"Don't shake!" With Starbuck's arms around her, she sent up the thoughts to John or whoever it was that had sent her the vision. "If you want me to do whatever it is you seem to want me to do, then help me to stop shaking or he won't let me go." She was able to hold herself still for the brief hug and was able to get out the words that needed to be said without them getting stuck. She couldn't deny that Starbuck's hand had felt so nice against her cheek. She tried to take from his touch the confidence he had in his own abilities. Even though he was just as sick as she was, he actually thought he could take out a whole squadron in a craft with barely enough fuel to fly. Or at least he was determined to do it for her, if necessary.

He didn't linger in his farewell. That fact alone gave her a bit more control over her body and her mind that was reeling. Starbuck was right, they had a job to do and they would see each other when it was done. She had wanted to say more to him because he had a very valid point about her own abilities. She could feel the gaps in her memory and perhaps it was the fear of having to leap across those chasms that had her shaking.

"Or maybe it's just the friends you picked up on your swim, that's all. Just don't think too hard." A voice spoke to her, sounding like Jake, but he was still up in the cockpit, buried deep down in the seat in order to get the device installed. She looked around to see if someone else might have spoken to her, but the old man beside her was intent on Jake's efforts to install the device.

"You sure that's it and not the poking around those damn robots did in my body and my head?" she mumbled under her breath. It earned her the attention of the old man.

"You alright?" Peryton reached for her arm and she recoiled from him, her hands coming up in defense. She hadn't meant to, but the instinct was far too ingrained. An old man's touch was never good.

"Meant no harm." His soft apology and the step he took back is the only thing that kept her from just walking away. Instead she stood there in the awkward silence that the man tried to fill. "I'm assuming you're a good pilot since you can fold space at will."

She shrugged. Until Starbuck, she'd never trusted pilots who claimed they were good. Well, Starbuck wouldn't say he was good, he'd say he was the best. But she had figured out on the Zakar early in her flight training that good pilots died every day, okay pilots made it back alive. "He was a good pilot," the Strike Wing Captain would say in regret as they added the name to the casualty list. Kenan had been a good pilot, and it was a routine patrol from which he failed to return.

The old guy was insistent, asking again, "You are good, right?"

"I'm okay. It's n…n…not har…hard to…to…j..j..jump."

"Well, it's nigh on impossible for the average guy, so how do you do this, gal? I can still see enough to know that that device won't make a wormhole or fold space or whatever it is they say you can do. So how do you do it?"

"I. wi…wi…" she couldn't get the word out and then wondered what word it even was that she was trying to say. He looked at her out of the wrinkled eyes and she wondered how one got that old. How many Cylon kills would she have to get on her arm to reach the age to wake up and find wrinkles. Some part of her realized he was still waiting on an answer. "I th…think."

He stared at her in anticipation, but she didn't know what he wanted. "You think what, gal?"

Jake called out from the cockpit to Peryton, "Don't make her talk. After what the cylons do to your brain, it takes effort and she needs to save it for when they get back. She's going to have to talk fast then or we're stuck in this mong hole."

"Mong hole, eh? You want to go back to the mountains to sleep tonight, you ungrateful whelp? Eh?" The man shifted his attention back to Jake and she sighed in relief. "And where exactly are you going back to, boy? Everyone's been pretty vague on that account other than the Galactica and a fleet."

Jake waited until he was done and had climbed down before he answered the man's question. "I'm thinking it might be best you don't know, in case your neighbors make it past your fence and bust down your door. Besides, not sure you would believe it. Not sure I do sometimes that we are actually in a fleet that can defend itself on a journey to a new home. I just hope Adama is right, that earth will be a paradise." She watched in disbelief as Jake reached out and patted the old man on the back. "Can you help her get familiar with this baby of yours?"

The old man grumbled at not getting a real answer, but he didn't push the issue as he followed Rene up the ladder and climbed into the front seat while she climbed into the back. The displays were lit and she was pleased to find that since this was a trainer prototype, the back seat wasn't just for taking a joy ride. It had most of the same system controls as the pilot seat, including an ability to override the controls of the front seat. Peryton calmly walked her through what she needed to know, and then detailed for her how to initiate the system for collecting solar winds and particles to create more energy, just in case the fleet wasn't where it should be.

He interspersed a few questions in his explanations and Rene didn't feel the need to lie to him, especially since he kept them to yes or no queries. He asked first about what she could do, if what she created was like a tunnel or a gate. She guessed it was more of a tunnel, but a short one. He asked if it pulled you in, like a black hole. She answered no to that, but then he asked if it felt like you were being squeezed. That would be a yes, but she didn't know how to explain it to him. Jake told him again that if he came along, he could find out for himself, but the old man wasn't to be deterred. He asked a few more questions, but those were about that the fleet, like was the fleet sustaining itself with what they had found. She shrugged at that unsure what the answer really was for the whole fleet. So far there were enough planets along their journey to keep the tanks and bellies filled with enough to survive.

Jake had quickly tossed at her the sign to lie. She had obviously missed something that was going on for Jake with this old guy, but whatever it was, it couldn't be good. The guy made her nervous and Jake sometimes forgot that attention from old men wasn't a good thing. Growing up and dealing with Dante still hadn't rooted out that need of his for a father figure and that fact made her even more skeptical of this geezer. Jake's father had been nearly as bad as her own and she knew he still regarded Dante as a hero. Jake was not a good judge of character.

He flashed her the sign again and she lied to Peryton like he asked only because she didn't think it was a lie. They were all eating three meals a day in the fleet, not the best food and nobody ended up fat, but the hydroponics were starting to produce.

"Yes, there is f…food."

She didn't know how to answer the man's question as to whether they were defeating the Cylons, or finding they could outrun them. Jake answered that one with a question himself.

"If you can make vipers and systems you say that practically fly themselves, then why can't we make machines to make machines, and vipers that fly without pilots?"

Peryton had laughed at the question. "That is the dumbest smart thing you have said since coming here. Maybe it is young people like you that might be able to convince a few of the old cretins in charge to try some dumb things. Our old ways certainly aren't working."

She tried not to chuckle as Jake bristled at the old man's laughter. The old guy might have been going blind, but he could see right through her friend. "Didn't mean to mock you ,son. It is a good question and the answer might lie in fear. We don't trust machines. Too worried we will wind up like the cylons, destroyed by our own creations. But if we let the fear rule us, well, then we're not really living are we, son?"

She physically stepped back at his words. The answer made her reevaluate the old guy as his sentiments echoed almost exactly her own thoughts, and definitely those held by the few men she respected like Gage, Crius and Starbuck. Jake met her eyes, and that hopeful gleam in them made her realize her friend was asking her to give the man a chance. It was asking a lot but right now she thought she could give Jake this one. He'd put up with a lot from the Colonials she had dragged into their family. But why this guy?

Jake didn't get a chance to reply to either her or Peryton as Apollo had returned announcing they were ready. Jake didn't climb up to say goodbye to her, settling instead for the flashed sign, their own creation, mixing an "I", an "L" and a "U|. She flashed it back, the simple "I love you" that they rarely said aloud even when it was just the two of them. She wondered at the short goodbyes, but a shiver ran up her spine and she nearly broke out into a cold sweat as she grasped that if this didn't work, her death would be the shortest. The rest would have yahrens of radion poisoning and perhaps Cylon torture before she'd meet them again.

"Nope, not on my watch," she vowed, tightening the restraints and slipping on the helmet.

Apollo was almost brusque as he helped Peryton down from the ship, said they'd be back, and climbed into the cockpit. He waited until the hatch was sealed and the engines warming up before he finally spoke to her.

"We aren't going to try anything fancy, I'll save that for Starbuck. We are just aiming for the sky and saying 'see ya later', okay?"

"Okay," she answered wanting to ask about their next complication, how the hades he was going to convince the Commander to let them come back. She struggled to find the words to voice it without her sounding like a stuttering idiot, but before she could manage that he spoke again.

"There's something I need to say to you before we go."

He waited for her to reply, and she whispered an okay before he continued. "You should have come to me."

She wasn't sure what he was talking about, and wondered if she had forgotten something. He would not have been up for her shopping excursions. She nearly laughed at the image of him joining her in that mall and helping her pick out a dress. She choked the giggle down and tried to just focus on the instruments as he did the preflight check, but she hesitated over one of the toggles, unsure what it did, realizing she should know it, but the label didn't make sense, the letters not coming together to make a word. Before she could puzzle it out, Apollo spun his head around for a moment, just to make sure she was listening before he focused back on the checklist and he continued, "I believe in what you can do and I trust that the voices you are hearing are the people of light trying to communicate with you. I had the same dreams as you. Despite the complications we have had with this mission, you were right to bring us here."

She sucked in a deep breath. She didn't agree with him on that point at the moment when she was having a hard time breathing around whatever was filling her lungs and was far too conscious of the Cylon hardware in her arm. But she hadn't been able to shake those voices, the screams of children in her dreams. She shivered again as she felt a rush of warmth flood her. It did ease her guilt some to know Apollo didn't blame her for how this all went wrong.

He wasn't done talking to her, and she wasn't sure if she could handle what more he might say. "When the baby is born, you come to me and together we can go to the coordinates you wrote down."

She froze. Had he been that close? She wondered if she had said her thoughts aloud when he replied, "I saw them before you wiped them away. They were the same bearings the beings of light bequeathed to Starbuck, Sheba and I.…" he hesitated but she was too shocked to reply. Starbuck didn't really believe her that she dreamed things that came real. Not even Jake did sometimes. Both men just didn't know how to do anything else but to follow her knowing she would leap into the abyss of belief alone and defenseless if they didn't tag along. But Apollo seemed to be saying that he was willing to jump into the void of the unknown right along with her. He really believed her.

"You and I can find out together if those coordinates are the salvation I believe they will be."

She slumped back into her restraints as the weight of that secret floated off her shoulders, but the fear of what it might all mean crushed her chest. Breathlessly she uttered, "Don't tell him. He….he…" she shook her head. There weren't words to explain the reckless actions Starbuck might take to save them all from harm.

"I know. He's risked his life far too often to save mine. Not sure how he does it, but sometimes you just have to believe in him too. We'll tell him when he's ready, but not until then, agreed?"

"Yes, sir,"

"But don't go alone. Promise you will come to me. I owe him that. I owe you both that, actually."

She stuttered wondering if this conversation was real, or just something her mind was creating for her own benefit. "Y..y..yes, sir."

"Wait for the baby to be born. Let Starbuck get used to the shock of being a father before we let him save us all."

She chuckled at that and Apollo opened the com to tell everyone they were ready.

She let him doing the flying. She was too muddled to try herself, the shock of Apollo's words having tossed her world into a new order. The launch had gone just as planned, and she marveled at how much time and effort it had taken, the miles they had hiked and the torture they had endured, to culminate in what essentially took but two or three centons. Despite more than a squadron of raiders intent on strafing Peryton's home, Starbuck and the others quickly cleared a path. Apollo did exactly as he said he would, no fancy moves, just a quick straight line for the sky. They were away and in the clouds when she fired their lasers and she breathed out, making sure that like a wizard's incantation, she uttered the words right, "Starbuck wants me to go to his home."

The rift opened, squeezed the air out of her, and spit them out into the empty blackness of space. The abrupt shift from bright daylight to black emptiness of space was disorienting and for a moment she wondered if the voices had misunderstood her intentions. The fleet was not there.

That realization and the effects of the jump racing her heart increased her panic. She gagged as her stomach tried to rebel on her again. The ozone smell of fresh circuits firing and the scent of the new leather seats was suddenly overpowering. She closed her eyes and took short breaths, finding herself praying, "Please let it have worked." And then, "Don't let me puke." She was unsure which thought was more important at the moment. She wasn't sure they had enough fuel to jump again, but it would also be an unpardonable sin to ruin this new cockpit. It would piss off the old man to no end.

Apollo had been better prepared for the jump and she saw the scanner in front of her light up as he instinctually increased the range and was already searching for the fleet. She swallowed hard and counted the microns before he spoke, "You put us well in front of the fleet. Good thinking in case we didn't have enough fuel. We could just wait here and they would find us. Plus, we are far enough that if we were followed, the fleet could change course. I think we can make it and land with what we have in our tanks if we take it slow and easy. You did it, Rene. Good job."

She shivered at the words as they sounded sincere uttered in Apollo's calm manner. She'd not heard them from anyone higher than a lieutenant before, and even then, it was usually just Crius who she always felt was just congratulating himself for giving them enough skills to keep them alive.

"We'll be there in less than a centaur. I'll see if I can speed that up some."

She tried to answer him, but opening her mouth was going to be disastrous, so she reached out and lightly laid her hand on his shoulder. He didn't turn at her touch, just asked if she was alright. She squeezed his shoulder like he often did for her husband hoping he could read the message.

"If you don't think you can make it back…"

She swallowed down bile so she could choke out, "I can fly. You t..take a vi..vi..p..p…er and I can…"

"And deal with Starbuck's wrath? No thank you." He tried to laugh to soften his sarcasm, but she felt him wince as she squeezed his shoulder hard.

"We already have f..faced the d..d..danger. We need m..m..more in the sk..sk…sky and I v..v..vol…frak!" She closed her eyes and focused.

"Easy Rene. I know what you are trying to say, but the fact you can't say it is proof enough you should just let me do the flying and you focus on getting us to Caprica and back. We will have enough volunteers for the mission, you'll see."

"A..a..d..dama won't.." She felt her heart beat race as she tried to think of some way to convince the commander they had to go back.

Apollo didn't let her finish. "I can handle my father. I don't ask for many favors and besides, I'm not asking for myself. He can't say no to Starbuck. Not many can."

She eased her grip on his shoulder, but left her hand resting there to let him know she was considering it. He might be right. Boomer had told her the story of the time Starbuck had crashed on a planet far out of range of the fleet, and the Commander hadn't even hesitated to consider letting Apollo and Boomer go get him. This was different, but she had already provided proof in what she could do and the immediacy of the mission when she delivered a shuttle full of sick and starving women and children.

Apollo read her thoughts, "My father is trying to save the human race. He values each life. Unlike Dante, he understands that everyone is worthy of salvation, even a blind old man and a reckless rogue. He will give us the shuttle and the squadron. I think our biggest concern will be can you fit through the rift all the pilots that will want to go once they know it's Starbuck that needs the rescue? A lot of people owe him."

She thought on that for a few microns before she replied, "Okay, I p..p..promise to k..keep my b..blaster on stun."

"You won't need to shoot anyone. I would have thought by now you had picked up a trick or two from Starbuck on how to charm people. Or does your seductive skills only work on hot tempered viper jocks?"

Her hand pulled back like she'd been burned. She supposed she had that coming. She had conned most of the flight deck of the Galactica and the Shiva with her constantly delayed shuttle runs and covert viper launches to Caprica, but the suggestion she used sex and her body in the cons was an insult to her powers of persuasion. She was smarter than that. She didn't have to resort to fraking to get what she wanted, well except for with Starbuck, but he was aware that's what she was doing, so was it really deceit if he knew?

Apollo didn't apologize, instead his words sounded like a kind of reprimand to her. "It was a joke, Rene. Let's stay focused. I need you clear-headed and ready to fly us back to Caprica."

"Fine," she thought to herself, "just fraking fine." She hoped he could do what he boasted, but if he couldn't, she'd find a way to get to her friends. Crius knew how to override the launch lockouts, and Alex could fly the shuttle. The rats could get this done without any help.

She let Apollo do the flying while she sat back nursing her wounded pride and tried to not foul this beautiful ship with the digested bits of her last meal. She tried not to worry about what was happening back on Caprica. She didn't think they could keep the Cylons at bay for a centaur, but she had done the best she could do. She trusted that Apollo would get them to the Galactica as fast as he could and would try to get them back to his best friend. She leaned back and closed her eyes wondering if it was her anger that was keeping her so warm.

She must have drifted off because it seemed only a micron before Apollo announced they were in range and began trying to contact the Galactica. She did not respond to their hails at first, but Rene could see that the scanner picked up vipers headed towards them on an intercept course. She almost wanted to laugh at the irony that they could be shot down as an unknown craft within sight of their home. Apollo read her thoughts.

"Don't worry, I will just do what Starbuck and I did and waggle my wings." She started to laugh but then couldn't remember why she was laughing. None of this was funny.

As the cycles passed with no word from the team on Caprica, Nik had tried sleeping on the bridge, somehow believing that his presence there could will his friends to return. Adama thought it was unnecessary with the Copper Squadron quarters just a short trip down the corridor, and had ordered the young man to get some sleep, but Lt. Nik had not returned to the family's quarters. He remained on the bridge and had taken to chugging java to try to meet the direct order he was given to not fall asleep on the bridge.

Adama just shook his head at the literal interpretation of his words and looked to his second to resolve the issue. Gage chose to ignore the problem as Nik didn't exactly curl up on the floor to sleep, he just never left the bridge. He skipped his trainings and swapped his patrols and pretended to be compiling reports while he napped in either Rigel's or Athena's chair. Both women covered for him jostling the young man awake whenever he or Colonel Gage approached the scanner. As Commander he had been forced to draw the line when the Lieutenant's wife brought him dinner. Denying the meal didn't get the young man to return to his family and friends. Instead, he hastily consumed the meal in the corridor, and Adama accepted the compromise. After all, he knew why Nik was always there. He held the same hope as the young man. If he just held on and remained optimistic, his son would return.

So, it was no surprise to Adama when it was the young pilot's voice that called out that there was an unknown craft that had entered the proximity of the fleet. Adama sent up a prayer, not only for the return of his own son, but of all the others whom he had come to appreciate were his family.

However, the young man's elation at the contact turned swiftly to confusion when the vessel was not identified as a viper by the war book, but also did not register as an enemy ship.

Athena put words to Adama's first concern, "The Eastern Alliance?"

The puzzled look on Gage's features forced Adama to deliver an impromptu and abbreviated briefing on their current course, about Terra, Lunar Seven and the Eastern Alliance. However, the ship did not match the data they had for those vessels they had encountered.

"Maybe they had to take another ship from Caprica. We took tankers from there often." Nik looked to Gage in expectation, but Gage tried to reign in the young pilot's hope.

"There's a lot of things out here in the great unknown. We have to wait and see if it comes closer, but in the meantime, Crius has your patrol doesn't he?"

Nik nodded and Gage had Rigel contact Lt. Crius's patrol to shift their quadrant to bring them closer to the craft. The patrol's time until contact was more than thirty centons, until then they would have to sit and wait as they kept their hope contained.

Lt. Nik's focus on the scanner as they waited certainly did not match the reports that had crossed Adama's desk detailing the young man's indolent attitude towards his trainings and lackadaisical approach to his duties. Perhaps like many of the new Dilmun recruits, the young man's talents had been misapplied to the cockpit. While Gage claimed that Dante had tested the Caprica refugees for an aptitude for space flight, Adama suspected based on the fact that nearly all the Dilmun warriors could pilot a viper if need be, claiming the refugees were cut out for the cockpit was a convenient lie. Adama was unsure if the fabrication of half truth was told simply due to desperation and haste, or as an effort to build confidence. He couldn't fault the efforts of Dante and those he placed in command. At the time, pilots were what was needed to save the human race, so he trained the refugees to fly. Adama's new Colonel had been vague on the casualties the Zakar had suffered in their abbreviated flight training, so Adama had assumed those who survived had more aptitude than most. But was that a true test of a warrior's abilities?

Over the yahren's Adama had learned that it took more than ability to be a good warrior. It also took desire and motivation. Maybe it was time for a complete re-examination of his fleet.

In an effort to ease Nik's trepidation and maybe soften the disappointment if this contact turned out to be just another anomaly in space, Adama decided now was a good time to question the quiet young man about his career aspirations in the Colonial service.

The Lieutenant answered the queries in vague shrugs when pressed about what he had thought his designation might be when he was in secondary school and what his marks and his aptitude may have been positioned. Adama tried to not let the nonverbal answers deter him. The young man was not mute as he had learned while helping the family with their duties. The Lieutenant could talk at length on the right topic. Adama let their previous discussion guide this one.

"Music seems to be a passion, had you considered that as a career option?" Nik had shaken his head and cast a glance towards Colonel Gage, perhaps asking for a rescue from the interrogation. Gage had instead turned away, abandoning the young man to his new commander. Adama took the gesture as another sign of the trust he was building with his Colonel. He treaded softly across that bridge they were all trying to build.

"In the past, the service did maintain musical groups for morale and welfare of the troops. While since the destruction that is no longer a career path in the colonial service, there are many other designations. Have you considered giving another one a try?"

The young man broke his silence with a terse, "Sir there's no career you have I want, so pilot is good enough."

"Then perhaps the service is not your calling," he ventured. Lt. Nik did not answer the statement, unless one counted a heavy sigh and drop of the shoulders as a consensus. Hidden in that sigh, Adama could feel the armor that Starbuck had spoken of before concerning Rene and the rest of the Caprican refugees. "From all reports when you apply yourself, you are a good pilot."

The young man flinched at his words and Adama was left to wonder if he had erred in offering the compliment. He vainly hoped that Starbuck was in that unidentified vessel as the temperamental orphan from Caprica turned hot-headed viper jockey understood better than anyone how to traverse the minefield that could best describe relations with the Copper Squadron.

Rigel interrupted his attempts at solving Lt. Nik's discipline problems when she called out, "Sir! We are receiving a communication from the vessel. It's Colonel Apollo!"

"Send it up to my console," Adama ordered. Nik nearly beat him up the stairs to his dais. Adama opened the channel, and the message repeated.

"This is Colonel Apollo of the Zakar, hailing the Galactica. Come on, answer, don't make me waggle my wings."

Hope filled his chest and his throat tightened as Adama keyed the communicator, wanting to welcome his son home, but he had to ask again before he replied, "Have we scanned the vessel? Is it human or Cylon?"

Athena answered him, the same hope tinging her voice, but the answer was a negative. "No such readings have been confirmed. The ship is transmitting two signals, one weaker than the other. I can't quite pick up the second, it is faint, but the other signal is strong and registering as a colonial vessel hailing from…from Caprica!"

"Well?" Lt. Nik asked hopefully.

"We have to be sure. We have a fleet to protect." But Adama keyed the communicator. "Unidentified vessel, this is the Galactica. We are awaiting confirmation of your identity."

"Father? It's me, Apollo."

"Can you confirm your registry code?"

Adama felt each heart beat as he waited, then the communication resumed, "Five nine two three three five four nine, and when we went for ice cream you and Athena always got chocolate, Zach liked Strawberry, I liked vanilla, but mother would usually try to talk me into trying the newest flavor with her. No database would hold that information and the Cylons would never ask about ice cream."

Adama chuckled. He wanted to ask his son what happened, where his team was, what was the vessel he was flying, and also what had removed the stick from his spine and brought back his sense of humor, but he didn't want to concern his bridge crew who were already eyeing him with alarm at his laughter. He settled for telling his son he would meet him in the landing bay. He wished Apollo would have simply confirmed the transmission. It would have kept things simpler with the bridge crew who were unaware of the exact location of Apollo's mission, and it would keep Adama from having to answer to the Council of Twelve. But Apollo made his request across the coms.

"We need a squadron and a shuttle to retrieve the survivors from Caprica, father. And a medical team in the landing bay."

Adama snapped his fingers at his Colonel who was already on the other com line requesting the medtechs as Adama asked, "Are you injured?"

"No. It's Rene."

Adama would be disregarding any reports about Lieutenant Nik's indolence or apathetic attitude. The man was gone like a shot down the corridor hollering back, "I'll get the Rats."