That night in their quarters she dragged out her drawings, pulled up an old map of Caprica she had found in one of the duty offices, and pieced together for him what was happening on the planet now. She was adamant with him that the Cylons had no interest in the city, and most definitely ignored the suburbs once the humans had been eliminated.
"They want the natural resources, and we were just in the way. I have swung by the planets close to Caprica to do a little recon, but that was too dangerous. I was trying to just be a glitch in their system, not attract attention. Scorpio is crawling with Cylons and they are sucking her dry of tylium. Taurus is just as bad. They don't seem to be on Piscon or Virgo. I haven't been by the others. I only go back for a centaur at the most. Just a blip on their scanner. If they even get close, I come back. Yeah, I know, landing on Caprica was risky, but not as bad as you think. You can ask Boomer. That first time I was actually in more danger from the survivors than from Cylons."
Starbuck tried not to voice his opinion as she detailed everything out, but he couldn't hold back on his biggest concern. "You shouldn't be launching. We don't know how bad it is for the baby."
Rene kept her focus on the map when she answered him. "I do know, Starbuck. The battlecruisers have less of a pull of gravity than the Galactica. With Kiff I was able to fly from the Zakar up until I almost delivered. From Dilmun, I was seven sectars when I lost Keenan's child. I should be okay."
Starbuck had not known until that moment about the one she lost. He reached for her, but Rene barked at him, "Don't!" His hand rested in the space before them, a tender gesture turned into a palm raised in surrender, before she softly added, "please, it was a long time ago. I don't want to talk about it."
Starbuck nodded, softly touching her hair whispering to her, "I don't want you to lose ours."
She turned to him, imploring him, "I'm only four sectars. I've seen the doctor a lot. Launching is not the problem, I promise." Then she smiled playfully. "The baby goes through a lot more pressure when I give birth, I swear!"
He grimaced as her words took his mind places he didn't want to go. "Yeah, I uh . . . don't remember back that far so I'll have to take your word for it. So if we do this, we should do it soon, is that what you're saying?"
"Yes. For more reasons than the baby. The survivors are running out of supplies. They said there are over 40 of them locally, but they said there's more in the vicinity and they wanted time to gather up the rest. They talked like there were even more of them in the past. They've been surviving by hiding. They can't farm. The Cylons torched the fields and poisoned a lot of the waterways. According to the survivors, the rain that falls is somewhat acidic from all the debris and chemicals used in our destruction. Plus, the Cylons are there. They haven't bothered with the survivors because I think they know they won't last long on their own."
"For three yahrens they've been hiding?" Starbuck asked somewhat incredulous.
"They're armed. I was in more danger from them than the Cylons my first trip back. They saw me land and wondered if I was working with the Cylons. They think they have seen some humans working with them."
Starbuck took in the information, looked at the maps she had drawn, the landing sight picked out and marked. "You've landed here a dozen times? With no problems?"
"Yeah, no problems. I haven't even seen a raider nearby, just on the other side of the city. I'm in and out and no pursuit."
She had it all detailed out, he couldn't deny that, but something about it bothered him. "We do this, I don't want you on the ground. In the air, waiting for us. Agreed?"
He saw her clench her jaw. "So you want me to just lie, when you and I both know that's not how this should go?"
"No, we don't know that. Yes, you're the only one that can get us there and back, but that doesn't mean you need to be planetside. I can keep you off the ground and in the air. I can also keep you grounded to the Galactica if I want. Don't make me do that."
"You would do that and just let those people die?"
Starbuck growled, "Maybe. I want to hold our baby here in a few sectars." He pulled away from her frustrated. "Would you please, just follow my plan? Just once." He sighed heavily. "Please, just prove to me that you love me by agreeing to do that. Prove to me you want my child and our life together, can you do that?"
She took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright. I agree."
He didn't know if she was lying. He had to assume she wasn't as they went forward with their plans. They decided the best way to tell Adama was to invite him to dinner, simply because they probably weren't going to get Jake to agree to meet in the Commander's office and Rene wasn't keen on the whole Galactica knowing what she could do. Starbuck argued they had already all seen it, lived through it. But he knew Rene was right, they thought that was Count Iblis' doing. Her part in the story had been obscured by the Count's presence.
Starbuck couldn't deny that knowing she could jump them anywhere would have the people of the fleet wondering why they weren't just going to Earth. It had taken this long just to get Rene to understand why they shouldn't just do that. It was a hard one to explain as Starbuck wanted that objective as well, but Adama was the Commander and he had his reasons, the most persuasive being that it would be the end of them if they found Earth, only to realize they had just led the Cylons there for their ultimate destruction. They had to be sure they were free.
Rene had a point. The pressure of the sealing ceremony was enough. The pressure of carrying the whole fleet to Earth, especially when without Iblis she wasn't sure she could? Yeah, more pressure than she needed before she turned 22 yahrens. Hades, at her age, Starbuck was just hoping to get stationed to a good ship and keep himself out of trouble long enough to make Ensign. Here she was pregnant, about to be sealed and was now worrying about survivors from Caprica that needed to be rescued. While it was probably an odd way to tell Adama, in the Council Chambers seemed the best choice for now.
Rene also asked for a few cycles for a selfish reason. She wanted to show Starbuck what else she and Jake had been up to, what he had not been invited to before. The rumor that she had cheated on Starbuck stung, and she wanted to rub out that idea forever. For the next night she talked Starbuck into civilian clothes, got him to put on a cap to hide his signature locks, asked if he could tone down his Warrior of the Centaur Triad Tourney Champion for just one night.
"Can you just be a Sewer Rat? Forget the rules and regulations and ditch the uniform. Hang up the gold clusters and pretend you suck at Triad, okay?"
"I came from the streets too. You haven't heard all the stories have you?" He grinned at her mischievously and loved the smile of surprise she gave him.
He went so far as not bothering to shave hoping that would help with the disguise, and promised he would let Rene take the lead. Nik and Dara, Lizbet and Crius joined them as they wove their way from one shuttle to another until they were on the Eagle Bash, a converted cargo ship. Starbuck had been noticed a few times, but by the time they got to the cargo carrier, people were leaving him be guessing that he wanted to get lost for a while. Instead they gave him winks and knowing smiles. What was surprising to him though is that Rene was recognized more often. She had made friends among the civilian shuttle pilots, knew most of the support staff by name. Here Starbuck was worried about her being integrated in the fleet, and she knew more people than he did.
On the Eagle Bash, she and Nik seemed to know everyone. They wove their way through the cargo ship where in the back of one of the holds was an unauthorized club. There was a bar dispensing all sorts of homebrewed concoctions, and a stage nearby. Up on the stage was Jake, strumming and tuning a guitar. Rene, Lizbet and Nik left Crius and Starbuck at a table and joined Jake on the stage. Crius was right, the music was loud and angry, very raw. The guitar riffs climbed up your spine and reverberated off the walls. The drums pounded and there were no love ballads, and the crowd loved it. It was Jake that was the star, belting out tunes while making his guitar do things Starbuck didn't know guitars could do. "He's good!" he yelled to Crius. Crius didn't hear him, just nodded. It was strange to see Rene up there, the gal who hadn't liked the attention from the IFB. Starbuck did notice when she sang any lines, her eyes were closed. After about a dozen songs, Rene and Lizbet handed off their instruments to others and came to join their men at the table.
"Wow," was all Starbuck could say before the music began again, even louder. After a centaur or two, Rene pointed to her chrono and left Starbuck so she could pull Jake from the stage and get him back to the Galactica by curfew. Starbuck thought he knew the Rats, but he'd never seen this side of them. They seemed to know most of the staff at the club, waving a goodnight to the owner as he dropped a few cubits into Jake's hands. Jake pulled over one of the serving girls and planted a very passionate kiss on her, one that Cassiopeia would probably like to know about, but Starbuck wasn't going to be the one to tell her. He cast the man a knowing smile and Jake actually ducked his head in embarrassment.
Lizbet had been right, Jake and Rene argued the whole way back, from shuttle to shuttle, over stupid things mostly, but it didn't abate until they set foot on the Galactica. It was somewhat amusing to watch. Nik and Jake were both talkative, animated and smiling, which was new for Starbuck. He didn't know that Nik could speak more than a sentence at a time, but he seemed to be quite knowledgeable about music. Rene didn't let the bickering with her friends keep her distracted from Starbuck, holding his hand the whole way, and giving him kisses every now and then. She looked more relaxed than he'd ever seen her. She also looked younger in the civilian clothes, almost like one of the teens in the family.
The Rats became more subdued by the time they disembarked on the Battlestar. Starbuck suddenly wondered if maybe Rene was right that she and some of the Rats should resign from the Colonial Service, at least Jake. He was happier out of uniform.
Once behind the door of their quarters, Starbuck enjoyed the benefit of a relaxed Rene. She let him take the lead, and take his time. He liked the changes in her body as the baby grew. He didn't know if it was normal that it made him want her more.
They didn't discuss Caprica, not until the next morning when they were getting dressed for the day. They were going to have for Adama that night, and Rene was calculating up how much was needed to get the meal together, supplies and cubits. Some food was allotted to the family, but that was simple stores and they had hoped to do more for the commander.
"I can talk to the mess hall. If they know it's for the Commander, they'll let us have a few things." He watched as Rene struggled to get into the uniform pants that despite getting a larger size were suddenly becoming too small.
"Would you? That would be nice. One good meal would be welcome before the rescue mission. Oh, and I was wondering, if you don't mind I mean, could we just get sealed tonight?"
He was bent over getting on his boots, and the words took him by surprise. He sat up and looked to her. "What? I thought you wanted it to be with some soil under your feet?"
She shrugged her jacket on and turned to him. "I don't want to wait. I mean, we can have the party later, right? Just the family needs to know we did it. Invite Apollo of course," she added. "But I don't know why we are waiting, unless you want to?"
He stood and reached for her, suddenly concerned. "Why now?"
She sighed. "I don't want you wondering anymore. And everyone we care about will be there. So why not?"
"So a dress and all that? You want me to put on the dress uniform and shine up the gold clusters?" He tried to read what she was thinking.
She smiled at him, brushed his hair from his face. "This is you. I want to seal with you."
"You mean, just like this." He smiled wrapping his arms around her. "Sounds pretty nice. Tonight it is then."
"So deal," she said smiling. "Now get to that patrol, hot shot." She stood on her toes to give him a kiss before he headed out the door.
Crius had the vipers ready and it was a routine patrol to check their route ahead. It had been different now that they knew the route, retracing their previous course. It was nice to have very few surprises on the patrol and to actually feel a little safer in the skies. It was different now that he knew someone was back on the Galactica waiting on him. Would always be waiting on him. It made a boring routine patrol suddenly feel like the best thing ever. He was looking forward to surprising the family tonight, and wondered where he might be able to find some flowers on the spur of the moment.
They had finished their run and were heading back when two vipers approached them. He assumed it was Boomer and Nik taking over, having headed out early for some reason. He wasn't complaining, early meant he could work on things for the dinner tonight.
Happily, Starbuck called out on the commline, "Yo Boomer, what's up? Nice to see you're early." The viper circled around and lined up beside him. The voice that replied had him cursing.
"Crius, don't follow. I mean it. Go home. We won't be long. You ready, Starbuck?"
"Rene, what in the frack are you doing out here? We had a deal!"
"I'm not breaking it, Handsome. Be honest, you need to see the terrain before you can put together a mission. I promised, where I go, you go. You ready? One, two three."
She didn't wait for his agreement, hitting her turbos to line up just in front of him, her engines a little too close to the nose of his craft. The field opened and his viper was through before he could change his trajectory. The anomaly squeezed tight and dropped him down onto a world he didn't recognize. He was too shocked by the sight to finish his angry reprimand.
His days at the academy had included numerous days in the cockpit. He swore then that he could find his way back to the academy landing field even half asleep. That was not true anymore. Caprica looked nothing like he remembered. The startling blue bay of Caprica City had an oily sheen of grey coating its surface. The city of lights was dark. The white spires of the city center were gone, and what had been the academy was a black scar in the landscape.
He wanted to yell at her, but he was too absorbed with taking in the landscape and the ways it had changed. Who could have thought an entire civilization could be wiped out in a single day? Twelve planets devastated. Billions of lives erased. His home was unrecognizable. This was no longer home.
Rene's words over the comm woke him from his shock. "The scanners are clear, see? They have left Caprica alone for the most part, I mean once they made sure we were all dead and gone."
"Doesn't mean we should loiter around though." He noted the heavy thick clouds of smoke that roiled off in the distance. He longed to breathe the fresh pine scented air of Caprica, but that was gone as well. The green spaces that had enveloped the city were now charred and scarred vestiges of what had once been. His chest felt tight and burned just at the idea of what chemicals this acrid air must hold. His eyes teared up. He blinked rapidly as he put aside his emotions and brought up more scans of the planet. Rene was right, there was activity on the far side of the planet, but below them was deathly quiet. He was flying over a living tomb.
By instinct he found himself following the coordinates for the academy, but as they got closer, it was more than just a scorch mark. It had been bombed into oblivion. His training kicked in, penetrating the shock he was feeling. Radium levels were still detectable. There was no evidence that any building had ever stood there. The parade ground that he had marched upon on his graduation day was a large gaping hole scooped out down to bedrock. He circled what had once been the gated entrance, a structure that had stood for over four hundred yahrens, now a pile of rocks. He remembered back to the tradition as a raw recruit of being marched under that arch, and the pride they all felt parading through again as Academy graduates. All that history was just another pile of rubble in a sea of debris.
Rene's voice across the calm made him jump as she broke his reverie. "So since we are here, I was thinking…"
"NO! You are not landing for a shopping trip." The very idea that she had traipsed across this landscape with just the thought of acquiring black market goods somehow seemed like the kind of mortal sin that the priests of the book of the word always threatened you with. "You are not risking your life and my baby's so you can make a profit. Please tell me you at least checked the radium levels before you landed before?"
"Chill your gold clusters, of course I did. The city core was the worst, obviously, but levels are down to less than one percent. The Academy site is just over that, but I'm betting you already know that. The suburbs are clear. I'm guessing the fact that Caprica City is on the ocean has a lot to do with that, and while I might still not eat the seafood, I'm guessing the amount of caesium is currently comparable to contamination after that nuclear disaster we all remember across the ocean, where none of our residents were cautioned to drop Ambrosia Shrimp off the menu. Hey, I'm not being shallow, Starbuck. I was actually thinking we could stop to get something for Adama, you know, we can bring him something from home."
"Oh, so it's alright to risk your life if you give the stuff away, but not to sell it? We are not landing! Not this time. Take me to where we are meeting the survivors so I can scan the area and then we leave."
"Yes, sir, oh Strike Wing Astrum."
"Dammit, Rene, I swear by the Lords!" But she did as he ordered. Starbuck was grateful to turn away from the sight of the destruction of the only place he considered to be home as they flew further away from the city core. Rene went low and slow around an area that had been a shopping center. There were large square buildings, with empty asphalt areas in front for parking. The area around it was completely levelled, and he tried to forget that there had been a primary school just down the street that he had once attended while being fostered. He'd known this place once, but now couldn't make out where streets or trails had once been. He recalled the general direction of the home he had temporarily stayed in, but couldn't begin to pinpoint where it was. He forcibly drew his attention back to the shopping center. It was ideal, and yet not. Open enough to see the enemy, plenty of room to land and set up, but exposed, too exposed. There was no cover nearby to speak of.
"No sign of Cylons in this area?" he asked, taking his own scans. Radium levels were almost undetectable, and certainly safe.
"No, sir, not once. The survivors we met, four of them, they say that the Cylons only show up for routine scans because they seem to know there are survivors and can't get to them. They probably expected the radium to finish them off."
"Why can't they get to them?" Starbuck could see where Rene had been landing only because the rest of the area was undisturbed, but her landing area was scorched and the ground bore fresh evidence of having been disturbed. Starbuck could easily trace the route she had taken into the shopping mall. "Rene, you were way too exposed here, you know that, right? Please tell me we have taught you that much?"
"Yes sir," she snarled the 'sir'. "It was supposed to be once, Starbuck, so no, I didn't worry too much about what I left behind. Wormhole they can't follow through, remember? I know it was stupid, but the voices got too loud at night. I couldn't sleep through them."
Starbuck cursed to himself before he asked, "You tell your doctor about that? I'm thinking he should be the one doing something about that, not Gage giving you a viper to fly into the heart of the Cylon Empire!"
"When we get back, you can ask Gage yourself why he gave me the viper, because guess what, if I'm crazy, I'm not the only one."
Starbuck took a deep breath and saved the rest of his lecture for later, when they weren't transmitting over commlines the Cylons could pick up. He took two passes of the area, logged the scans and then told Rene it was time to go. Boomer was right, it was quiet, too quiet. The skies of Caprica had been busy during his days at the Academy. You had to dodge other craft to land, the commlines crackling with military and civilian traffic. Now, there were just multi-colored clouds, smoke pouring from factories on the outskirts where the Cylons were reaping the resources of the planet. He was tempted to fly over the industrial area, but getting a peek at it on the long range scan was enough. There, the Cylon tankers were lined up, a few raiders in the air.
"Is that where we got our fuel?" Starbuck asked remembering back to the raid sectars ago where he learned that Cylons are heavy.
"Yes. I didn't know at the time we'd be back. I bet on the element of surprise. They have added more raiders and patrol in that area, which is why I go nowhere near it now."
His scanner pinged with enemy contact, and he counted. It was only a dozen, not a whole squadron. "And nothing since, right? So we'd still have the surprise factor. Okay, we need to go before we get their attention. I know what I'm dealing with now."
"We're here. You sure we can't land? I know where Adama's house is. You sure you don't want to check it out? He won't be as mad at me if I take him a gift. What do you say? Be a rat for one more day. It's not like you're a Captain yet."
"Rene, he won't be mad, and well, maybe he should be! I don't have to be a Captain to want you safe and…" His words were falling on deaf ears as Rene banked her viper, and then started gaining altitude, flying towards the ridge overlooking the city core. He knew this area too. Only too well. His chest ached as he gazed down on the devastation. He didn't know if he could do this, and before he knew it she was gliding down a winding neighborhood street, destroyed hovermobiles littering the way. "Rene, dammit I mean it! You promised you would follow my orders!"
"Yeah," she drawled in Crius's country twang, "about that. You coming?"
He watched as she landed, and he had no choice but to join her or let her land alone. He wanted to be angry, but unfortunately other emotions were rearing their ugly heads as he flew into his past. Besides, he couldn't deny he was curious and she had a point. Would Adama even believe them without some proof?
He landed and she met him. He tried to keep the scowl on his face, but unlike on the Galactica, here his anger didn't seem to faze her one bit. Starbuck shook his head. "Ten centons, that's it, and then we go, and you see the Doctor as soon as we land." He probably needed to see Salik too. Obviously he needed his head examined.
"Then you figure out what to tell Dr. Salik. He's damn curious why I keep coming by and so far I have blamed it on you and the copious couplings we have and that you are clueless about babies."
"So you lie to me and throw me under the landram, good to know." The banter helped to keep quiet the klaxons ringing in his ears over the fact that the street was too quiet. He expected there would be no sounds of human activity. What he didn't expect was that there wasn't sound of any activity, no bees buzzing, no birds singing, no daggits barking, not even the wind blowing. It was still and deathly quiet. His heart ached as he looked out over Caprica Bay, the city below a fabric of decay and destruction. Up the hillside, what had once been a green and grassy landscape was now overgrown or scorch-marked. This is where Adama had first made contact with what they'd thought were all of the survivors, and where word had first gone out that the remains of the Colonial Worlds would gather and flee to the stars. Apollo had been conservative, to say the least, in his sharing of this story one night when they'd both had too much to drink. All he'd really said was that his mother's death must have been blessedly quick.
Starbuck barely recognized the street, and the home he had been to over a dozen times was gone. In its spot lay a few timbers that were charred. The tree that had once dominated the front yard now lay on the ground, having fallen and collapsing on what had been left of the roof. In the center of what should have been the front living room now grew brush and saplings. Only one wall was partially standing, a hole through its center. Rene walked up what would have been the front path, stepping over bricks pushed up from the ground and over turned. She stepped over what had been a piece of the front door, the brass knocker eerily still intact. With a blaster in each hand, she began kicking at the debris, shoving aside timbers and poking the toe of her boot at remnants of walls and furniture. The sounds of Rene rummaging through the debris bothered Starbuck more than the silence. This home had once been a sanctuary for him, a place of hope for a better future. Now, it was a charred heap.
The last time he had been here was for a party to celebrate Zac's graduation from the Academy. It had been a beautiful summer day and Ila and Athena had laid out a picnic on the back lawn. The wild roses had been in bloom, and he had picked one for both Athena and Ila to place in their hair. The roses were still there, a mass of tangles and thorns that unlike everything else seemed to be thriving. Starbuck plucked one, not recalling having walked across the yard. He startled as he pricked his thumb on a thorn, the slight pain penetrating through the fog his mind had settled into. The bushes were engulfing the home, swallowing it up whole. Ila had been so proud of them at one time.
Suddenly he was terrified that Rene would stumble across the rotting corpse of Ila. Apollo's mother had been one of the most beautiful women Starbuck had ever known. It was not just her flowing golden hair, her stunning green eyes, or the warm smile. It was that she never forgot Starbuck when she visited Apollo. Sometimes she'd bring him a batch of home baked goods, or handmade socks personally delivered with that smile. There was always something for Starbuck, and he loved the way she beamed and said "Oh it's nothing" when he thanked her, the two of them both knowing it was something special to the orphan who'd been unofficially adopted into their family.
He had been warmly welcomed by her at this home every time, even the times when Adama wasn't pleased about the trouble he had gotten Apollo into. There had been that time he'd 'borrowed' a hovermobile when they'd missed the transport back to the Academy and were in danger of breaking curfew. Apollo had been a little naïve in those days, and Starbuck was a creature of pragmatism. Even as Adama glowered at him under his eyebrows, Ila would come to the door, and much to his initial embarrassment, would always hug him and kiss him upon the cheek. He didn't want those memories to be overshadowed with the gruesome image of a burnt or decomposing corpse.
Suddenly he couldn't bear the thought of Rene defiling Ila's grave. He shouted angrily, "STOP!" His voice echoed loudly in the silence.
Rene had crouched down at the sound of his voice as if they were under attack, her blasters up as she scanned for the enemy.
"I've seen enough," he said quietly, but he couldn't bring himself to step down that walkway to pull Rene away. Slowly she came back up to her feet, giving him a curious look. He swallowed down the thickness in his throat that suddenly choked him. He tried to speak, but it took another try to get it out. "Get out of there, okay?"
Rene looked at him with disdain at his weakness.
"We're here. I'm not leaving without something. Just cover me," she said, and went back to digging through the debris. He turned away, half considered walking back to his viper and launching away from this horror. He was angry with her, but he understood her desire to want to take Adama some proof they had been here. Even as he stood in Adama's front yard, he couldn't believe that he was standing on Caprica once again. He looked back to her and the pile of debris she was on the ground raking her hands through.
It struck him like a blaster to the chest, rocking him back a step. In a day Adama had lost almost everything, his wife, his home, his youngest child. How did the man live with that? How did he have the strength to also shoulder the loss of a nation and lead them all forward? He blinked back tears again, this time in sympathy for Adama. He'd been too wrapped up in his own grieving on the day of the destruction to realize what Adama had gone through. He remembered flying over the complex where Aurora had lived, devastated at the time to find the whole building collapsed upon itself, like a fragile sandcastle kicked over. But she had just been a girl whom he dated a few times while Athena had been busy with her studies at the Academy, or away on the Galactica, it wasn't a wife, a child, a home.
Rene stood up, brushing something off in her hand and smiled. The sun peeked out of the oily clouds and cast her in a warm silhouette. He tried to look beyond the memories of the past to what was before him, the young woman whom he planned to wed, blossoming more every day with his child.
He found his voice. With determination, he stepped across the lawn as he shouted, "Rene, we're leaving now. I mean it, NOW!"
Rene's head came up from the dust she was combing through with the muzzle of her weapon. She reached for something, and stepped softly through what would have been the front door. She brought to him a silver trophy cup which she placed in his hands. It was slightly warped from the heat of the fire that destroyed the home, but still legible on the base was Zac's name and the yahren he had won it for taking first in the science fair.
Rene spoke softly. "He beat his brother. Apollo had never come in first in a science fair. He was pretty proud of that thing. I found a ring and some vintage coins Commanders hand out to each other," she held one up, the emblem for the Atlantia clearly visible. "Do I have time to look for more?"
"NO!" Starbuck tried to swallow his panic. "No, this should be enough. Let's go. We've stayed too long. Let's launch. Nothing fancy, I mean it, low and slow, and then you work your magic trick. You land and I will join you in the Life Center, understood?"
Rene nodded and turned away to walk to her viper. "I have to land on the Shiva. They'll be expecting the viper back."
Starbuck reached out and grabbed the collar of her jacket spinning her around to face him. He didn't care if she melted down on him or not, maybe that's what he wanted, he didn't know, he just knew he was going to cut off her ability to come here on her own. Nose to nose he ordered her in his best Academy drill leader voice, "You land on the Galactica and that's an order or I will strip you of rank. Understood?"
She winced before setting her face in determination. "You don't outrank me, Starbuck. You pull that mong and you can forget a sealing!" She went to turn away but he kept hold of her collar, spinning her back.
"You said you would do as I asked. You agreed. I'm not sure I want to seal with someone who lies to me and threatens to call it off after every disagreement just because she isn't getting her way." He called her bluff
Rene's nose crinkled. She sighed. "I wasn't planning on coming back again without you. I swear. And be honest, you needed to see it. You were worrying too much."
It was Starbuck's turn to crinkle his nose in annoyance for the fact she was right. He had needed to see Caprica for himself. She and Boomer had been right; it was quiet, too quiet for a planet wiped by a race that had vowed their ultimate destruction. They didn't want the planet, the Cylon's just wanted the human race destroyed, and then they'd move on to their next objective.
Rene read the crack in his resolve. "If I don't take it back to the Shiva I'll get the guy in trouble. I'm going to tell Adama tonight, and you and I both know he'll ground me. So why does somebody else need to get in trouble?"
"Yeah, about that," Starbuck drawled like Crius. "When I find out who let you launch, I surely will be on report again, because he whoever he is will need a new face." He tried to shove his anger down. He wasn't mad at Rene or Gage or the mystery crewman that let her launch. He was mad as hell that his world had been destroyed, and the new one he was trying to make could be destroyed just as easily.
He pulled up some reason and logic floating to the surface of his fear, "I need your viper on the Galactic. If we plan a mission, we'll need your viper and the device, am I right? Can you just build another one? We aren't using Iblis for this, so, here's the deal. You really talk to Dr. Wilker. You show him what you can do and how you do it, or else wave Caprica good bye. I will pull your flight status even for shuttles. I will chain you to a desk if I have to."
He didn't realize the words he'd used until they were out, but despite the shocked look on Rene's face, he didn't regret them. "You know what I mean. Maybe I just need for you to do something I asked, just the once. Did you have to land?" Starbuck looked around at what had once been homes that were symbol of the Caprican dream. The silence was deafening. His whole soul ached to see what had once been his hopeful goal now looking so tarnished, abandoned and destroyed.
When he met her eyes he saw that she had read him like a book. She nodded and with respect uttered soflty, "Yes sir." She turned to head for her viper, climbing up without a second look to the homes around her.
Starbuck wanted to call her back, to apologize, but what for he wasn't exactly sure. It was the right call, he knew it was. He couldn't help but to look to the home again, once a foolish young man's desire. It hadn't been the real estate overlooking the Caprican Bay though, it had been the family. He still wanted that on some planet somewhere, but for now he'd have to be satisfied with being part of a family on the Galactica. He turned back to his viper vowing that one day it would happen, his children would have fresh air to breathe and space to run.
They fired up their vipers and launched. Rene did as he asked, doing a low orbit launch to lessen the G-forces. It however earned them a bit of attention as he saw a trio of raiders launch and head in their direction. "That's not good, we need to go."
He didn't need to order her twice as the field opened and they were through, finding themselves at the edge of the fleet near the Shiva. The change in scenery was disorienting. By instinct he was scanning for the raiders that had been on their tail before the field opened, but the scanners were clear. He breathed a sigh of relief.
It took a few microns before he realized Rene was heading straight for the Shiva, lining up as if to land.
"Galactica, Rene," Starbuck reminded her.
Her viper stayed on course for the Shiva for a micron more before she audibly sighed over the comm and muttered as if she was a child being scolded, "Yes sir."
Once on the Galactica, Jenny gave Starbuck a questioning look when Rene climbed from her viper. Starbuck issued the order using the full privilege of his position as Strike Wing.
"Pull that viper and lock it down. No one touches it but me. You see Lt. Rene on this flight deck without me, you call security and put her on report, understood?"
"Yes sir boss," Jenny replied with a look that let him know she had questions, but she'd get the job done before she asked them.
The annoyed look on Rene's face said it all. She was about to open her mouth and complain, but Starbuck reached for her. His heart was still beating hard, the panic tight in his chest. He meant to just grab her hand, but had pulled her into a tight embrace before he even thought about who might be on the flight deck. She looked confused as he pulled her in, but she didn't resist as he held her tight.
It was her turn to reassure him, "Shh, its okay. We're back and we're fine."
He still held tight, and found himself praying, something he never did. Rene's hands around him, softly rubbing his back, helped some as she said softly, "It's okay, we survived. We made it."
He tried to take a deep breath, feeling the bands across his chest loosen a bit and his heart slow down. He spoke softly into her ear, "So humor me. I want to hear my baby's heart beat again."
She pulled away and looked to him, her face one of concern. "Okay, life center. Then we'll talk about you grounding me after the mission. My boots on the Galactica, just like you want."