He and Crius were barely out the door of the Life Center before he started grilling him. "So how long has everyone been making sure there's an Academy trained Warrior with them?"
"Since joining the fleet," Crius answered.
Starbuck started to say it wasn't necessary, but Crius interrupted. "It's habit, Starbuck. Things just went better when the Rats were with one of us."
"And what do you do when duty dictates otherwise?" he asked, knowing that it didn't always happen, like when Rene and the rest of the Rats disappeared to the Eaglebash.
"We make sure we shift duties. We got lax, but after you guys got back from Caprica, there's been some trouble."
"What kind of trouble? Why didn't you tell me?"
Crius shrugged, "Nothing obvious, just hints of problems and you wouldn't see it happening."
"Why is that?"
"They don't do it when you're around, Starbuck."
He cursed under his breath as the old fear that he was just being used reappeared ghosting his steps.
"Crius, you're going to have to step up here! I can't be the only one guiding the way. I'm not exactly a paragon of what is right and moral. You knew what they were up to I'm guessing, and you didn't think to put a stop to it?"
"I didn't know they were going to Caprica! I was just as in the dark as you were, and yeah, I step up, been stepping up for yahrens trying to keep them out of trouble. They don't start it all, you know. It's not like they said, 'Hey, why don't you push me around? I kinda like it. Usually they're trying to stay out of the problem."
Starbuck sighed heavily. His wing mate was right, he was probably just as in the dark as he was. Rene was sneaky and she did a lot of things to try to smooth over the rough spots in their lives that most didn't even notice she was doing, like paying off the child care minders with jewellery and ambrosia. Then there were the supplies from the galley that were increasing in their quality and quantity. He wasn't sure he wanted to know what she was giving the cooks in the mess to make that happen. He wanted to be angry with her, but he knew everyone profited from her forays to Caprica. She had been a one-woman economic stimulus to the black market, and all her profits went to the family. He wasn't sure he could have been that selfless with what she was bringing back, he thought as he looked down upon the ring on his left hand, the blue stone nearly the size of his knuckle, wondering just how many hundreds of cubits that would have cost back in the old days. Now it was probably worth thousands.
Her dealings had definitely garnered her some attention, whether she had wanted it or not.
They travelled the rest of the way to Lara's friends in silence. He forgot how early in the morning it was when he had to ring the chime several times before Callie's parents answered the door and brought him a bleary eye Lara. Starbuck had thought to break the news to her gently, but Crius didn't soften the blow, clearly assuming the kid could handle more than Starbuck thought she could.
"Jake and Nik were attacked. Rene wants you somewhere safe." Crius dug a knife from his pocket handing it to Lara who didn't question what it was or why he was giving it to her.
"You sure about that?" he asked, but Crius just nodded.
"She knows how to use it."
"Of course, she does. Part of the Dilmun educational system, knife play and your A B Cs," Starbuck said sarcastically earning him a sharp look from Crius.
"Can I see Jake?" Lara asked. Starbuck was about to tell her she could but Crius overrode him.
"Need you safe for now. Jason and Cain are coming home. Stay with them, and stay with Giles until we get back."
Lara started to whine, something she'd been doing lately, but Crius cut her off with, "Rene said," the words silencing her protest.
Once they had Lara delivered back to Lisbet, Starbuck led Crius off to the duty office.
"What are we doing?" Crius asked as he saw their destination.
"I want to check on Pallus and Brody, and anyone who might have been one of their buddies. Figured it would be the first step to finding out if Rene is right."
"She's not usually wrong," Crius added as Starbuck logged into the duty roster.
"She might be this time. Pallus and Brody were out on patrol at the time of the attack."
"Doesn't mean they didn't make a stop," Crius said, looking over Starbuck's shoulder checking the duty roster himself and shaking his head. "Yeah, frak. All accounted for, but doesn't mean they couldn't set it up with someone else or…"
"Yeah, but are you guys willing to share all that information with the Commander, what Rene and Jake have been up to and how many are abusing what Rene brought back?"
As Starbuck predicted, Crius didn't give his question more than a shrug of resignation and a quick, "Frak no."
"You might have to."
Crius gave a quick nod before adding, "Not my decision."
"So, Rene really does run things for the family, doesn't she?" He shut off the monitor and spun in the chair to face his new wing mate.
"She's not dumb," Crius answered shrugging.
"Oh, I'd be willing to debate that right now with two of her friends with head injuries in the Life Center. Were things that bad on Dilmun that you forgot all your Academy training?"
"No, I didn't forget, but others did." Crius said defensively, dropping his country boy persona, finally facing, in Starbuck's opinion, a long overdue reckoning of accounts. "It was brutal on the Zakar before the destruction. Take any hard-line officer you've ever had, and multiply it by ten, and then you have Dante. He was harsh as a Colonel. If you stepped out of line even a fraction of a millimetron, you knew it. He always had favorites and the rest of us danced to their tune."
Nodding, Starbuck thought back to a few officers he had served under over the years who were less than congenial. His posting before the Galactica was a good example, a Commander who was conned into taking him on, a Colonel who was bound and determined to see he was a model officer in order to make up for his less than exemplary past. Starbuck was not on his good side, drawing the worst duties on a regular basis. Complaining to Apollo is what finally sped up the process of him being reassigned. Well, that and the pranks he had pulled where he was able to lay blame upon others, coming out innocent even though the Colonel suspected otherwise. The Commander had been amused at Starbuck's ingenuity, helping to speed up the process of his departure.
"What about your commander, the one before Dante promoted himself? Didn't he ever try to override Dante?"
Crius shook his head. "He was sectars away from retirement. He was a nice guy, but he wasn't looking to really work hard. He seemed to appreciate that Dante took over most of his duties. At first when I got on the Zakar, it was like the Commander's own personal retirement cruise, you know, hitting the best ports, lots of shore leave and outings for the crew, but then the peace accord came up and the one smart decision that guy made was to get us the hades out of that mess. He knew if he showed up, he'd be expected to do something that might look like work, so he traded spots with some other ship, took the long-range mission for some diplomatic delegation and we were far away from that frak fest."
"Then what happened to him?" Starbuck asked, realizing no one had ever really explained how Dante wound up in charge of the Zakar in such a short amount of time.
"He died." Crius didn't elaborate and Starbuck resented having to dig for the information as his wing mate suddenly turned to the Rat's code of conduct, admit nothing.
"Yeah, how? That's where things get fuzzy, am I right?"
Crius shook his head looking away for moment before looking back. "You got that right, things do get fuzzy. I honestly don't know what happened. Dante just said he died, heart attack or something at the news of the destruction. We were busy fighting for our lives at the time, Frak fest, remember? I was a lowly Lieutenant who got a fast promotion to Captain and didn't question it because I didn't have time to. Back to back patrols and red alerts, and then we were back at the colonies trying to figure out what happened. By the time Rene and her friends were brought on board, we were just trying to make it centon to centon. And then…"
Crius paused and a tremor rippled across his shoulders.
"And then the Shiva," Starbuck filled in.
Crius nodded, the man looking like he was about to breakdown and cry.
Starbuck filled in the gaps for his new friend, wanting to spare him the horror of the details. "And the destroyer, and the Sabre and the rest."
Crius nodded.
"How many?" Starbuck asked softly.
"A dozen," Crius answered vaguely. "I don't know. I tried to avoid those missions. Had Rene told me about the Galactica, she would have avoided that one as well."
"And then where would we be, buddy?" Starbuck hadn't meant the question to sound judgmental, but he had to admit it was. How long would he have stomached a Colonel who promoted himself to God status and began gunning down anyone who stood in his way? Not long, not if he had Apollo and Boomer by his side. But Crius didn't have those kinds of friends back then.
"How did Dante do it, get you guys to agree to go along with it? Didn't some of you question it?"
Crius nodded before looking away. "I lost a lot of good friends and once I met Rene and Lisbet, I had other priorities. We were just trying to stay alive, Starbuck. We were outnumbered and outgunned. If you're one of Dante's favorites, you get fed. Get too vocal or grow a backbone, you get spaced. It was an easy decision at the time."
Starbuck reached out a hand to his wing mate's shoulder. "Understood." It was all he could seem to offer in the way of understanding and apology. "When did you start using? On the Zakar? Dante made you do it?"
Crius nodded and Starbuck thought he might let it go at that, but he added, "Nice little side effect of the stims, you're not hungry. Makes it easier to forgo a few meals, you know?"
Starbuck nodded, knowing that Crius was the type of person that he'd make sure everyone else got fed before he ate; he always did at meal times with the family. Despite the ample supplies recently, Crius was still so thin he made Starbuck seem plump.
"Please tell me you aren't taking the felgercarb when you're flying with me."
Crius met his eyes before plastering on a fake grin. "Rene's right, you just beg to be lied to, you know that, Bucko?"
He took in a heavy sigh. "Yeah, I'm working on that. Why don't you work on the truth?"
Crius dropped the grin. "Baby Zac isn't sleeping much at night and then there was the whole family stuck on Caprica with no hope of a rescue going on. Don't worry, all within regulation doses. I'm not completely daft."
"Not smart either because now we have a situation that needs to be resolved. One Rene created, am I right?"
Crius rolled his eyes up to the ceiling before looking to him again. "Yeah, I suppose, maybe. And maybe this is just a random attack."
"That's the best case scenario, isn't it? I'm thinking it's time we all come clean and you guys ask for help from the Commander. Rene's not thinking clearly in my opinion. Too many dreams and the pressure of deciding what to do with her ability to leap across space. Willing to take the help?"
Crius sucked in a deep breath before nodding. "Since we are neck deep in a mong heap and the bovines keep crapping, yeah I guess so."
"Let's go talk to Adama."
"Now? I mean, don't we want to wait until..."
Starbuck cut him off. "Until you're up to your eyeballs in felgercarb? Or someone else gets attacked, like Lisbet or the kids?"
Crius nodded. "I thought you'd like to finish off your honeymoon, but you have a point."
Starbuck hadn't thought about that, and wished he had, but he knew Rene wasn't going to head back to the Rising Star with him to finish off their time in the suite, not while her friends were in the life center. He knew he wouldn't be able to either. They were family now, and family stuck together in a crisis.
"Let's go," he said reaching for a data pad to download the duty roster to use as evidence. Crius had a point, Pallus could have made an unexpected stop on his patrol, or gotten someone else to do his dirty work, a trick the Captain probably learned from Dante. But for now, Pallus and Brody had a viper clad alibi.
Once in the Life Center, he checked on Nik to find that he was undergoing treatments to relieve the swelling of his brain, head stuck under a regenerator, but he was cleaned up and looking a bit better.
"Everyone back home?" Adama asked, having taken a chair beside Nik's bed, a hand resting on the young man's arm. Starbuck had been meaning to ask about the sudden connection that Adama had shown for the kid ever since they got back from Caprica. Lately, Nik had been speaking more, and didn't shy away from the Commander. He still froze whenever Adama laid a hand on him, but after a few moments, he would come back to life, a trace of a grin in his features. Not quite a full smile, just a hint that there might be one in time. Something good had come out of the botched mission. If Nik could learn to trust the Galactica Commander, it increased the likelihood that the rest of the Rats could too.
"Yes sir. I still think she's overreacting, but they're her kids," he replied with a shrug of resignation.
"And yours as well. You want them home for something like this."
He nodded at Adama's advice before asking, "How's he doing?"
"Better. His memory is not affected as he was just listing off all of the Monarch's songs, some I had forgotten." Adama patted Nik's arm, and Nik actually moved his hand closer to the Commander.
Seeing the gesture, Starbuck almost didn't say anything about Rene's suspicions. The desire for this to be just a random coincidence was strong, but when he cast a look to Rene, he knew by the angry glower on her features that her instincts might be right. At least she was convinced she was, and he needed to voice those concerns if he wanted them to be proven false.
"Sir, I think we need to talk with you." He gestured to Crius who looked away sheepishly.
Adama guessed the intent. "There's something more going on here than a robbery?"
Starbuck nodded. "I'm hoping not, but…" he looked to Rene searching for an easier way to explain. "I need to check on Jake and then …" He hesitated again.
"In my office?" Adama guessed again at the need for a space where the story could be told in confidence.
"Yes sir. Not really my story to tell, but I'm not going to get her to leave his side right now."
"And the reason this can't be done here?" Adama asked.
"We might be wrong," Crius added before Starbuck could.
"Or we might be right. Either way needs some discretion," Starbuck conceded. "I need to check on her first."
Adama nodded. "When you are ready." Adama patted Nik's arm again. "We can talk music when I return. I am curious to find out if you know anything about Jazz."
"Don't get him started," Dara answered for him.
Walking away from the playful banter was hard only because he knew he would have a fight on his hands with Rene. She was definitely plotting some sort of revenge by the dark thoughts that were playing out on her face like an action vid as she sat beside Jake, his hand still in hers. Cassie was working on healing his cuts. His face was still a swollen mess.
"How is he?" He placed a hand on Rene's shoulder. "They taking good care of my brother?"
"He's doing a little better," Cassie answered while Rene looked up to Starbuck, her face grim.
"They got him," she said softly.
He nodded wanting to curse. "So not just a robbery?"
She shook her head and looked back to Jake who was out cold. Starbuck was reminded once again how young the Rat's were. Jake's face softened in unconsciousness looked almost younger than Cain or Jason. Starbuck reached down to try to smooth the ruffled mess of his hair as he tried to wipe away the images of what had been done to the kid. It might be a miracle he was alive. Having watched him play triad, Starbuck knew Jake would have fought hard, so hard that killing him might be the only way to subdue him.
Rene had every right to be angry and frightened and there wasn't much Starbuck could do to make it any better.
"I got Lara back with Lisbet and Giles. I'm sending Boomer to stay with them to make you feel safer. Crius and I are going to have a little talk with the Commander."
"About what?" Rene asked absently. He squeezed her shoulder.
"You know what about. We are going to have to give up some information if we want to catch these guys and make it stop." He felt her tense under his hand. "You know it's the right thing to do, Rene."
She didn't answer him and he gave her shoulder two gentle squeezes. He'd give her time to come to terms with it, to craft her stories and half truths while he filled the Commander in on all of the facts.
"I'm doing this to keep everyone safe, especially the kids. I'll be back. Love you."
She nodded, but didn't look to him or say anything. He squeezed her shoulder again before he looked to Cassie. "Take good care of him."
He knew it didn't really need to be said. Cassie had a vested interest in his family as well, but for some reason he needed her to know that Jake was important to him too. But the best way he could help Jake right now was to put an end to all the secrets and the lies.
He walked away, but not before giving Rene one last look. Her eyes were on him, dark and sorrowful. He nodded to her, trying to convey to her that this was for the best, but she looked away.
Placing a hand on Adama's shoulder, he spoke softly, "I think we should have that talk now."
Adama made the same request of Doctor Salik, to take good care of his family. Starbuck was touched by the inclusion, but also knew Adama might want to take back the honor when he knew what he was getting himself into.