or hope that my distress beacon somehow makes it through all this dust."

"Couldn't you just fly back up to the big ship and tell them the coordinates of where I am?"

"My Viper's out for the count just like yours," Lee stated. "I took a small hit and it seems to have shorted out most of the basic systems."

"So what the frak do we do now?"

"Now we move."

Lee trudged along the rocky sands of the moon, making sure that Kara was right behind him. He really didn't know where they were going. He just knew it wouldn't be wise to stay in this exact spot which the Cylons could easily track. Small circles around the downed Vipers should give them a feel for the area while keeping them close in case Galactica sent help. They walked in silence for about ten minutes before the quiet got to be too much for Lee to handle. "Why did you disobey my orders, Thrace?"

Kara jogged the few steps to walk side by side with him. "You said not to leave the leader."

"I also said don't disobey orders."

"Can't you just be grateful that I saved your ass?" she asked.

"You did not save my ass!" Lee cried. "If anything, you distracted me even more."

"You cannot tell me you actually thought you could take out eight Raiders all by yourself."

"I've taken out six in the past."

"Six is not eight," Kara pointed out.

Lee was about to keep arguing with her when his eyes caught on something metallic and shiny. He pulled Kara to the ground immediately. "Did you see that?" he said after a moment.

"The big Cylon ship? Yeah, I think so." Kara paused as they both peeked over the ridge of the sand dune. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That we take out whatever's in there that runs the machine and figure out a way to fly it back to the Fleet?"

"I was thinking set it on fire as one really fraking big distress call," Kara admitted, "but I think your plan might be better."

Lee rolled his eyes and started moving forward. "Pray to the gods that the Cylons put in oxygen units on their ship because otherwise we're going to have to get that thing up in the air in under ten minutes."

Kara's heart froze as the reality of the situation finally sunk in. This wasn't a little joyride down to the surface of the moon. They were stranded with no hope of getting home. Home didn't even know where they were. Kara was about to start the lengthy process of full-on panic when Lee started asking her questions about the basics of flight. He claimed he was trying to think up a way they could fly this thing, but she knew he was just doing his job. She was just another nugget about to freak out from the pressure of it all.

"Kara, I asked what the four basic controls were," Lee shouted.

"Power, pitch, yaw, and roll," Kara rattled off as they reached the Raider. It wouldn't hit her until later that Lee had used her first name for the first time since the Rising Star incident that never happened.