Author's Notes: VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to sbz for her wonderful beta work! You so Rock!
Author's Notes II: This chapter picks up three hours after Chapter 16 ends...
Another Way Chapter 17
Red in the Morning, Sailors Take Warning
Three hours later…
It took a cold eye to appreciate the calculated efficiency that Three used to stripe the Colonial pilot as she hung; manacles bound her wrists suspended from a hook high over her head.
Looking on without being seen, twenty-five seemed to be the magic number. The first five lashes were like a warm up where D'Anna found her grip, measured her reach and stretched out her shoulders. By lash number ten, the whip started to loosen and the sound of it splitting the air and separating Starbuck's skin changed to a slightly deeper resonance. Lash fifteen brought a shimmer to the Cylon's brow and clamminess to Kara's body. Right round lash twenty was when the blonde human stopped using her breath for taunts and instead breathed each impact through her nose. That was also the time when a feral light would begin to glow in Three's eyes and she would use her hips to power her arms and cut into the more delicate areas of her prisoner's body – the obliques, the stretch of skin normally protected when arms rested naturally against the side of the body and the tender insides of the thighs. By lash twenty-five, she had to stop. To go any further would push the woman she was trying to bring to God into unconsciousness.
More than once, D'Anna gave thanks for the recuperative powers that humans possessed and to God for blessing her, His Servant, with the gift of being ambidextrous.
Hanging back, leaning against the entryway, Sharon watched as Three stripped off her fashionable outer jacket and swung her arms in wide circles to keep her muscles warm as she waited for Starbuck to rouse.
Three days she had been on the BaseStar and this was the first time she saw Starbuck alone with another Model. Let alone without a Centurion standing guard. Now, she could see why. Kara was in no condition to fight back. In fact, it was all the other woman could do to stay alive and alert enough to bring herself back to the present when D'Anna resumed the 'Spiritual Cleansing' that was going to deliver the Colonial warrior's soul to God.
"Who is the One True God, heathen?" Three demanded.
Not getting a response, she watched D'Anna stride up to Starbuck. Sharon felt a cold hand clench her stomach as her fellow Cylon grabbed a hunk of Kara's hair and yanked the bound woman's head so that she could force the shorter woman to meet her eyes.
"Answer me!"
Sharon couldn't tell if Kara opened her eyes or not, but she could just barely make out what she said.
"Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Hermes, you frakwit."
"Wrong answer, human! Let's try this again, shall we?" D'Anna seethed. "What are His commandments?"
"There are no commandments. Each of us is to abide by the Sacraments that the Gods mandate." Kara slowly said. The effort to form each word was etched in every syllable that came out of her mouth.
"Looks like someone wasn't paying attention when class was in session, were they?" Three's rhetorical question put an evil smile on her lips. "Let's start again, shall we, Starbuck?"
Sharon couldn't watch as D'Anna lunged forward ten times and with every lunge itemized a commandment. She found herself digging her nails into her palms to keep herself from retching when another seven cracks of the whip were interspersed with D'Anna calling out each of the Deadly Sins. It was with disgust in her heart at how far from God D'Anna had actually fallen that helped her release her clenched fingers and raise her head. She could do it now. She could kill her sister-Cylon and pray that in her next resurrection, Three would be healed of the corruption that dwelled in her heart.
About to step forward, a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder.
Stifling a sharp cry, Sharon took her eyes off of her fellow Cylon snapping out eight more lashes and swung her head. Her brown eyes fell level with a pair of blue eyes – Leoben's eyes.
Reading the pain that shone in his face, she could tell he was deeply affected by what was taking place. But for all the other selfish reasons that had nothing to do with Thrace's redemption; he wanted to be the one to bring Kara to God by demonstrating that the love that he had for her came from God and that they would fulfil His plans for each of them by living in harmony – together.
His motivations were just as cruel and self-motivating as Three's, but came from a different direction. But she had no time to think of that now. What she had to do was mask her intentions with something he would believe.
"Don't. Not yet. Now is not the time." Leoben cautioned even as D'Anna could be heard quizzing Starbuck for a second time.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Sharon prayed that her face did not give away what she had been about to do.
"Yes you do. Because I want to do the same thing every time this takes place," Leoben said regretfully. "But for now, we must wait. Our time will come when we will be able to show Kara just what it means to be in God's Hands."
Having no choice but to let him steer her away from where the crack of D'Anna's whip could be heard starting a fresh round of lashes, Sharon closed her ears to sound.
Leaving Starbuck here at the mercy of Three, Simon and another Model she hadn't seen yet was out of the question. Knowing that Leoben was waiting for his opportunity to 'liberate' Kara for his own ends was something that could not happen either. Though, it was something to ponder. If Leoben was going to 'rescue' his Kara, then he had to have a plan. For a plan to work, that meant that he had to have means. And for him to have means, that meant that he had to have already implemented some of those components to get her away from his fellow Cylon brothers and sisters. With those components already set in motion, then there should be every reason why she, Sharon, should be able to get Kara off the BaseStar using the very same plan Leoben had devised.
The restlessness in her heart, the quarrel between the right thing to do – following through with her mission directive – and the right thing to do – save Starbuck – stopped. Random thoughts, heated debates and the vehement arguments suddenly ceased.
Separating from Leoben at the doorway to the nearest Prayer Alcove, Sharon slipped into the room and sat as close to the front as possible and began to pray.
She prayed for His Hand to guide her in bringing Starbuck back to her people alive.
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Twenty-two hours later…
Racing for the Raptor, Cally prayed that the Chief wouldn't have 'just one more thing' to add to her already extensive list of things to do. Clipboard firmly clamped underneath her arm, she accepted Helo's hand as he helped up onto the shell of the bird. Normally, she didn't have a problem jumping up and finding her footing, but this was the third Raptor ride in nine hours. As it was, as Racetrack lifted off the surface of the moon, Cally felt the quart of water she swigged prior to leaving the mining sites threaten to rise out of her stomach.
Breaking the atmosphere and feeling the engines kick in to shake the gravitational pull, Galactica hung like a protective umbrella against the star-filled expanse of space. With only the mining ship and a few ships hovering nearby as support vessels, she had to remind herself that the majority of the Fleet had been sent onto the next jump-point along with two-thirds of the Viper squadron as escort. The remaining combat planes were logging some serious flight time as Apollo deployed what pilots he had to cover as many of the blind-spots as he could.
The slight shuddering of the of the inertia dampeners firing sent a chill down her spine. Apollo was good, but he was so by the book. With such an unorthodox situation, she really wished that Starbuck was up there watching everyone's collective back.
Hearing the Raptor hit the trap and the mag-locks engage, she was on the hanger deck before the goose bumps on her back receded. An absent nod to Racetrack and a brief but distant smile for Helo was all she had time for as she climbed up the access stairs, holding onto the railing as her balance had not yet returned.
Knowing where the companionway hatch was rather than seeing it got her out into the corridor as she started flipping through the pages on her clipboard.
Walking and talking – to herself – she could do. Walking and talking to herself while mentally trying to decipher the Chief's scrawl was something she had done in the past with a reasonable amount of success. Trying to do it all while navigating the crowed hallways of main corridors was another matter, which was why she never saw the chest she bounced off of until her clipboard clattered to the deck and she stumbled backwards a couple of feet.
"Sorry, didn't watch where I was going." Her apology was spoken to whomever she ploughed into even as she dropped one knee to the floor and started picking up her papers.
"Apparently; care to tell me why I'm seeing you back on this ship when I just saw you here two hours ago, Specialist?" Adama's gruff voice carried over her head.
"Commander – I'm sorry. I didn't see you there." Looking at the one person who she didn't want to run unto – literally – Cally's eyes widened with sincerity.
"I think we already established that, Cally."
Seeing him look at her appraisingly, she knew he was looking at her two black eyes and still swollen nose that had earned her a night in sickbay and another day confined to her rack as she recuperated from a minor concussion she incurred when her head hit the hanger deck. "It's not as bad as it looks, Sir. Doc Cottle said that it'll take a few more days before everything goes away."
Nodding at the doctor's assessment, Adama looked at her expectantly. "Are you going to answer my question, Specialist?"
"Yes, Sir." Blushing for some Gods-only-knew-why reason, she said, "The Chief sent me back up here with another 'shopping' list."
The hint of exasperation in her voice had Adama casting an evaluating look in her direction.
"Before you attended to your duties, I would appreciate it if you would report to my quarters in a half an hour."
"Yes, Sir – I'll be there." Snapping her hand to her brow, she gave the Commander a salute as she waited to be dismissed.
"Carry on, Specialist." Returning her salute and stepping around her, she smiled when he paused in mid-stride and said, just loud enough for her to hear, "And try not to collide with anyone else while you're on board. I like the idea of feeling 'special'; that I was the only one you bumped into today."
Put at ease, she smiled. He was a demanding officer to crew for, but he wasn't any harder on them than he was on himself. Nor was he above the little bits of levity that came with day-to-day living with two thousand people.
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One meeting and two hours later, Cally found herself standing in front of the same Raptor she arrived in on. Only this time she was surrounded by containers of supplies the Chief had requisitioned.
Stepping up onto the skid-board and triggering the hatch, she hopped back down off the Raptor and sucked in a breath. There was a lot of equipment to load and almost no one to help her. Just her luck – whatever team the Commander had organized to drop off the goods had long since gone.
"Oh well – been there, done that," she muttered under her breath as she reached for the first box. It wasn't the first time she had to transfer equipment by herself, and it probably wouldn't be the last either.
Working up a good sweat by lifting, loading, arranging and re-stacking the goods on the Raptor, she automatically reached for the next box. Barely noticing that she couldn't see over the top of it, she wrapped her arms around it and frowned when it wouldn't move. Bending at the knees and getting a good grip with her forearms, she tried again. This time the box separated from the pile easily. Not thinking about it, she walked it over to the side of the Raptor and set it down. About to hop up on the wing, someone beat her to it.
A pair of blue eyes with the arms of a flight suit tied around his waist was already jockeying the bulky box into the storage compartment.
It was Apollo.
Satisfied with its placement, he turned around. Touching his eyes with hers, he smiled lightly. "One intelligent octopus reporting for duty as ordered, Ma'am."
Swiping at the sweat on her forehead with the sleeve of her coveralls, Cally should've been surprised but she wasn't – especially when a deeper voice sounded behind her. "Make that two intelligent octopuses reporting for duty."
Wrinkling her eyebrows at Helo, her mouth opened before her tact filter re-scripted her words. "Who said you were intelligent?"
"Alright – I'll give you that. But you gotta admit that out of the two of us, I'm stronger and prettier than he is." Going with the moment – and the look on Cally's face – Helo reached for another box and all but shoved it at Apollo to keep him from building on Cally's comment. Yeah, he might be her superior officer, and Lee outranked them both, but it was good to see the younger woman let down her guard a little bit.
"Hey – the only one who's prettier than me is the Old Man," Apollo said, hefting the box and finding a 'home' for it on board. Just because he wasn't happy with his father at the moment or respected the decision his commanding officer made didn't mean Apollo couldn't give credit where credit was due.
Saving their energy for stowing the remaining items on board the Raptor, between the three of them every thing was loaded quickly. None of them noticed D'Anna Biers, Fleet Reporter, slink out of the hanger bay.
Sliding the last container into place, Cally went to thank Helo and Apollo for their help when she noticed the two men shrugging into the sleeves of their flight suits and doing up the buckles.
Grabbing two helmets, Helo tossed one to Apollo and hooked his fingers underneath the chin guard on the one he kept for himself as he closed the hatch and started the pre-flight sequence. Letting Cally secure his collar and deftly attach his helmet, he listened to Apollo explain why they were there in the first place.
"Got reassigned; heard that there's a certain Chief that has more work than he could handle. Helo and I will be overseeing the logistical side of the mining operation so that the Chief can focus on the actually mining, refining and fabricating what we need." There was no malice or innuendo that the Chief was in over his head in Apollo's voice. He and the Chief clashed on a regular basis, but each had an abiding respect for the other when it came to doing their respective jobs. Apollo could not be in the air if the Chief didn't maintain his Viper and Captain Adama could not co-ordinate protecting the Fleet if there weren't birds to fly.
Typing in the sequences to power up the Raptor and hailing the LSO for launch approval, Helo picked up where Apollo left off as Cally secured the CAG's collar and made the seal to the his helmet air-tight. "Actually, I was assigned to manage the logistics. Apollo here is going to be running the CAPs and orbital sweeps from the ground. Gaeta seems to think that he can cover more blind-spots moon-side than in actual orbit, and the Commander agrees." Catching Apollo's eyes with a smirk, Helo added, "That and the fact that his Mark VII is in need of a new power coupling that we don't have at the moment. So it's either having him breathing in good air that those in CIC could use later on in life, or actually ship him somewhere he could do some good."
It wasn't often Karl found himself with a duty that all but erased the difference in rank between him and the CAG. Now, he could see why Starbuck loved frakking with Apollo so much. That is, when Lee and Captain Adama decided to let Apollo out for a while. Having spent so much time with the other man, he was now able to see the connection Lee and Kara shared more clearly. For two people who looked like they couldn't be more different, the opposite was true. Rarely did he see two people more alike, but in ways that filled in the gaps the other possessed. And, just in case he hadn't thought it before, it was fun frakking with Apollo. The slightly younger man took his banter with the grain of salt it was intended and didn't hesitate to return one good jibe with one of his own.
"Yeah, Cally – keep in mind that Logistical Officer translates to Executive Grunt Monkey once we land." Apollo shot back without missing a beat.
Too tired to keep up with the boys' verbal sparing, Cally leaned back further into the co-pilot's chair. With Apollo at the controls and Helo at the ECO station, she didn't worry about not wearing a flight suit. They would get her back to that moon in one piece. The way the Chief said "Oh yes, you will," when Kat got in his face and said that there was no way she was going to pull five extra maintenance shifts in five days was still fresh in everyone's minds. Nobody was going to frak with him nor was the Chief going to let anyone frak with her. A hint of a smile played along the corners of her mouth. The Chief was learning to talk in a language other than Viper and his grasp on its nuances was expanding every day.
No sooner had her eyes drifted close then the familiar billowing of dust that marked the Raptor's landing filled the view ports. A soft touch to her shoulder by Helo, "Time to go," had her unbuckling her harness and clambering out of the hatch.
The moon was just as she left it. Dry, barren and still that wonderful orange colour that clashed with everything that touched its surface. The familiar taste of the slightly elevated – but breathable – levels of sulphur collected at the back of her throat. That was one thing she was grateful for; the air was breathable and the gravity was just a notch lighter than that of Galactica. Being able to work without needing an environmental suit was definitely a 'plus'.
Accepting the first box Helo rested in her outstretched arms as he and Apollo manoeuvred one of the larger crates out of the storage compartment, she set her load on the ground even as she called for others to come and help. Waiting for those nearby to come closer, she took one more look at the sky. Picking out the slow-moving pin-prick of light that was the Battlestar, and the faster moving burns of Vipers on patrol, her earlier musings came back in a rush.
Wiping a tear from her eye, she caught a pair of green eyes and a pair of blue eyes watching her intently. Then it clicked into place why the two men bantered all the way from Galactica. They were making up for the lack of Starbuck's pervasive comm chatter.
"I was just wishing that she was up there watching our backs." Shaking her head and clearing the sad look off her face, she shrugged her shoulders at the two men. "That's all."
Nodding in understanding, Helo's expression became solemn. "So do I, Cally."
"That's one thing I don't have to guess at, Cally." From his crouched position, Apollo swivelled his hips, craned his neck and scanned the sky. From where she was standing on the ground, Cally could see a long-ago memory play out along the lines of his body. Surprising them both, his mouth quirked with some sort of 'given knowledge' that hugged the corners of his lips even as he kept his face turned to the heavens. "She will always have my six. She promised me."
Cally couldn't find it within her to begrudge Apollo's quiet declaration and by the lack of comeback from Helo, neither did he. And, whether she wanted it to or not, night was going to follow day. It was the way of the universe.
She did find it within her to offer up a little prayer to the Gods in light of Apollo's words.
So say we all…
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Four hours later…
Aaron Doral looked up from his console and touched eyes with his fellow Models.
"Word just came in from our spy in the human Fleet. We know where they are."
Number Six was the first to cast her vote. "We go."
D'Anna nodded her head in agreement.
Leoben looked around the table before adding, "We go."
Simon, his hands in the Living Water, was the last to offer his thoughts. "We go."
Across the BaseStar, Zak lifted his head and took in the information that streamed directly into his silica-pathways. He took it upon himself to touch his consciousness with that of the Hybrid.
Sitting in his comfortable chair watching his Persephone through the security feed, he spoke to the Hybrid and the rest of his Cylon brother and sisters.
"Prepare and organize a plan of attack. We jump when all is ready."
Speaking to Persephone and tracing her with his finger he said, "It will be just like we planned it. Lee will be the best man and Dad will perform the ceremony. We can have that family-only wedding you wanted after all, Kara."
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End of Day Two of mining operations, just before dawn…
He was dreaming. He had to be. That was the only explanation for why he could be looking at her, standing not ten feet away from him in all her Starbuck glory.
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She was awake. She had to be. If she slept, then the dreams would come. But she saw him. She was looking at him in all is Apollo glory.
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Ragnar Anchorage was an FTL jump behind them. His father's office was to his back and he had just told the Old Man that he was going to create a CAP rotation and take command of the Air Group. But there was something he had to do before he could even begin to sort out the tangled mess that would form the first line of defence for the fifty-thousand survivors of the human race. If he didn't, then there was the likelihood that there would be one less Caprican on board the Galactica.
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She was on a mission. Wherever he was, she was going to find him. And when she found him, she was going to throttle him. Every corridor she swept, people made the safe choice to get out of her way. Every room she looked into, looking for his head to put on her personal platter, all conversations stopped as her fury radiated off her in waves and only resumed when she moved on to look for him elsewhere.
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Catching sight of black hair, strong shoulders and those frak-worthy blue eyes, Kara didn't see everyone else in that section of C-Deck scrambling to get to another location. She was fixated on only one thing: him.
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Blonde hair: check. Hazel-green eyes: check. Flight suit hugging the most dangerous curves in the Fleet: check. The sensation of locking onto a target wasn't far off the mark.
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Dropping one shoulder slightly and barely cocking her head to one side, she had a fistful of his blues in one hand and gave him an order through clenched teeth.
"You and I need to talk – NOW."
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She might have grabbed onto his uniform, but one twist of his arm broke her grip and gave him enough leverage to clamp onto her elbow. Turning her around as she started to sputter, he gave her one chance not to have him go nuclear where they stood.
"Don't even try it."
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One curt nod to the Officer on Duty from him and the brig cell on D-Deck was empty.
Propelling Starbuck through the open cell door, he clanked it shut and rounded on her.
If she thought she was going to get away with what she did…
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The forced-march to hack was just winding her up more. Letting go of her elbow was a big mistake.
One he was going to realize even as she pulled her arm back and let her right hook fly – which he deftly blocked.
This was why she kept her left hand out of play until she jabbed him with it and let it sink deep into his solar plexus.
"What the hell was that out there, huh?" Starbuck demanded.
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Blocking her right hook was easy. Clenching his stomach muscles did little to stop the blow to his mid-section when the angle of her shot changed at the last second and most of his internal organs got shifted to the left.
Hissing lost air between his teeth, he heard her but instead of answering her verbally, he latched onto her left arm as she pulled it back. Shifting his weight and using her surprise against her, he had her arm twisted high up against her back and with a few efficient steps had her face pressed flat to the cell wall.
Then, he decided to answer her.
"What the hell was that, you ask? That is EXACTLY what the frak I want to know!" Breathing heavily, his mouth was just behind her ear and a few strands of her hair moved with every word he said.
"Let me go and I'll tell you." The promise that laced her words made her lips curl.
"And have you take another swing at me – I don't think so. No. We're going to do things my way for the moment. That way, I'll spend tonight sleeping in my rack instead of one of Cottle's beds." He wasn't born yesterday or the day before and it was about time she remembered that.
"I would clear your schedule if I was you – I heard tomorrow's gonna be a bitch-ass busy day in Sickbay." She ground out.
"Enough – okay? I'm going to count to three and then I'm going to let you go and you're not going to hit me. Agreed?"
Hearing nothing but silence, he twisted her arm slightly – just enough to let her know that at the moment he had the upper hand – he asked again. "Agreed?"
Inhaling sharply at his 'reminder', he got his answer.
"Fine. Whatever. I won't hit you. There – are you satisfied?" She talked to him like he was twelve years old.
"Promise?"
"Frak you, Adama," she snapped back.
"Give me your promise, Thrace. I'm not letting go until you give me your word. And you know that I can stand here all day."
"You would too, wouldn't you – just to prove that you could. Typical Lee Adama," Starbuck grumbled. Her words slightly muffled as half her face was still pressed against the wall of the cell. "Fine- I promise not to hit you."
Releasing her wrist, he stepped back but only far enough to give her room to turn around. Her word was a badge of honour. For a lot of the things that Kara Thrace did in her life – the good and the bad – she wasn't a liar when it came to big stuff and keeping her word was something she didn't do lightly. It was one of the things that were both a weakness and strength for her and one he wasn't above exploiting.
Getting a good look at her for the first time since they crash landed together, a surge of emotion spun out from where she hit him and travelled to his hands. In a flash, both his palms hit the tops of her shoulders and sent her stumbling backwards into the wall. The tentative peace in her eyes changed to something akin to dangerous as she found her footing.
"You better have a good reason for that, Apollo because I swear by the Gods…"
"What the hell were you thinking, bringing us in like that?"
His shout overrode what she began to say. To her credit, he didn't have to say what he was referring to – the beyond insane manoeuvre she pulled to interlock their Vipers and land them both on the deck of the flight pod with barely a second to spare.
"Me? What the hell was I thinking? Frak you! That's my line. What the frak was that bullshit about 'leave me' and 'save yourself' and 'I'm not going to make it' crap, huh?" She closed in on him, stepping close enough that it was his turn to feel the air that came from her lungs to hurl her accusations in his face.
"My ship was damaged – I had no thrusters, no engines. I made the right call – straight out of the book." He justified his actions with a terse head bob. "You are second-in-command. I count on you to make it back and lead them if I don't make it back. How hard is that for you to understand – or did you miss that lecture?"
"Frak the 'book', Lee – there is no 'book' anymore. Don't you get that?" Making her point, she turned on her heel and took three steps to the right. Bracing her hands on her waist, she kept her face turned away from him but still went on. "There are no 'do-overs' here; no climbing out of simulators, you jackass. The Cylons have taken your precious Operations Manual and are using it to wipe their asses every time they go to the can." She held up her index finger. "Don't you ever do that again – do I make myself clear?"
An inkling of insight tickled the outside edges of his turbulent emotions, but it wasn't strong enough to lock what he was thinking behind his teeth.
"That is what pissed me off today. You and that insane idea of yours was the stupidest thing I have ever seen. You had your own pilots to protect as well as a couple of Raiders on your ass. And what do you do? If things played out differently Kara…" He couldn't make himself say the word 'dead'. Riled up, he went on. "This is not one of your games of Triad where probability is a factor. You said it yourself – just now –"
That had her turning around, heat from her blazing eyes cutting off his sentence before he could say it.
"Tell me something I don't know! But listen now and hear me good. As long as you are in the air and the Old Man is in-charge of this ship then I will make sure you make it home. Is that too difficult for you to understand, Captain?" Starbuck smirked, her challenge blatant as she threw his own words back at him with a patronizing tone.
"I am not some nugget who needs to be babysat, Kara!" Lee couldn't believe that she thought he couldn't take care of himself out there.
"This isn't about you, Lee!" Her voice deepened as her emotions rose. "You have GOT to be the smartest dumb person I know! This is about ME – knowing that YOU are safe and sound and HERE." She pointed to the sides of the brig cells as a euphemism for protective walls of Galactica. "So that you can make amends with your father over a mistake I made."
"What about you? You think that if you were blown out of the sky that it wouldn't make a difference to me, to the Old Man?" He was incredulous. What was she thinking! "Or is it that you want to be a smear on the Chief's deck?"
"I'm not the one who gave up out there!"
"Yeah – well I'm not the one who feels the need to make her every launch a personal act of contrition!" It was a low blow, and the stricken look on her face was evidence enough of how close to the quick his tongue cut. But he hadn't finished yet. "You cannot bring him back, Kara. No matter what you do, he's gone."
"I know." Her head drooped until the only thing she was looking at was the floor. Hearing her draw in a deep breath, he wasn't prepared for the naked honesty in her eyes as she looked up at him through a veil of lashes. "But you are. You are here." Her head rose incrementally with every word she spoke and the conviction that underscored what she said. "And if anything happened to you – that I could have prevented in some way, somehow… Lee, that is something that I cannot live with. I need to do this."
She hadn't moved, so he came to her. Lifting her right hand, he matched his hand to hers – palm to fingertip. For several heartbeats, her fingers remained slightly tensed. Making his face as solemn as possible and drawing on some semblance of formality was when her fingers spread and his own filled the gaps. "Repeat after me: I, Kara Thrace."
"I, Kara Thrace," she echoed.
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Lee standing in front of her in all of his Apollo alpha-male glory shimmered and took on a different form.
It was Simon and a pair of Centurions.
"Good morning, Starbuck."
That was the first and last thing Simon said to her as she rose to her feet and made for the barrier.
She felt the pressure of the metal hands of the Centurion squeeze her flesh as she was brought to The Room.
She felt the cold contours of the chair against every curve of her body.
She felt the near ritualistic way Zak loomed over her as the bio-mechanical interfaces made their connections and her 'bathwater' filled her glass-walled 'tub'.
But it was her hand pressed against Lee's dress blues that her memory played against her current reality. It was Lee's words that she recited in that brig cell that she heard, rather than Zak's promise of everlasting love and God's mission.
As the drugs were pumped into her body, as the blood lust and need for combat fired to life in the darker parts of her psyche, some part of her let her finish her waking dream with only the most minor of changes.
I, Starbuck, standing willingly before the Lords of Kobol, do swear and avow to protect Lee Adama with every skill I possess and every fibre of my being.
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Focused on the latest progress reports from the primary smelting station, it was only by chance that Cally looked up at the sky as she emerged from the metalworks. A red dawn was spreading across the sky. Twenty million things were on her list to be done and all she could think of was something her great-aunt used to say.
Red sky at night, sailors' delight; red sky in the morn – sailors take warning.
Shivering in the dawn chill, she pulled the collar of her jacket closer to her neck and ducked her head as she climbed into the All-Terrain Transporter.
Setting the vehicle in motion and smoothly sliding through the gears, her great-aunt's saying was pushed aside as she crossed the plain and made her way back to the main compound. The Chief was waiting for her and today was already starting out as a very busy day.
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Making up the words as he went along, calling on the Gods as witnesses, he gave her what she needed: his permission to let her protect him.
But they weren't done.
Keeping the fingers of their right hands firmly interlocked, Kara looked up at him and began, "I, Lee Adama."
"I, Lee Adama," he echoed.
"Do so willingly and knowingly, without reservation," she said.
"Do so willingly and knowingly, without reservation," he repeated.
"Swear to serve the Fleet, uphold his moral convictions and to never lose sight of what is in front of him."
"I swear to serve the Fleet, uphold my moral convictions and to never lose sight of what is in front of me."
Letting go of his fingers, he watched as Kara closed the gap between them when she stepped up, wrapped both her arms around him and pressed her cheek against his uniform jacket.
He held her, even as his name was being called from somewhere outside the cell.
He felt her tense as a voice called out for Captain Adama again.
Craning his neck with every intention of telling whoever was paging him to go away was when his arms cradled nothing but air. Kara was gone just as mysteriously as she came.
Jerking awake, a quick sweep of the room was proof enough that he wasn't in hack on Galactica. He was on a camp bed just off of his make-shift Communications Centre on the moon.
Shoving his blankets aside and reaching for his pants, his head snapped to the left as a Geminese accent called from the door.
"Captain Adama – you had better come quickly." A frazzled Corporal Venner hurriedly beckoned.
Fastening his fly and stomping into his boots, leaving his jacket to be buttoned up as he made his way out of the Centre and into the cold morning air, he saw Helo, standing not too far away. Beyond the ECO, deeper to the right, the Chief was talking to Cally as they both stood next to an ATT.
Heading in their direction, a red dawn was streaking the morning sky. On the opposite side of the horizon, where night still claimed residency, bright flashes of lights could be seen coming ever closer to the mining site.
The clap of a fighter dropping back within the sound barrier had him whipping his head high and to the left.
His eyes focused on a Viper chasing a Raider. The Cylon fighter dropped out of the sky, screamed over head, and made for the supposed sanctuary of the upper-atmosphere. The Viper, hot on its tail, was firing round after round as it tried to bring the enemy craft down. A wobble in the Viper's wing had Lee's eyes popping wide open.
"CHIEF!" His loudest Captain Adama voice carried over the din.
Tyrol grabbed Cally's hand and half-dragged-half ran toward him a split second before one of the rounds hit the transport vehicle. Lifting his arm to shield himself from the wall of heat that blasted its way in his direction as it exploded into a ball of fire, it was seeing Helo in motion over the edge of his cuff that gave him the instant he needed to pull together an action plan.
Tyrol landed on top of Cally and smouldering bits of debris littered his back. Pulling off his own jacket without bothering with the brass buttons and swathing his hands with the fabric, Helo had the Chief brushed off and on his feet. Getting Cally to her feet, all three of them began to cross the compound.
His attention pulled to the sky one more time, the combat pilot in him was temporarily mesmerized as he watched the Raider – shudder? – in mid-flight before radically changing its vector, its heading completely incongruous to the evasive manoeuvres it had been taking until it changed course.
Snapping back to the moment, hollering out orders for non-essential personnel to take cover, he found himself diving to the ground and rolling to his left as debris from the aerial battle taking place overhead rained down on everyone and everything for several minutes.
Climbing upright, orange dust marking exactly where he hit the dirt, and seeing Helo still with the Chief, he turned his focus to Venner.
"Corporal – get on the phone to Galactica and find out what is going on!"
Acknowledging the order, Venner swung his weapon from a ready position to across his back and darted for the Communications Centre.
Lee was less than two seconds from following the Corporal inside when the ground began to tremble.
Looking up at the sky once more, his eyes moved left and right as he tried to identify what the brightly glowing object was that was plummeting to the surface of the moon. Whatever it was, its trajectory was going to put it five clicks away from the primary refinery station.
Following its path with his eyes, realization shook him.
It was a BaseStar. Someone, somehow, had brought down a frakking BaseStar.
It was on fire and the every surface that was facing the moon was burning up in the atmosphere as it seared a path across the dawn.