Chapter 4
As Galactica came out of the jump, Lee started to think about what he was going to say to Kara when she got back. His feelings about their argument and what she had done afterwards were so mixed up that he didn't know what he was going to do when he first saw her: half of him wanted to belt her then throw her in hack and half of him wanted to hug her to him and never let her go. His thoughts were interrupted by his father asking Dee for the post-jump report on the fleet.
"All ships accounted for except one, sir."
"Which one?"
"The Astral Queen, sir. They don't appear to have made it to these co-ordinates yet."
"What?" demanded Lee, a sudden feeling of panic gripping him.
"But they definitely jumped?" asked his father.
"Yes, sir. I made sure of it before we made our jump."
"Then there must be some mistake. Find them petty officer!" Lee had moved over to Dee's station and lunged right up into her face as he shouted the order at her. She stepped back in surprise at his aggression.
"Captain, I believe that you have a pilot de-briefing to conduct." His father's calm voice came from behind him. Lee took a couple of deep, painful breaths then turned to salute the commander.
"Yes sir." He turned sharply and started to leave CIC. Adama relented slightly
"We'll send you news as soon as we have any," he said quietly to his son.
−
"Waaaaahoooo!" Kara pulled off her helmet as she celebrated a job well done: there was no feeling quite like the exhilaration of combat.
She jumped down from the viper and was just about to carry on celebrating when she had to grab the wing as a wave of dizziness and nausea rolled over her. She knelt down as her legs gave way and promptly lost the contents of her stomach.
"Ah, man, that sucks," she said as she was at last able to stand up straight again without everything spinning. She rested her hand briefly on her abdomen. "OK kid, I get the message. Just getting your revenge on poor old mama for making you fly upside down in a viper."
She looked at the solitary deckhand; a young kid who didn't look like he was old enough to shave and who was regarding her like she had two heads.
"Sorry about that: whatever you don't ever get pregnant." He looked even more startled that it was almost comical. "Don't worry; I'll be out of your hair as soon as Galactica sends the tow truck." She turned back to her viper to examine the charred mess of its rear engine mounting. Lee was going to be even more pissed off with her when he found out that it was his mark VII viper that she had 'borrowed' and got all shot up. Oh well, she thought, just another charge to add to the many that he was going to level at her.
"Um, I don't think the tow truck's coming, ma'am. I've been asked to send you to see Mr Zarek," the deckhand said fearfully, keeping a good eye on Kara's right hand: the stories of Starbuck were legion in the fleet.
"Huh? Since when have officers of the colonial fleet been at Tom Zarek's beck and call?"
"I don't know nothin' ma'am. That's just what they told me."
She huffed and left the deck in the direction she remembered Zarek's command quarters were located. When she got there everything seemed to be in chaos. The man in question was at the centre, firing off orders left and right. She barged through and got right in his face.
"Zarek! What do you want? I need to get back to Galactica."
"Lieutenant Thrace, a pleasure as always. Thanks for your help with those raiders just now." She scowled but took his outstretched hand. A number of the motley looking crew around him murmured in agreement and started to clap. Touched, but embarrassed, she acknowledged them with a raised hand and a nod. Zarek went on. "We'd all like to get back with Galactica and the fleet but unfortunately neither of them seems to be here."
"What do you mean they're not here?"
"We are the only ship at this location."
"Well whoever you have on navigation obviously made some sort of major frak up with the FTL co-ordinates. Just jump us to the right ones."
"We have the correct co-ordinates unfortunately, lieutenant: I've had them triple checked. It appears to be a continued problem with our FTL drive. Our engineers are working on it as we speak."
"Well they'd better frakking well sort it out asap."
"Of course. In the meantime I can offer you the hospitality of the Astral Queen." He ignored her smirk and ironically raised eyebrow. "I believe that the quarters captain Adama used during his last stay are still empty. Do you need someone to show you the way?" She gave him a look at this blandly polite question: he was well aware that she knew exactly where those quarters were.
"No, I know the way. Fine…well…thanks," she said, grudgingly. "Let me know as soon as the FTL's fixed."
A few minutes later she stomped into the quarters and immediately flung off her flight suit. She stepped into the shower and let out a sigh of pleasure: hot water just as she remembered it. Trust Zarek; no tepid showers for him or his men like the crew of Galactica had to endure.
Once she was dry and dressed again she lay down on the rack and allowed herself to contemplate the latest situation that she found herself in. Could her life get any more frakked up? She'd had a major bust up with Lee, but now, when she was all ready to make it up with him, she was stuck in about the worst place that she could be in the whole fleet. This was the room in which they'd first made love and taken those first tentative steps towards their current relationship. Given that she'd only recently been sitting in her viper thinking of that very time, the memories were acute. If she really kidded herself she fancied that she could still detect his scent on the pillow. She grabbed it to her and inhaled deeply; she might have to resort to her imagination for sometime, because if they couldn't fix the FTL drive then she had no idea when she was going to see him again.
−
Three days; it had been three days since they'd lost the Astral Queen. Three days in which Lee hadn't eaten and hardly slept.
They had sent out endless raptor patrols to search the system but still no sign of the missing ship. And now one of the raptors had met with a patrol of Cylon raiders. The fleet was preparing to move on again, which decreased the odds of the Queen finding them even further. He sat in a meeting with his father, Tigh and Gaeta and also the president and Billy while they discussed the futility of continuing the search as if they were just calling of the search for a lost dog. He just zoned out, knowing that if he spoke at all it would only be in anger and pain and disillusionment. Every now and then one of them sent him a sympathetic glance, but it was as if they were half glad that he wasn't participating. This wasn't like the last time Kara had been lost: at least then they had some clues where to search. Even his father seemed to be accepting that there was nothing more to be done. He couldn't believe that they were giving up so easily, although he had a horrible feeling that it might have something to do with the president's barely-concealed relief at the possibility of being rid of Tom Zarek.
The meeting started to break up; he hadn't even realised that they had finished. His father grasped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Come on, son. We need to talk." He got up and shuffled after his father and followed him to his quarters. He slumped down on to the couch and rubbed his hands over his stubbled, drawn face, trying to alleviate the tired, gritty feeling in his eyes. His father handed him a glass of water.
"You we very quiet in the meeting, Lee." Adama chose as his opening gambit.
"Yeah. So?"
"Did you listen to the discussion at all?"
"I heard all I needed to. Bottom line: we're abandoning them."
"Think things through logically, son and tell me if there are any other options."
"What, other than never give up hope and never leave?"
"I need feasible realities, Captain, not wishful thinking."
"Oh yes, 'cos the Gods forbid William Adama would ever do something irrational to save someone he loved," Lee snapped.
"That's not fair son and you know it."
"Sorry, dad….it's just…just….sorry." He let out an enormous sigh and covered his eyes with his hands for a few moments. Then he squared his shoulders and looked directly at his father.
"OK, so we know the easy option isn't gonna work. If they'd just got the co-ordinates wrong they would have been here ages ago and we know that they did have the right co-ordinates because Gaeta has checked the transmission logs. So, right now that means that at least they know where we are, which is a plus. They obviously can't get here so that leaves two possibilities. Something went majorly wrong with their FTL or ship during the jump and they were destroyed, flew into a star, etc; ergo, they're gone. Or, if we take the more optimistic view, there was some ship malfunction or other catastrophe that is preventing them from jumping here for the time being. We have no way of finding them, but they have a starter in that they know this location. That plus point only lasts until we move." He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "So to have any hope of them following us we need to find some way of leaving a message behind for them that doesn't give our new position away to the Cylons should they intercept it."
"Good. Exactly. You're thinking like an officer again. Now all you have to do is figure me out a way to do just that which doesn't involve a lot of resources or manpower; so no, you cannot stay behind here forever and a day in a raptor hoping against hope that Kara will somehow appear." Lee smiled sadly, knowing that this was exactly what he wanted to do. "We're not moving for another twelve hours, so let me know what you come up with before then and if I think it'll work, I'll swing it with the president." Lee nodded and stood up.
"Thanks, dad." His father didn't say anything: his expression said it all. They took comfort in a brief, fierce hug before Lee left with a salute.
−
Kara paced the command of the Astral Queen as the ship's chief engineer explained the problem with the FTL.
"I think it's only taking us a few degrees off but basically we can't trust it: there's a disconnect between the co-ordinates entered into the computer and where we end up. It's a frakking miracle that we didn't end up in the middle of a planet."
"So we could be very close to the fleet?" asked Zarek.
"Yup, or not! Who knows! We don't have any charts for this region of space on board so we have no way of making even an educated guess on our location. We've made enough jumps in this system over the past week to find the fleet if they're here, but no sign of them. We can't go on doing that forever: we're down to only enough fuel reserves for two more jumps."
"OK so that's the problem. Why can't you just fix it?" asked Kara.
"Well it's a complicated repair, but I could do it if I had the parts."
"Right, so just poach the parts from another FTL drive and fix it already!" she spat out, barely hanging on to her temper.
"The only other ship we have on board is a shuttle without FTL capabilities."
"OK, so we need to find somewhere to get fuel and parts even though we have no frakking clue where we are. Great!" Kara sat back in frustration and let Zarek and his cronies fire questions and ideas at the engineer. She let her mind wander and tried to think what the commander would do in this situation. Suddenly an idea started to form in her brain. It might not be what the commander would do but it was damn well the type of insane plan that Kara Thrace would pull off! If it worked it might not only solve there current predicament, but also keep a promise that had been nagging away at her for the best part of a year.
"What about going back to Caprica?" she said suddenly, claiming everyone's attention immediately.
"Caprica! Are you mad? It's a nuclear wasteland over run with Cylons."
"Yes, but there's also a resistance movement of survivors fighting against the Cylons. Look, if we try to jump to Caprica at least it's a part of space we're familiar with. We can pick a spot where we less likely to hit anything if we get it wrong: all we need to do is get close enough. We know where we can get fuel and parts: the colonial fleet base at Delphi, and at the same time we might be able to do something good for humanity and rescue people."
"With no control over the FTL we could also jump into the middle of the planet or the Cylon fleet," raised the engineer.
"There's going to be risk involved in whatever we do. If anyone's got any other risk-free suggestions then let's hear them."
Zarek looked at her for several moments then looked around at his lieutenants. Some looked distrustful or even fearful, but the majority were nodding, albeit reluctantly.
"Caprica it is then."
−
Author's note: Ha! Just when you thought Kara was going to get home safe and sound! Hope you liked this new development.
IMPORTANT: I'm now contemplating something of an experiment. I have two different versions of this story from this point onwards, at different places on the angst-o-meter. Rather than pick one over the other I thought I might do both simultaneously. I can't decide whether it would be better to put them up as alternative chapters in the same stroy or whether that would be too confusing and it would be better to post a separate copy of the story and update both simultaneously. I would welcome your thoughts on whether you like this idea at all and if so which option you think might work better. Many thanks for your help.
