Shaking his head in absolute disbelief was about all Dayton could manage as he drew closer to the leviathan that they referred to as the Battlestar Galactica. For some minutes, the Colonial warship had been on the shuttle's scope. From what little he'd learned so far, the blip represented an enormous contact. "Good Lord," he said, as they at last came into visual range. The huge vessel just kept growing. And growing. And growing. . .

"She makes the International Space Station look like a school boy clubhouse," Ryan remarked at his commander's side. "She's enormous. How many aircraft carriers do you think you could load on that thing?"

"I don't know. Maybe five or six Nimitz-class. Easy." Dayton returned, blowing out a breath.

"Geez." Ryan muttered.

"You can say that again."

Ryan smiled. "Do you really want me to?"

"No, not really."

"Thought not."

It was somehow grounding—which was ironic, since they were in space—having Ryan there beside him. If he had been alone with the Colonials it would have seemed a bit unreal, as if he had somehow been beamed into an episode of . . . oh, what was that old show? Uhh . . . Star Trek. But Ryan had been at Dayton's side for so long, balancing the commander's cautious cynicism with those slightly askew but always poignant perceptions of his, that it brought him back to reality.

Dayton continued to shake his head as the warship grew impossibly larger and larger, the closer they came. Passing alongside her, he saw the gargantuan letters, spelling out the ship's name in the Colonial script, not that he professed that he could read it—his proficiency had been entirely in their spoken language. He sighed, realizing that despite his master's degree in aerospace engineering and his extensive experience as a combat and test pilot, he was actually illiterate in their eyes.

They sailed slowly along, Giles and Dee obviously relishing the chance to show their ship off. Then, slowly, they swung around her and made for the landing bay. Lieutenant Dietra was giving them the lowdown on her specs. The buzz words went by in a blur as Dayton watched the immense ship dwarf them on approach to the bay. Finally it blocked out even the view of space itself, till it filled the ports. And still it got bigger.

Alpha Bay. Hell, he had been on some of the US Navy's most advanced aircraft carriers which seemed smaller than the landing bay they were closing in on. Thirty-two blaster main batteries; twenty-four secondary anti-aircraft batteries; two mega-turbo-laser cannons forward, two aft, and two port and starboard; twelve-twenty megatron solonite missile tubes; two-four hundred megatron solonite bombs . . . talk about yer freakin' weapons of mass destruction!

It was unnerving when he considered that this massive warship had been but one of a fleet of similar Battlestars, designed to be spacecraft carriers, battleships and mobile units of operations. Each one was capable of laying waste an entire planet, should all her weapons be unleashed together, according to the attractive lieutenant.

Attractive. Yeah, he had noticed. He was old, not dead.

Bloody hell, if this was what the losing side's battleships looked like, what on Earth did the victors have? It chilled him to the bone to try and imagine the Colonial's mortal enemy and their considerable arsenal.

----------

Everything was in readiness on the Galactica. The landing teams were in place and awaiting orders for dispatch to the pirate asteroid. The shuttle had already released Starbuck's Viper and was landing. The telemetry link had been established to safely bring the young man's fighter into Alpha Bay. Medical teams were standing by.

Adama considered the woman before him as he awaited the final word from Alpha Bay's landing signal officer before beginning their final approach to the pirate compound, or as close as they could get to it.

"Someone needs to tell him, father. Someone has to be there for him."

Athena was so like her mother sometimes it often took his breath away. Day in, day out she rarely wavered in her support, her presence a reassuring and dependable constant in his life. Yet, when she identified an oversight, she never hesitated to step forward to point it out.

Now, he could tell by the oh-so Ila tilt of her head, the way her eyes refused to let his go, her hand lightly, but determinedly on his arm, she wouldn't be deterred. "Go," he nodded.

Athena squeezed the commander's arm lightly in acknowledgement before nodding and turning on her heel to head for Alpha Bay.

----------

It was like CORA without the sparkling personality, Starbuck reflected as his ship's instruments reacted to the Galactica's remote link and his fighter was brought in for a landing. He caught himself holding his breath, uncomfortable with the entire concept of someone else controlling his ship, as she touched down and hurled along the runway.

He knew Varick's Viper would be following him in. The shuttle had already landed and the health team would be rushing Dickins and Rooke into decon before continuing on to the Life Station. Within centons, he would be doing the same.

He flicked the canopy release as the Viper rolled to a stop. He opened his eyes, unaware he had closed them, to see a face on either side of him, covered in the protective uniform of an occlusive medical isolation suit. A biomonitor was running over his frame and his flight helmet was mysteriously gone.

"Fractured right zygoma and orbit, febrile, contusions, abrasions, and . . . what the Lords . . .?" Salik's voice halted in his monotone commentary.

Starbuck could feel his tunic jerked up and Salik leaned down, gently palpating his abdomen with his gloved hands. Still hurt like Hades Hole though.

"Can you get out, or do you need help?" the Chief Medical Officer asked, gripping the warrior's shoulder to get his undivided attention.

"I can do it," Starbuck replied evenly. "How's Lu?"

Salik ignored the question, grabbing the warrior under his arm and nodding at Med Tech Hinnus to do the same. "Looks like peritonitis. We need to move. All together now, on three. One, two, three."

Starbuck had started to object at the fact that they were going to assist him from his cockpit. Hades, even after a crash landing on Atilla, he had still been able to get himself out of his fighter. But as they propelled him to a vertical position and began to help him over the side of the craft, his vision began to blur, his mouth began to water, and his head started to spin. "Fra . . . "

"I've got him, Doctor." Hinnus assured the CMO, as Starbuck collapsed into the burly tech and he lowered the lieutenant into the waiting arms of his landing crew.

"Welcome home, Starbuck." Jenny murmured to him, brushing his matted hair from his eyes as the others settled him onto the hover-stretcher.

"Jen . . ." The chief warrant officer's concerned features finally came into focus. Wait a centon! Salik hadn't answered him about Luana.

"Start a line, and get him into decon."

Salik's voice. But where the frack was he? Starbuck lifted his head to look for the physician, but he was surrounded by a wall of bodies. He could feel the cold steel of surgical scissors slicing through his sleeve as his arm was held in place. A brief coolness and a slight stabbing pressure, and an intravenous was initiated.

"Doc?" he murmured above the din.

Voices talked over him as medical analyzers spat out results and the information was announced and recorded. Salik snapped off a flurry of further instructions, his voice fading as though he was leaving the scene. Starbuck struggled to sit up. He needed to know. . .

"Easy, Starbuck."

Suddenly, where Jenny had been, Athena now was. Strong arms pushed him back down . . . though he was reasonably sure they weren't Athena's.

"Lieutenant, we need to get him into decon." Med Tech Hinnus informed the bridge officer.

"I'm coming with him." Athena announced matter-of-factly, as if it was common practice.

"Fine then. Are we ready?"

"Antibiotics are up."

"Analgesia?"

"Are you having pain?"

It was almost like a cyclone rotating above him. He seemed strangely separated from it all, and was strangely content to be so until Hinnus' face was suddenly a few centimetrons from his own, but upside down. Starbuck blinked at the intrusion.

"Are you having pain?" Hinnus asked again, squeezing the lieutenant's shoulder.

"No," he replied after a pause. He winced as someone or something probed his abdominal wound to try and prove him wrong. "Where Dr. Salik?"

"On his way to surgery." Hinnus replied, backing off and guiding the hover-stretcher. "The others just came out of decon. We're going in."

Starbuck became aware of the landing bay passing him by as he was propelled towards a decon chamber. "But he didn't answer my . . . " He started to raise himself up on an elbow, changing his mind as savaged stomach muscles protested vociferously by cramping in pain. "Do you know . . . is Ensign Luana okay?" It was more of a gasp than a question.

The med tech's eyes flickered to the person opposite him. Starbuck looked over to see Athena again. Right . . . Athena's here . . . She looks so . . . goddamned compassionate . . . A cold terror infiltrated his senses. "Athena?"

At that moment the hatch for the decontamination chamber clanged into place with a finality that was unsettling. Athena leaned over him.

"Starbuck, Luana pulled through surgery, but suffered a massive seizure. After that a cardiac arrest . . . They did get her back, but . . . "

Her words caught in her throat as she watched the anguish sweep over him. He drew quick rasping breaths into his lungs and clenched his fists, blinking back tears from the eye that wasn't swollen shut. Combined with his atrocious appearance from his recent experience, he looked so lost and forlorn that she could in turn feel prickling at the backs of her eyes as they welled with sympathetic tears.

"But what?" he croaked, the words barely audible, as the machinery fired up.

"They put her into . . . I hope the terminology is correct," she glanced at the med tech. "A medically induced coma?"

Hinnus nodded. "It relieves pressure on the brain, and lets the body rest so it can recover from the trauma of her injury and surgery. Not to mention those two cardiac arrests."

"Coma? Cardiac arrests?" Starbuck repeated numbly. He closed his eyes feeling as though the weight of the Galactica was bearing down on top of his chest, crushing the air from his lungs. He struggled to a sitting position, aware of Hinnus' hand on his back guiding him up. In a micron, the back of the hover-stretcher was elevated and supporting him.

"Medically induced coma, Lieutenant," Hinnus elucidated. "It's basically heavy sedation."

"So you can . . . just take her out of it again?" He grabbed the med tech's beefy arm, holding to it like a lifeline.

"Technically." Hinnus replied with a nod.

"Technically?" Starbuck asked, tightening his grip, his voice rising. "What the frack does that mean?"

"When she's ready." Hinnus responded patiently. "That'll be up to Dr. Salik. They're monitoring her brain function." The grip on his arm tightened in reaction, the desperation in the warrior's eyes plainly visible.

"Starbuck," Athena grabbed his clenched fist, prying it from the med tech's arm. "Listen to me!"

He shifted his gaze to Athena. "Tell me." A plea for the complete and absolute truth.

She nodded, grasping his hand with her own. "When they found her, she was already . . . " His gaze didn't waver as he waited for her to finish, "dead. They resuscitated her, but had no way of knowing how long her brain went without oxygen. There could be permanent damage. Or she could be just fine. They don't know yet. Dr. Salik says if she wakes up, they can experiment with neural stimulation treatments . . . "

"If she wakes up?"

"That's what he said. I'm sorry, Starbuck. That's all I really know for sure. I think the question seems to be how much neurological function she will have. Even Salik doesn't seem to be able to give us a definitive prognosis."

He shook his head, waiting for her to tell him the upside of it all. There didn't appear to be one. He gulped in a breath, wishing he could somehow shrivel up and disappear within the vacuous space that was his misery. His eyes closed tightly against the pain that seemed to hit him in waves, pummeling him with each thought of the beautiful spirit that was so recently just an innocent girl from Empyrean. Lords of Kobol, in the blink of an eye she had been taken from him. He choked back a sob as the irony of the situation struck him . . . returning whence she came.