Chapter 5

Kara was on the Astral Queen's hanger deck doing last minute checks of the shuttle before its departure for the mission to Caprica. The last few days of planning the op had been especially hard work for her as the only "professional" soldier on board, but she had been somewhat surprised and impressed by the enthusiasm and determination shown by Zarek's men. She felt that they had the plan as good as it was going to get. Two teams had been selected: one to conduct the supply raid on the old fleet base and one to hunt for survivors. She had targeted herself to lead that second team. She moved to check all the weaponry that they had collected: it was certainly an impressive pile for a prison ship, but she wasn't going to complain. This was another thing that had impressed her about the set up on the Astral Queen: as soon as Zarek had backed her word that none of them would be held up on charges for possessing illegal weapons, the stuff had started to come out. His word certainly was law around here. It was obvious that the inhabitants of the Astral Queen had been partaking freely in the black market run out of the Prometheus before that operation had been cut down. She knew that you could still get Stogies and fine ambrosia if you had the right contacts, but she was pretty sure rocket launchers weren't freely available any more! She was strapping on various pieces of additional weaponry to her flight suit when Tom Zarek appeared beside her.

"What are you doing lieutenant?"

"What does it look like, Zarek? Getting ready to lead the rescue mission of course."

"I don't think so," he said in a voice that brooked no refusal. She looked up at him, anger in her face and a sharp retort on her lips but he stalled her. "Good news travels fast around the fleet," he said pointedly, glancing down. She flushed, knowing exactly what he was referring to. She hadn't told anyone on the Astral Queen that she was pregnant, with the exception of Joe the deckhand and he was too stupid and too frightened of her to tell anyone else. But of course Tom Zarek would know: he would know if anyone on Galactica so much as broke wind inappropriately.

"That's no concern of yours. I'm making my own choice," she said quietly.

"But you see it is a concern for me. Besides the obvious moral issue, if…when we get back to the fleet I don't want to have to face your husband knowing that I didn't stop his pregnant wife from going into a nuclear fall out zone and getting an unhealthy dose of radiation. Despite what people might think, I have a very healthy respect for Captain Adama; there is more strength and steel there than people give him credit for. He's also able to hold a grudge better and longer than just about anyone I've ever met and I really don't want to be the brunt of that again. And I don't even want to think about what the commander's reaction might be. So no, lieutenant, you will not be going down onto the surface of Caprica."

As much as she hated to admit it Zarek was right: Lee would never forgive her if she did this and to be honest she doubted whether she would be able to forgive herself. She had been deliberately ignoring this particular issue in the face of her overwhelming desire to be part of the rescue. But she couldn't escape the fact that, while she might still only be grudgingly accepting her pregnancy, the baby had started to take on a whole new significance to her when it might be all that she had left of its father. However, the simple fact of the matter was that they didn't have enough trained hands for her not to be involved and she wasn't going to give in to Zarek easily: he needed to know that he couldn't expect her just to follow his orders like his bunch of tame ex-cons.

"And just who the frak is going to lead the mission if I don't?"

"Relax lieutenant. This is essentially a smash and grab job and you have a team of guys who've made whole careers out of that type of activity."

"Yeah, well if they're all so good at it how come this lot all got caught?"

"Everyone has an off day. If you're such a good pilot, how come you allowed a Cylon to damage your viper so that you ended up stuck with us?" She had to admit that he had a point.

"OK, OK, but the shuttle's got shielding, right?" Zarek nodded. "I'm still gonna fly the team in."

"But then you'll stay on board?"

"Yeah." He continued to look at her pointedly. "I promise, OK! Cross my heart and hope to die, scout's honour. Do you want me to swear it in blood?" She huffed when he kept on staring at her. "I don't want to loose this baby," she finally admitted. He nodded, seemingly satisfied.

"Let's go and get this show on the road, lieutenant."

Kara was taking the team's questions as the formal briefing on the op wound up.

"How will we know who's resistance and who's Cylon."

"Good question. Any pyramid fans here?" she asked. A few voices spoke up. "The resistance is being lead by what remains of the Caprican buccaneers."

"You're kidding me? No shit! I was one of their biggest fans: box seats every season until I got banged up."

"Yeah, well consider this groupie heaven time." She took off her dog tag and gave it to the C-buck fan. "Show this to Sam Anders; if he sees this he'll know you're genuine and that you're with me: he should have one like it." Zarek's eyebrow rose at this revelation but she ignored him. "What's you're name soldier?" He squared his shoulders and attempted to come to attention as she had known he would.

"Smith, sir." She almost laughed. How many times had he automatically given that name when questioned by authority? He smirked, seeming to know what she was thinking. "No, it really is sir, Stan Smith."

"Well Smith, you should call me Starbuck when we're in the field. That goes for the rest of you as well. You've got thirty minutes after we land to get in and out with as many survivors as possible. Remember that if you're not back in forty five minutes, I'm taking off regardless. This shuttle will take twenty in total but we'll cram more in if necessary. Everyone set?"

"Yes, sir," they chorused.

Everyone held their breath as the Astral Queen came out of its FTL jump. There was a collective sigh of relief as the space around them proved to be mercifully free of Cylon ships. Despite the grumbles of the engineer about the risk of missing their target point, they were only about an hours flying time away from Caprica. Although this was probably ample time for the Cylons to detect them, it was about the best that they could have hoped for. The supply team were going to land the Astral Queen directly in the Delphi base as this was the easiest and quickest route to the supplies they needed, especially the fuel. It was going to be risky but they did have a few tricks up their sleeve if the Cylons attacked them: the Queen was not unarmed!

Kara gave a last check to the Queen's pilot and took the shuttle out of the hanger deck before the Queen entered Caprica's atmosphere. They were going to land simultaneously, hoping that the bigger ship would distract any Cylon attention away from the shuttle. This ploy was looking successful as she brought the shuttle in for a text book landing in the clearing by the Delphi Union School.

"OK guys, go, go, go!"

"Ay, ay Starbuck."

The outer hatch slammed and she was left alone to twiddle her thumbs for what she hoped would only be half an hour. She looked around out of the window: it was quiet; too quiet for her liking.

The time seemed to pass agonisingly slowly. Gods, she wished that she could have been out there with them! Suddenly the silence was broken by the unmistakeable sound of gunfire. She looked out but couldn't tell where it was coming from. Then she saw flashes of metal: Cylon centurions started to appear out of the trees around the clearing. Now was her chance to do something useful as she geared up the guns that they had rigged to the shuttle and fired them at the approaching Cylons. She saw some of her team emerge into the clearing, closely pursued by centurions. She took out the toasters with a satisfying explosion and then moved to start the engines and lower the hatch.

"Come on, come on." Kara muttered under her breath. She had the engines running and was watching the centurions get ever closer.

"We're all aboard, Starbuck," came a shout from the cabin.

"Well about frakking time."

She didn't need a second invitation and took off immediately, heading directly for their rendezvous point. There was no time to find out if the rescue had been a success: if they didn't get back to the Astral Queen in time it was going to be the shortest rescue in history. She relaxed slightly as the Astral Queen came into view, but that was short lived as she caught site of a basestar launching raiders on a rapid intercept course. She radioed the Queen as soon as she came within range of the hanger deck.

"We're aboard. Get us the frak out of here!"

She felt the familiar lurch of the FTL jump as she touched the shuttle down on the hanger deck. Letting out a sigh of relief she shouted back into the cabin.

"How d'ya do?"

She turned to see a well-remembered face in the hatchway. A slow smile lit up her face.

"Hello Sam."

"Hello yourself. I was wondering where you were."

"Yeah? Well someone's gotta drive the getaway car."

He moved further into the cockpit and sat in the co-pilots chair. He took her hand in a strong clasp then placed her dog tags in her palm.

"I'd kinda given up on you: thought you weren't coming back. It's nice to be wrong about that."

"Well I was in the area, thought I'd drop by and see how you were doing, see what you'd done with the old place." She tried to cover her emotion with a joke. Sam wasn't fooled and raised a hand to stroke her cheek. She relented.

"Things were kind of frakked up when I got back to the fleet: a lot of bad things had happened while I was away. Everyone was so focused on getting us out of a shit hole of our own making that I couldn't get them too interested in the idea of a rescue. I'm really sorry that it took so long, Sam. How many of you…?"

"We lost a lot in our last attack on a Cylon farm. We were down to eight, but we lost another two in the fight to get to the shuttle, so I guess you rescued a whole glorious half dozen."

"Half a dozen is a hell of a lot better than none at all. I'm just glad that you were amongst them." He looked at her and smiled. He looked thinner and older than she remembered, but that was hardly surprising given what he'd obviously been through.

"It's good to see you Kara."

"It's good to see you too Sam."

"Well then get over here and show me how good." He leant over to kiss her on the lips but she turned away so that he only caught her cheek. It was then that he noticed the wedding ring. He took hold of her left hand and ran his finger over the thin gold band.

"Looks like we've got some catching up to do. I see not everything that happened after you got back was bad."

"Yeah...um...look Sam….."

"Not now Kara, I'm kinda tired and I need to check on the guys. We'll talk later." He got up abruptly and left the shuttle.

Kara gave Sam a couple of hours and then went looking for him: she desperately wanted to get everything straight with him. She found him lying in a rack, hands behind his head and obviously not sleeping. She sat down on the edge of the rack and looked down at her hands as she unconsciously twisted her wedding ring around on her finger.

"Tell me; were you with this guy when we were together on Caprica?" he asked.

"No, not in the conventional sense. I've known him a long time, but we'd always shied away from anything deeper than friendship. Although I suppose deep down I kind of knew that I was in love with him, I just didn't want to acknowledge it. When I got back to the fleet I…I realised that he was what I wanted, what I needed. I'm sorry Sam; I didn't mean to lead you on. What we had together on Caprica was great, but Lee….as much as I hate to admit it I know now that Lee already had my heart." Sam nodded in what he hoped looked like an understanding way.

"Oh well, you win some, you loose some," he said lightly, to try and hide his disappointment. The memory of Kara and what they had shared had been something that had kept him going all these months. She leant over and hugged him; he allowed himself the comfort of hugging her in return.

"Thanks," she mumbled in to his chest.

"So how come you're on this ship, not Galactica?" She explained how she had become marooned on the Astral Queen after a run in with the Cylons.

"Now that we've got the parts to fix the FTL we hope to be able to find the fleet again."

"What are the odds of that?"

"Getting smaller by the day," she said sadly.

"You'll find them, Kara…..find him."

"I really hope so."

"You know I'm here for you if we don't?" She nodded in thanks and then took a deep breath knowing that she needed to make a clean breast of everything.

"I'm having his baby, Sam." His eyes widened in surprise at this revelation, but then a slow smile spread across his face.

"Well we'll just have to try harder to find him then, won't we!"

"Yeah, not gonna let the son of a bitch get out of changing diapers after he went and got me pregnant!" she replied in kind.

"That's the spirit!" he winked at her. "So, I understand one of my rescuers is the greatest Buck's fan that ever lived, or so he told me." He switched the conversation onto safer grounds and squashed down his disappointment: he thought he could settle with just being her friend.