Apollo's eyelids felt as though someone had glued them shut. Glued, then nailed, taped, and finally welded, for good measure. A dull throbbing in his head slowed his recall of the events that had led to . . . whatever had happened. With more effort than should really have been necessary, he pried his eyes open. He probably shouldn't have been surprised that he was still in his Viper, but he was.

He automatically looked to his console, struck dumb when he put together the fact that his ship was completely powered down. The fact that he was cold, and his breath was frosty and fogging up his canopy should have clued him in immediately, but his brain still felt fuzzy. He reached for his toggle switches, feeling his ship's power supply kick in as he clumsily flipped them. They beeped and bleeped their way through their startup routines, and the air began to warm up.

After his vision fully cleared, he checked his instruments. He was on the edge of an asteroid belt. Images of the patrol came back, and he checked his scanners Nothing within range. Where in Hades Hole was Starbuck? He hit his comm, and called for him. Nothing. Just static. Then, something beeped.

By virtue of the scanner, he could clearly see two Vipers approaching him. In the distance, two more fighters and a shuttle followed. "This is Captain Apollo," he called again. His voice sounded thick and hoarse and he cleared his throat, licking his dry lips.

"Captain, Bojay here. Lords, are we ever glad to hear your voice."

"Bojay, where's Starbuck?" Apollo asked. He lifted his helmet and rubbed his throbbing temple, blinking several times to adjust his vision, which seemed to alternate between blurry and clear.

"He went back into the asteroid belt to find out who planted that weapon that hit you."

"I heard the Commander's going to have him clean the launch tubes with his toothbrush when we find him." Sheba's voice joined in, the banter barely disguising the concern in her voice. "How are you, Apollo?"

"Good question," he replied. "I feel like I was sideswiped by a supernova. What in Hades happened?"

"That spheroid hit you with some kind of high intensity energy blast. It shut down your ship . . . and you." Bojay responded. "There's a shuttle on the way with Boomer and Lia escorting it. The Commander ordered us to load your bird, and have the med tech check you out, Apollo."

"Wait just a centon, Bojay. What about Starbuck? Any word?" He started to run a diagnostic, checking out his ship's functions. He hit the engines, and the turbines began to spin. Then, suddenly, power abruptly died in all capacities. "Frack!" Once again he went through the routine, starting her up, regaining power and comm within a centon.

"Apollo! Are you okay?" Sheba's voice was bordering on panic. "Come in, Apollo!"

"I'm okay, Sheba. Just a power cut."

"Just a power cut." She exclaimed. "More like a power failure. I don't know about the you guys, but I happen to find power a handy little thing to have when you're pursuing unknown enemies on their home turf!"

Bojay chuckled at his wingmate's response. "She's got you there, Apollo. Our orders are to see you safely loaded, and then go find Starbuck."

"I'm not going to sit on my astrum in a shuttle while my wingman is missing!" Apollo protested.

"Not much you can do about it, Captain. Your ship is clearly in no shape to continue on this mission. You'd be more of a liability than anything." Bojay replied evenly. "I know how you feel, Apollo. I'd want to be out there too if it was Sheba, but be reasonable."

"And if you can't be reasonable, we'll get your father on the comm to straighten you out." Sheba threatened. Her voice softened, "Your know it's procedure. You lost consciousness. You need to get checked out." She heard him take a breath. "Look, if it was me in your place, Commander Cain would have issued the same order, Apollo. Besides, I'm not going to risk losing you again after Starbuck dragged your stunned astrum out of there. You know he'd kill me."

"Yeah, she's doing it for Starbuck." Bojay chuckled. "No selfish motivation at all."

"You know, you can be replaced, Bojay." Sheba returned, her face flushing at her transparent behavior. "Recruits are lining up in droves to learn how to fly a Viper, and I hear the sanitation ship is desperate to find a new fluidics engineer." Her grin would have made Baltar quail.

Apollo blew out a deep breath at the unsavoury thought of sitting this one out. They were right though. He knew he was still suffering residual effects of the blast. "All right then, but while we're waiting, tell me everything that happened."

----------

Starbuck struggled to control his trembling hand as he reached for his console. He had already established that fine motor movements were impossible, as he wasted over five centons trying to fire his lasers at the Wraith towing him towards the enemy landing bay. His hand felt like a piece of dead flesh, ignoring every mental command he gave it, as his ship drew nearer to the tarmac.

His fingers tapped noisily against the console, and he cursed, unable to stop the shakes that wracked his body. He needed to reach the switch for his emergency beacon; otherwise, the Galactica would have no chance of finding him in that hole in the wall in the middle of nowhere.

It had occurred to him to not even try. After all, he was just one warrior amongst many, hardly worth sacrificing anyone else for. He sure as Hades didn't want anyone risking their life to save his. But that niggling Pegasus connection haunted him. Drove him to try and activate his beacon. What had become of the Juggernaut and his Battlestar? He had to let Commander Adama know that Cain was still out there. And Sheba. And . . . Cassiopeia.

Sweat dripped off of him and he sniffed in self-disgust. Yeah, it took a lot of energy to move your finger a centimetron to activate a beacon after being belted with a paralyzing radion wave. He slowly leaned forward, trying to use gross movements to apply pressure with the back of his hand. He shifted forward again, rewarded when the switch clicked into place. A small flashing light confirmed its activation. Spent, he slumped back into his seat and waited for them to bring him in.

Wait a centon. Cain launched his fighters to the Galactica. Why would there still be any . . . He winced, closing his eyes as the possibilities made his head throb. It was the last thing he needed right now, on top of everything else.

----------

"Commander, we've just picked up an emergency beacon from Viper Two." Tigh informed Adama, pointing to the navigational chart. "Here." It was closer to the outer perimeter of the asteroid belt from their position.

"Status report for the rescue team?" Adama asked. It had been a welcome relief when Bojay had reported rendezvousing safely with Apollo. The shuttle and Viper escort should be arriving at any centon.

"ETA two centons." Tigh replied.

"It sounds like Starbuck has run into some trouble with the race that are responsible for that . . . monstrosity." What was it really? A weapon? A trap? He crossed his arms over his chest, pondering the star map. "There has been no detection of these . . . lifeforms."

"No, sir."

Adama sighed. While impulsive, Starbuck was a good officer. He weighed the likelihood that the lieutenant wanted to ID the marauders out of anger or impetuousness following Apollo's attack, against the outside chance that there was something more significant going on. Starbuck's intuitive instincts, his innate ability to 'size up' a situation, were legendary. So were his skills as a pilot. If they took his ship, then Adama had to assume their forces were formidable . . . unless the lieutenant simply ran into another one of the spheroids.

"Tigh, who's on Lieutenant Boomer's wing escorting the shuttle?"

"Ensign Lia," the Colonel replied. "She was in the top three of her class, Commander. A fine pilot."

"Yes, I remember." Adama nodded. "Have Ensign Lia escort the shuttle back to the Galactica, providing there is no sign of enemy advancement. Lieutenant Boomer will accompany Captain Bojay and Lieutenant Sheba to Starbuck's position. Remind them we know little about who we're up against, and to proceed with caution. This is strictly a reconnaissance mission for now."

"Sir?" Tigh asked, eyebrows quirked.

"You heard me, Colonel."

"And Starbuck?"

Adama tightened his lips grimly. "He knew the risk when he took off against orders. I'm not going to risk three additional pilots for the sake of one, until I have a better idea of what is happening here. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir."

----------

Luana awoke with a start, trying desperately to reorient herself. It was as dark as night, and she was curled into the fetal position in some kind of box. Almost like a casket, only about half as long. There was something foul stuffed into her mouth and secured there with what felt like a huge strip of tape. Her hands were bound in front of her, and her feet beneath her.

The box was moving, and she tried to shift her weight to upset the balance. Lords, she was stuffed in there so tightly, there was barely room to breathe, never mind upset the forward momentum.

She tried to scream through the gag, but barely a squeak left her mouth. She could feel fear suffusing her and took several deep breaths to calm herself. She closed her eyes as memories of Oriana intruded. Hitting the wall. Slumping to the ground. Eyes wide in death.

Calm down, girl.

She took a brief inventory of her body. Other than some apparent bumps and bruises, she seemed to be fine. At least she had that going for her. She shook her head, wondering what the goons had in store for her. Hades, they had killed Oriana to prevent her from revealing their triad scam. She could expect no less.

Her eyes watered as she thought about Starbuck. He should be back from patrol soon. She hadn't told him what she had in mind, but he would figure out why she had asked so many questions about Oriana in so much detail. He had to figure it out. No one else would even miss her for another entire day when she was scheduled to return to duty.

Lords, Starbuck would kill her when he figured out what kind of mess she had managed to get herself into. Well, as long as Borka and Kaden hadn't beaten him to it.