DR: As promised, here's the second chapter. I've also fixed the tiny spelling error in the first chapter too (man that's an embarressing one!)
Zeke: Hey, 'Word' didn't care either way, so you had no clue...
DR: Thanks Zeke, but I should have seen it before. Anyway, lets continue the story...
Chapter 2: Family News
"It's a miracle. A blessed miracle."
Adama still could not get over the sight before him. His wife Illa, alive and well, sitting with him in his quarters on Galactica. Illa herself seemed thunderstruck, as she refused to take her hand off him ever since she saw him.
After their emotional reunion down in the shuttle bay, Adama had decided to post-pone the meeting with the other ships captains in favour for some time with his wife. Achilles had not minded a bit, saying that he was going to poke around a bit, revisit his old stomping grounds. Adama knew that the Scorpia man, popular back when he had been a simple fighter pilot, would not be paying for his drinks for a while.
"Adama, love…" Illa sniffed, fighting down her emotions. "I never gave up hope, but when I learned that the fleet had been ambushed…" Her lower lip trembled. "I feared that you had died with the rest of them."
"I know. A lot of brave warriors, and too many of our people, died that terrible day." Adama drew her into a hug once more, reaffirming that she was real. "All the other Battlestars were destroyed."
She looked up at him, wonder in her eyes. "How did you escape?"
"I…" Adama couldn't meet her eyes. "At first I was going to stay, help defend the other ships until they could fight back, but then I learned that the raiders that were attacking us had not come from any baseships. Apollo had found two empty Cylon tankers just before he discovered the attack force. When he got back and told me this, I realised that something else was a foot. I had wondered why the Cylons asked us to meet them out there, with all our ships. And the missing baseships gave me the final clue."
Illa nodded, understanding in her eyes. "Because they were right above us, ready to attack."
"I realised the peace offer had been a ruse, a lure to draw our Battlestars away from our worlds. When I contacted Adar, he broke down. He could not believe that he had been such a fool. I tried to get through to him, but then…"
"Go on." Illa asked in the silence that had fallen on him, lifting his head with one hand.
"I saw the Atlantia blow up. No-one could have survived the explosion." Illa could see the emotions that ran through her husband's eyes, the emotions he had felt that day, tucked away in his memory.
"For a micron I froze, unable to act. It was only when Tigh told me they had detected Baseships within striking range of our worlds that I could act again. And so…" He took a deep breath.
"I gave the order… to withdraw from the battle and head for home." His head fell again, hiding the shame in his eyes.
Illa nodded slowly, understanding and sympathy blooming in her mind. Adama had rarely run from a fight. "You did the right thing Adama…"
"Did I?" He looked up again at her, the shame and self-doubt clear. "I left those ships, all those warriors, in a mad, desperate rush to get home... to you. I didn't think about the fact that I had left my pilots out there alone, that the other ships were dying. I didn't even know what I was going to do, a lone Battlestar with no fighters against at least a half dozen baseships.
"Had I stayed and helped the others, more ships might have survived, and then we could have come back and fought the Cylons. Instead, I ran…"
"Adama." Illa hated to see him like this, and she pulled him to her once more, resting his head on her shoulder. "You don't know that. We didn't hear a lot about what happened out there, but we heard enough. Had you stayed, the Galatica quite likely would have been destroyed too, and then there would have been no hope for our people. Instead, you did what you could, and save thousands of lives. And what's more important, you have given the survivors hope."
"Hope of what?" Adama asked. "An endless trek through the depths of space? Illa, I have no idea how long this voyage will take. I have no idea if Earth is the salvation of our people, nor do I know where it is. All I have is a direction and dreams." These thoughts plagued Adama every night, haunted his sleep. The self doubt that had set root during that terrible battle near Cimtar taunted him every day, but only now had he told anyone else about them.
"Sometimes dreams are worth fighting, and yes even dying for." Illa smiled at him.
Adama sighed longingly. "Oh, how did I survive without you?"
Illa smiled warmly, gently resting a hand on his cheek. For a long moment they stayed like that, reaffirming their dedication to one another. But then a dark thought that had been whispering in the back of her mind pushed forward. "Adama… What of our children?" He saw the fear in her eyes, but as ever Illa refused to back down and would face it head on.
Adama took a deep breath before he began. "Apollo… has been through a rough time. He found love, a beautiful wife, but… she was killed only a few short days after they were sealed." Illa gasped, a tear forming in her eye. "It has taken him a long time to recover from that, but I think he is starting to love once more."
"Athena?"
"She's been a lot too. One of the other survivors captured Starbucks heart, and for a while he tried to have both women. But in the end he left Athena to go with Cassie."
Illa nodded. "Well, that's not so bad. I was always a little unsure about him. Now Achilles… there's a good match. A real gentlemen." There was twinkle in her eyes as she said this.
Adama chuckled. "Yes well, we'd first have to get Athena's sprits back up. She seems to have lost interest in relationships after Starbuck, though it goes deeper than that. She told me about a conversation she had with Starbuck just after the Holocaust. She had told him that she was not ready for a deep relationship, not with the recent events so fresh in her mind. It was just after that that Starbuck found Cassie. Don't get me wrong, I do like her, but it pains me to see Athena beat herself up about that." He sighed again, a frown crossing his face.
"I don't think I helped matters any. I was forced to put her in a viper at one point…"
"You didn't!" Illa gasped, shock on her face.
"I had no choice! Nearly all my pilots were down with a disease. I needed pilots, so I improvised. To be fair she performed brilliantly, getting more than her fair share of kills. But after the ill pilots returned to duty, I had to bring her back to her station on Galactica. I don't think she was keen, after getting a taste of viper flying, but I think she understood. But after I had to assign her to teaching duties as well as her bridge post, she seemed to lose some of her spark."
"She'll forgive you, in time." Illa reassured him. She paused, her heart beating in her throat. "And Zac?" When Adama didn't reply for almost a centon, she knew what had happened.
"He… died. At Cimtar."
"How?" Illa's voice was a whisper.
"He had gone on patrol with Apollo, or rather Apollo and Starbuck arranged it so that he did. They told me later about that part, the guilt was eating at Starbuck. When they met the Cylon attack force, four raiders came after them. They defeated them, but Zac took a hit. When the whole Cylon armada came after them, Apollo rushed back to the Fleet, but he had to leave Zac behind, in a viper with only two working engines." Adama looked up at Illa, the pain and grief thick in his gaze. "They got him just short of the fleet."
Illa felt a wellspring of grief rise inside her. She had long thought her family was dead, but even with three of them alive, the loss of her youngest son still cut deep. But she could also see how badly it had affected Adama, who had to watch his son die, so close yet so far from safety. She didn't know if she could have witnessed that and continued her duty.
Shaking her head gently, she resolved not to break down, to be there for Adama. Her son Zac was dead, but at least her other two were still alive. At least for now…
Pushing those dark thoughts down, she turned a small smile towards Adama. "So, what's been going on around here? Tell me everything!"
Adama smiled warmly, and would have launched into the tale had not someone chose that moment to announce themselves at the door. With a sigh of exasperation, he stood up and moved through to the office half of his quarters. "Enter!" he called loudly and firmly, hoping that who ever it was would leave soon.
As the door slid open Illa stepped through herself. She rarely got to see how her husband acted when on duty before, and she was still curious. Both their expressions softened when Colonel Achilles stepped through the doorway. He smiled when he saw the two of them together.
"Ah, I hope I'm not disturbing?"
"Not at all." Adama answered him. He stepped forwards to shake Achilles hand once more. "I don't think I got the chance to thank you for rescuing my wife."
"Well, it wasn't just her, but when I realised just who she was, I knew I had to do it." Achilles bowed to Illa. "Sorry for keeping you in the dark about my suspicions, but I had to be sure."
"That's all right Achilles. You did what you had to do to ensure I didn't get my hopes up."
Adama was by looking between the two of them. "Care to explain Colonel?"
Achilles's grin didn't budge. "I knew that we were following a battlestar, but until almost half a yahren ago I didn't know which battlestar it was. I suspected it was the Galactica, but I couldn't prove it. It took looking through the data from Gamoray to confirm it, once we finally got round to looking through what we pulled from their systems before blasting the place."
"Well anyway, thank you. Now, did you have a reason for calling?"
"Just to tell you that the ships captains are waiting in the council chambers, and to hand you this." He held up a reader. "My ships log, plus the logs of the other combat ships. As Commander of the Fleet, you're entitled to review them."
"Yes, I'll do that later." Adama laid the reader down on his desk. "But now I think it's time I met these brave warriors who have served under you."
x x x x x x
As they walked to the chambers, Achilles filled in Adama on the various officers.
"We've got three majors in the fleet, two in the Tigers and one in the Shipyard. Major Gant of Picsea commands the Pollex, not brilliant but he gets the job done. Major Teran of Leo has the Reaper. He's a hard liner, wanted nothing more than to go on a rampage through Cylon space. Took a quite a bit to get him to come along. Major Pitt of Virgon has the shipyard Matriarch. He's cranky but knows more about shipbuilding than anyone I've met. Used to run the Scorpia Shipyards..."
Trailing behind the two men were Tigh and Apollo, while Athena walked alongside her mother. Sheba and Starbuck made up the group as they all headed down to the Council Chambers. Athena was still finding it hard to accept that her mother had returned from the grave, along with the one man who had rivalled Starbuck's place in her life. She found herself listening to Achilles as they walked, not really hearing the words but focusing on his voice.
"Go on, he's a good catch. Good head on his shoulders and unattached." Illa's voice snapped her out of her daze and she spun her head to look at her mother. Illa had a broad smirk on her face, one that Apollo wore a lot.
"Mother! Are you saying…? Why…?"
"Hush my sweet Athena. I saw the way you were looking at him." Illa soothed her while red raced up Athena's face. "I know you don't think your ready, and that this is not the time, but honestly, when is the best time?"
Athena hung her head. "Father told you about me and Starbuck huh?"
"Yes he did dear. Honestly, sometimes I couldn't see what you saw in him, but if you were happy, then so was I."
"I have to admit, these last few sectars I've wondered the same thing myself." Athena had forgotten the ease of opening up to her mother, telling her things and discussing her feelings in a way that she never could with her father.
"It's alright. Some day you'll meet the right man. Unless…" Illa couldn't help but tease Athena. "…You already have." Athena's only response was to blush brighter red.
Sheba, having overheard the two of them, sighed in frustration and loneliness. While she was as happy as the next warrior for Adama and his family, seeing the ease with which the normally stoic and impersonal Athena spoke with her mother reminded her of her own relationship with her long dead mother. It had almost been six yahrens since her death, and still the ache had not faded complete. It had been something she, Apollo and Athena had in common, as they had to deal with the recent loss of their own mother while she, having been in their shoes, could understand what they were going through.
And now the pain was compounded by the unknown fate of her father, Commander Cain. The living legend, he had survived for almost two yahrens deep in Cylon space, before crossing path's with the Galactica. Now, him and his ship the Pegasus were missing, all contact lost. The odds of him surviving that last battle with those two baseships were slim to none, and yet he had made a reputation for pulling victory out of the jaws of defeat.
Despite the painful memories it was buried in, she clung to the words that Count Iblis had spoken while she had been under his spell. 'You will see him again.' It had occurred to her that he might have meant see him again in death, but Sheba refused to believe it. Her father had survived, and she would see him again. She snapped her attention back to this man Achilles who was just summing up the last officers.
"…Captain Krin of Scorpia has the Striker. Young, but he does appear to have grasped the tactics of a Guardian quite well. And then there's the Rosetta…" He trailed off into a sigh.
"What about her?" Adama asked in concern. Concern that Sheba could understand.
Achilles sighed again before answering the Commander. "Just before she linked up with the rest of us, she suffered a stroke of really bad luck. A micrometeorite struck the bridge view port and punched right through. The blast shields dropped to prevent decompression, but that small rock went right through the captain and the XO before imbedding itself in the bulkhead."
"Ohh, nasty." Starbuck winced.
"Very. Neither man lasted long, not with holes bigger than two closed fists through them. Right now a junior officer's in command. She was third in command, and luckily was at her station. One centon later and she would have been in the line of fire."
"So why haven't you assigned a new captain yet?" Adama asked, pushing the awful mental image of the two unlucky warriors from his mind.
Achilles shrugged. "Frankly, I'm running low on experienced officers. Hell, I'm running low on qualified warriors period. We picked up a lot of people back on the colonies, but most were not in good shape. And with the almost constant attacks we've been making…"
"Your attrition has exceeded your supply." Adama finished for him in sympathy. "I understand son. I've been in a similar position for a while now. I still really need to sort out my own officer core."
Sheba looked at the older man sharply at that. What did he mean by that? Unfortunately they had reached the council chambers, once being used for the purpose they had been designed for, as a fleet command briefing room.
As they entered the expansive chamber and the gathered warriors stood to greet the fleet commander, Sheba continued to let that last sentence of Adama's roll round her head. Was she reading too much into it, or was he referring to the lack of 'proper' Squadron commanders? Apollo, as the only captain, was getting flooded trying to handle four squadrons at once. With a fifth squadron being formed, he would never keep up. Logically it was time for Commander Adama to promote people to command the other squadrons, and it was this thought that ran through Sheba's mind. 'Am I in with a chance?'
x x x x x x
It was much later that day before Adama and Illa were able to spend some time alone together again. The meeting with the ships commanding officers and the Quorum of Twelve had dragged on for centares, mainly due to the councillors.
Now it was approaching the end of the day, and Adama was going over the logs of the other ships. But his mind was not really on the lines of text before him. Instead it was focused on one simple question. 'How did she survive?'
He knew that he should not be looking for flaws in the picture, but after everything that had happened over the last yahren, he could not get out of the habit. Illa had not mentioned what had happened to her on Caprica, and Achilles only said that he and his crew had set down to rescue people trapped in an extermination camp, in which he had found her. He didn't even explain the limp that she now had. It was one more thing that bothered him.
"Adama, do you ever give yourself a break?" Illa asked from the deeper half of his quarters. He couldn't help but smile at her tone. Yes, there was no doubt about it. This Illa looked, acted and sounded like his Illa. But…
Glancing at his crono, he decided that it was time to turn in. But before that, he realised that he had to know what happened. Illa had dragged out of him the terrible facts of that day from his viewpoint. Now it was her turn.
Setting his mind Adama walked into the chamber. Illa sat on the bed, rubbing her shin with a pensive look. Her left shin, the leg she had been favouring all day.
"You in pain?" He asked gently, at which she looked up at him. In her eyes he saw a range of feelings tossing and turning. He could tell that she was debating with herself if she should answer him or not. In the end though, she simply sighed.
"Yes, it always hurts. Most of the time just a faint ache, but after being on my feet all day, it flares up."
"What happened?" He saw her hesitate, and could understand her reluctance. She had always been strong and proud, right from the first day they had met when she had been giving a speech backing the reduction in Colonial Military spending. Kneeling before her, his took her hands in his. "Please Illa, I have to know. What happened on Caprica? When I got to the surface, I found our home in ruins, burnt down…"
"I figured as much. You didn't get all the charring off that one photo." She chuckled briefly before turning serious once more. Her eyes unfocused as she looked back to that fateful day…
DR: Well, that's it for today. Next time we learn about what happened back on Caprica, and what Achilles was up to... Till then!
Shadow: And don't forget to review! Authors like that!
