Part 12

"It's over," Apollo said, forcing back the wave of exhaustion that threatened to overpower him. "Fight it, Starbuck," he pleaded. "Stay with us, don't leave us, not now."

The light died and Cassiopeia had breathed out a tired sigh, letting go of Starbuck as she collapsed to the side, unconscious. Boomer too had felt the fatigue rushing to claim him as he relinquished his hold on the blonde pilot. Only Apollo retained his steadfast grip.

Starbuck's eyes flicked open but they were dulled and misty and his pupils rolled up into the top of their sockets. His breathing was very shallow and his skin had lost the shining glow from earlier so that now it looked grey as a corpse.

Noting these worrying signs, Apollo gathered his friend up into his arms. "Live, Bucko," he muttered. "I won't let you die, not today!"

Starbuck's eyes were fluttering and he was gulping in air like a stranded fish. Boomer felt sure he was almost gone as he fought to keep himself conscious. Still Apollo recited his litany against death, rocking gently backwards and forwards as he held on tightly to the inert body of his friend. Boomer was vaguely aware of the other beings moving around the glade but he was transfixed by the scene before him as Apollo would not allow Starbuck's spirit to leave his body.

Eventually Starbuck's hoarse whisper could be heard. "Let me go, 'Pollo. I'm so tired."

Apollo shook his head and his grip tightened. "No," he said firmly. "You have given so much, Starbuck, found so much strength. Don't let go, not now!"

Starbuck's smile was faint; his eyes seemed to be fixed on a distant point. "I have to go," his voice was so weak it was a sigh.

Apollo clutched at Starbuck's hand. "No," he pleaded, teeth gritted obstinately. "Stay here with us – this is your place, Starbuck. Take my energy, my life force, as you gave these others yours, so I give you mine. Take it, Bucko – don't go."

Starbuck licked his lips wearily. "It's not enough, 'Pollo. I got nothing left."

Apollo forced his hand tighter into Starbuck's. "Then take some of mine. You did it before, I felt you taking it while the promise was being fulfiled. Do it again!"

Boomer sensed what was happening and suddenly a bud of hope blossomed in his tired, despairing heart. He stepped forward. "And mine, Bucko," he said. "Take some of me, all you need."

"I can't, I don't know how. It just happened…" Starbuck's head lolled uncontrollably.

"I won't let you go, buddy!" Apollo was unyielding. "Just do what you did before. C'mon where's that spirit you're so famous for? You want to be a legend well be a living one, Starbuck!"

A throat being cleared behind them cut through their desperation and Apollo looked up to see one of the new beings staring at him, sympathy tinting the pure blue of his eyes. "I was Beagragon," he said hesitantly. Apollo nodded. "My name was Sebastian long ago before I slept and so it will be again.

"Hello, Sebastian," Apollo said weakly.

"There is more that we can do," Sebastian said. "We are all indebted to the Golden One, without him we would not have lived again but he is not the one who should have come, he is not the one of the scriptures."

Boomer scowled, finally managed to force away the dreary cloud of tiredness that had haunted him. "What do you mean?"

Sebastian pursed his perfect lips. "The Golden One should have died in glory at the moment the seed left him, Starbuck did not; he lives still."

"Barely," Boomer muttered.

"And yet it is enough."

"Enough for what?" Apollo was only just holding on to his temper as beneath his firm hands Starbuck shuddered.

"I believe we can save him."

"How?"

"There is little time. You must trust us."

"Trust you after what you have done to him?" Boomer snapped.

Apollo reached out and laid a placating hand on the Lieutenant's indignant shoulder. "He's right, Boomer, Starbuck's slipping away." He looked down at his pale friend. "What do you say, Bucko?" he asked. "You consider coming back?"

Starbuck sighed, his eyes still fluttering, he took great gulps between each word but he forced them out. "Boomer will have to promise to give me my perfect pyramid system back," he whispered.

Boomer guffawed. "You got it, buddy!"

Starbuck smiled feebly. "Then I guess maybe the Galactica does deserve to be honoured with a little more of my presence!"

Apollo rolled his eyes. "Is that a yes, Bucko?"

Starbuck nodded weakly. "Providing it's not going to hurt – I used up my quota of pain for today and the next few yahrens, at least!"

Apollo looked up at Sebastian. "Very well," he said. "Do it!"


"Yeeeeeeeehaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!"

The scream of pure adrenaline-fuelled emotion blasted out of the speakers on the bridge, as the viper hurtled out of the launch tubes into the embracing blackness of space beyond.

All the bridge staff hesitated for a centon before their eyes turned expectantly to their Commander. Adama smiled, blue eyes sparkling with the wisdom of experience and the barest hint of mischievous youth from long ago. He turned to Tigh. "Tell me, Colonel, is that official colonial protocol following a launch?" he asked.

The Colonel rolled his eyebrows knowingly. "Not to my knowledge, Sir," he disclosed sternly before his face cracked into an amused smirk. "Although maybe on this occasion we can be a little, shall we say, 'flexible' on the adherence to procedure?"

Adama pursed his lips as if considering, then he matched Tigh's smile. "I concur, Colonel," he agreed. "I think we'll let the Flight Leader deal with this breach!"

As if on cue, Captain Apollo's voice came through the comm. "Blue two, this is Blue Leader, you are out of formation, get back in line, Lieutenant, now!"

There was a blast of static from the speakers before Apollo's voice came again. "Say again, Blue two, I do not copy!"

"Blue Leader, this is Blue three," Boomer's voice came through loud and clear. "It would appear Blue two is unable to communicate with you at the present time."

Apollo snorted. "A systems malfunction?"

"Negative, Blue Leader." Boomer responded. "It would appear Blue two has lost the power of speech!"

"Amazing!" Adama sighed.

"Unbelievable," Tigh muttered and added under his breath, "But quite an attractive proposition, never-the-less!"

And as if to underline the point, a further. "Yeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!" boomed through the speakers.

Adama had moved to the port and he looked at the three small vipers, blasting through space in front of them – two holding correct formation, the third engaged in a mind numbing series of intricate and dangerous twists and rolls. As the Commander watched the pilot of the viper threw it into a stomach lurching dive. Adama shook his head; the boy could fly, that was not in doubt!

Apollo too was watching, impressed by the crazy, impossible manoeuvres his wing man was negotiating with apparent ease. He shook his head as Blue two dived between both his and Boomer's crafts.

"Starbuck!" Boomer snapped. "Watch what you're doing – you'll kill us as well as yourself!"

But Starbuck was lost in the thrill of it all!

He had waited a long time, endured thousands of Doctor Salik's tests and questions from Doctor Wilker on what had happened on the planet, fidgeting irritability and got more and more disgruntled. Finally, unable to control his frustration he had channelled it into one thing; he had lived only for the moment when they at last pronounced him fit to fly. Once they had done that, there was no stopping him, he would give up anything, risk all, just to get into the cockpit of a viper again and escape into the stars. He had missed it so much!

Despite himself Apollo smiled at the exuberance of his wing man. It had been a long time since Starbuck had behaved like, well Starbuck! His experience on the planet had undoubtedly played on his mind and the blonde lieutenant had been uncharacteristically tight-lipped about what he felt about it. He had accepted the congratulations of the others almost modestly, appearing ill at ease when the subject was discussed, and though he had spent a lot of time with Wilker and Salik neither doctor had been able to find much of any value in what Starbuck could tell them. Wilker had instead, resorted to analysing the vids that had been taken in the glade but Apollo was beginning to think they would never actually be able to scientifically quantify and explain what had happened.

Before they left the planet, as they had been amassing the supplies of tylium that were now powering the fleet, Apollo had spent some time with Sebastian. He had tried to persuade the blonde man to bring his people on to the Galactica, for who knew if the Cylons would find them on their newly bounteous planet. But Sebastian had been adamant; they would remain in their place in the universe and accept whatever destiny awaited them.

Apollo remembered their discussions now. "Though I am changed, still somewhere deep inside do I retain the being that was Beagragon." Sebastian had revealed. "Therefore I do know everything that has come to pass since the Golden One, our Saviour crashed on this planet. But I am more than Beagragon with his simple faith in the scriptures, too. I have evolved into a higher being as have all my people. This is what was planned so long ago."

Apollo had nodded and the 'new' man had continued, "When my people left our seed on this planet, they expected one of our own kind to come back and set the prophecy in motion, not an innocent outsider. The true Golden One would have been bred for the purpose, aware of his responsibilities and aware of the price he would pay. Your Starbuck was not and yet he willingly gave up his claim to life to help us."

Sebastian gulped before continuing. "Starbuck is not of the same physiology as our people, similar but not the same. Neither are the rest of you the same in your outlook and temperament; you care for each other in a way my people have forgotten. You have shown us this day that there is a great power in sharing. I believe, what you perceived was indeed true, you, Boomer and Cassiopeia bore some of the burden by simply holding on to Starbuck, by sharing his pain, you gave him some of your life force in order that he could make us live. We have learnt a huge lesson here on the powers of the universe – we will not forget that the greatest force of all is love. We all used this knowledge and gave a little back, enough to make Starbuck whole again. It is my hope that this lesson will not be lost to us as we build our new world, and maybe we will not suffer the same failures as our forefathers."

Apollo gulped. "What about Starbuck - will he be as he once was?"

Sebastian shrugged. "He is changed by experience of course, but physically he will be remade and renewed. His body will retain no scar, no sign that the seed was ever in him. Starbuck is a survivor. It will take time but he will endure."

As the viper roared past his own once more, Apollo's mind went back to the previous night when he had found Starbuck alone, smoking a fumerillo and disconcertingly pensive, in the celestial dome.

The blonde was looking back through space to where the outline of the planet he had saved could just be seen. "I wanted to talk to Magawincha," he said softly. "She didn't deserve it, not after she was so kind to me."

Apollo nodded, remembering his friend's reaction when he had been told that the compassionate and loving deer-like creature was no more but had transformed into a beautiful blonde woman, who called herself Kynan. Unexpectedly, since Apollo thought Kynan was just the sort of woman the irrepressible pilot would been attracted to and at the very least take an interest in, Starbuck had shivered and bluntly refused to have anything to do with the woman. "It's not right," he continued. "That Mags had to die, that any of them had to die, so that the others could live."

Apollo nodded. "But that was the plan all along. The deer were vessels simply carrying the souls of the beings who created them. Keeping them safe until the time was right."

"Until I came along." There was an unaccustomed bitterness in the blonde lieutenant's voice. "I gave them the power, I released the parasites!"

"Don't even go there, Starbuck," Apollo made his voice as firm as he could. "It wasn't your fault – none of it. And Magawincha was a willing disciple – she wanted it to happen. She lived her life for the promise to be fulfilled."

"I should have died too. I would have….." Starbuck's eyes were moist as he turned to Apollo. "Thank you," he said simply.

Apollo sat down beside him. "For what?" he asked.

Starbuck sighed. "I had given up," he disclosed his head hung in shame.

Apollo reached out a supportive hand and clasped his friend's shoulder. "Not you, not Starbuck," he said. "You were exhausted and in pain but you never gave it up. You're a fighter, Bucko – that's what we love about you!"

Starbuck's eyes had lifted then, and held his Captain's, they were wide and sincere with honesty. He opened his mouth as if to argue but then stopped himself and shrugged. "Hey that's not the only thing you love about me!" he smiled. "I have numerous other outstanding qualities, remember!"

That was it, Apollo realised, and the subject for Starbuck was now closed. He had said his bit, mused over his feelings and dismissed them, preferring the simplicity of denial rather than the fear of where such difficult and complex thoughts would take him. It was enough for him that he had survived, he would not undergo further suffering by dwelling on the guilt, not when he could shut it away into the far, unreachable realms of his memory. Never had Apollo envied him his carefree attitude more than at that moment.

The Captain smiled and gently punched Starbuck on the shoulder; they needed no further words; they both understood. Apollo let his features crease into a puzzled expression. "You do? Qualities? You, eh?" he replied. "I can't think of another one!"

"Yeeeeeeehaaaaw!" The viper buzzed past his starboard side, frighteningly close once more, pulling Apollo back into the present.

"Blue two!" he ordered. "Get back into formation, now!"

"Felgercarb!" came the response. "I've waited a long time for this and been through a lot!"

"Well at least it talks!" Boomer deadpanned.

"Only to express sentiments of insubordination!" Apollo retorted. "Get in formation, Lieutenant or I'll have you on a charge. Get that egotistical, overconfident astrum of yours into line, now! That's an order!"

The viper roared passed Apollo's as if he was stationary.

"You'll have to catch me first, Sir!" Starbuck responded with assurance.

"Of course I will, Blue two!" Apollo stated. "C'mon Boomer, let's show this insubordinate, arrogant son of a daggit just what real flying is all about!"

"Affirmative, Blue Leader!"

From his position on the bridge Colonel Tigh snorted. The Commander smiled. "Boys will be boys, Colonel!" he laughed.

Tigh grinned. "And you wouldn't have it any other way, Sir!"

"Is that the best you can do, Apollo?" Starbuck's voice scoffed over the speaker. "Lords, I'm happy to be still the best pilot alive!"

"In your dreams, Bucko!" Apollo spat and he swung his straining viper into a heart-stopping dive. "Frak!" he swore as Starbuck's craft slipped beneath him and away.

"And in reality!" Starbuck retorted triumphantly. "Gonna have to do better than that, Sir!" He gunned his viper back towards the Galactica. "Last one back buys the drinks, guys!"

"Better not be you then, Bucko," Boomer retorted. "Your salary for the next seven yahrens is going to pay for the viper you downed last time the Commander let you out to play!"

"Shush, Boom! I think I got away with that one!"

The End