Two short bursts from the thrusters sent him in the direction of the ship and Lee powered down everything before he reached behind his helmet and cut off the light. As he approached the ship he used maneuvering jets to make adjustments to his trajectory so he could make a pass of the ship.
As he got close, he booted up the surveillance program and aimed the camera. He clicked off shot after shot passing by the ship so closely that he could see the ship was full of bodies. "What the hell…" He kept clicking off shots until he'd finally completed his pass, Lee wasted little time in jump computations and spinning up the FTL.
A moment later when the disorientation of the jump passed, Lee wondered if he'd had a psychotic episode during it because the sight that greeted him was insanity. The two Battlestars had moved slightly away from the fleet and had taken offensive postures to each other. The space between them filled with Vipers engaged in combat maneuvers. "What the frak is going on?"
&&&&&&&&&
Adama watched the universe go mad on his DRADIS screen and silently debated giving the order to start shooting at Pegasus. He and Cain had taken giant leaps past the point of no return and he didn't see any way out of this other than to fight it out. He took a deep breath and said a silent prayer for forgiveness as he tore his eyes from the display. He locked eyes with Saul and fingered the wireless receiver intending to order his vipers to go weapons free. "Tactical, give me a firing solution-"
"Contact!" The surprised exclamation came from Ensign Thornton at Tactical. Adama turned to his new officer and the young man continued, "Single bogey just jumped in, she's right on top of us."
He scowled and looked back to Tigh, "Identify."
"No id codes or transponder, it has to be raider sir."
&&&&&&&&&
Cain slapped the tac table and shouted, "How the Frak did a Raider get in this close without being detected?"
The officer at tactical shook his head, "I don't know sir, it just came out of nowhere."
She could see Jack giving her an expectant look from the corner of her eye, she bit her tongue to keep from screaming obscenities at the entire CIC before she said, "Recall our vipers! Bring us about and prepare to engage the raider!"
She listened as Hoshi order the pilots to engage the enemy and her eyes locked with Jack again, her XO's eyes held a question she'd very much like an answer to herself, "What the frak is going on?"
&&&&&&&&&
Lee watched the dog fights and felt completely helpless to do anything other than watch everyone he knew get killed.
Something happened at that moment, seemingly as one the vipers broke off from engaging each other and reformed into a single formation. Heading right at him, "Oh shit!"
He hastily switched on the com system and triggered a broad-wave hail. "Apollo to all incoming vipers, do not fire! Repeat do not fire, I'm a friendly! Apollo to Pegasus and Galactica vipers, I'm a friendly do not fire! Why the frak didn't I install a transponder?"
&&&&&&&&&
"Galactica/Kat, it's the blackbird sir. Repeat, unidentified ship is the blackbird."
Adama took a much needed deep breath while Tigh shook his head. "How the hell did the blackbird get out there?"
Dee called out from communications, "Apollo came over about an hour ago, and he said he was taking the ship over to Pegasus to run computer simulations with it."
Bill shook his head and felt a smirk twitch his lips at his son's bravado. "That's doesn't sound likely."
Tigh looked him right in the eye and said, "Since when did Apollo start thinking like Starbuck?"
He picked up his receiver, "Get me Pegasus."
&&&&&&&&&
Cain picked up her receiver and almost immediately wanted to open fire on Galactica when Adama's voice got to her ear. "You can either stand down, or we can start shooting at each other. It's your call."
Her teeth were grinding and she was gripping the receiver so hard she could hear the plastic creaking. Jack's voice caught her off guard, "Admiral." She looked up and noticed images flashing across the screen.
Her fury was immediately lost at the sight of the Cylon fleet in sharp detail, absently she spoke to Adama. "Wait one." She set the receiver aside and began looking more closely at the images. "This is the Cylon fleet." She finally managed to tear her eyes from the image that seemed to almost dance before her eye. "Are these from the recon mission?"
Fisk shook his head, "Negative. The mission was scratched so they could assist with the attack on Galactica. These are from Apollo in the blackbird."
Cain felt a surge of respect for the younger Adama as Tactical began to enhance the images from their download, "Adama flew the recon mission alone. My gods, Jack look at these shots. He went right up their asses and they never even knew he was there." She turned to Hoshi, "Bring Apollo in," she then turned back to Jack, "Debrief him, and recall the raptors, I'll want to see Stinger right away."
She picked up the receiver, "Joint recall, both ships stand down to condition two and you report directly to me on Pegasus."
"I have no intentions of sitting in your brig while you take command of Galactica."
She squeezed the receiver again and felt her teeth grinding for a moment before she bit out. "Fine! Neutral ground, we meet on Colonial One in fifteen minutes, no aides!" She then slammed the receiver into the cradle and stormed out of CIC.
&&&&&&&&&
With all the planes in the air, it took almost half an hour for Lee to get his clearance to land on Pegasus. The moment he was on the flight deck he expected to see a squad of marines waiting for him. Instead when he popped the canopy he only found members of the deck gang. He went through the checklist, powered down, then removed his helmet and gloves then handed them off to a deck hand before he got out of the cockpit.
One of the knuckle-draggers stopped him, "Colonel Fisk asked to meet with you in the Admiral's office, sir." When he didn't move, the young man leaned a little closer, "Deck Three off C Corridor sir."
He stepped back and saluted, "Thank you, Specialist."
He made his way quickly to his bunk and changed back into his blues before making his way to the Admiral's office. When he entered he found Fisk looking over the photos of the ship. He stepped into the snapped a salute to the Colonel, "Reporting as ordered, sir."
Fisk turned to him then returned the salute, "At ease Captain, over here." He turned back to the screen, "That was quite a stunt. Care to tell me why you did it?" When Lee didn't speak right away, the older officer spoke again, "Officer's discretion."
Lee gathered his thoughts before he said, "It was clear that Captain Taylor's operation was going to be unsuccessful. It was relying on the Cylons making a grievous error in judgment. When Captain Thrace pointed this out, admittedly rather tactlessly, he simply ignored her and barreled on."
Fisk nodded and said, "So you took it upon yourself to perform the mission in the blackbird?"
"Yes sir. For the record, the mission was my idea, and no one from the Galactica was involved."
Fisk nodded, "So noted." He gestured to the screens, "Any thoughts on the photos, Captain?"
Lee looked the images over on the screen, "A few, there don't seem to be any weapon mounts and I believe I identified the FTL in image seven." Fisk brought the image up and Lee pointed out what he believed to be the FTL. "As for her purpose, I don't know. Perhaps Dr. Baltar will be able to get that information from the Cylon."
Lee looked at the images for a moment before he turned back to Fisk, "Permission to speak off the record?" When the other man nodded he spoke in a harsh whisper, "What in the name of the Lords happened?"
"There was an incident on Galactica, Lt. Agathon and Chief Tyrol attacked and killed Lt. Thorne. Admiral Cain tried them and found them guilty of treason, then scheduled them for execution. Adama attempted to send marines over to extract them and it escalated.
"The Admiral went over to Colonial One to speak with Commander Adama; I received word that she returned a few minutes before you arrived. She had to speak with Stinger before she came here to talk with you."
Lee only had moments to process what he'd heard before the hatch parted and the Admiral entered the room, both officers snapped to attention and saluted. She returned the salute and quickly dismissed Fisk. When the hatch closed she stared Lee down for a moment before walking over to the bar near her desk and poured herself a glass of whiskey. She passed him and took a moment to look at the recon photos.
She took a drink then said, "That was an impressive stunt you pulled."
Lee nodded, "Thank you, sir."
Cain turned her head to look at him out of the corner of her eye with an arched brow, "Don't you think that's a bit presumptive?"
Lee sighed, "Frankly sir, if you had been unhappy with me, I'd be in the brig right now."
She turned fully and stared him down again, for a moment Lee was pretty sure his words had just become prophetic when she nodded and said. "That's a fair assessment, Captain." She pointed to her small bar, "A drink?"
"Thank you, sir." He walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink before returning to the Admiral's side.
She took a drink then said, "I believe after the last few hours, we've all earned a drink." She turned to face the screens again, "You and I are a lot alike, I think. My father was the Exec on Atlantia and a certified war hero by the time I was in the Academy. I've spent my whole career listening to the whispers, 'she's only here because of her daddy.'" Lee had been looking at his drink, but those words got his complete attention.
"Then when I proved myself competent the offers would start, 'help me out Helena, just a meeting with your dad and I'll help you out.' Extra leave, a commendation, money. It would infuriate me and every time I became more focused on being that much better than everyone else. I blew time trials away, test scores, flight school records and I became youngest candidate to enter War College ever, then the youngest XO in the Fleet, the youngest CO… I see that same drive in you."
She grabbed a folder off a nearby pile and Lee recognized it as his personnel file. "Academy Valedictorian, Flight School Valedictorian. Three commendations on your first tour, squadron leader in a year, third youngest War College Candidate ever, youngest to make Captain in over a decade then hand picked to oversee the Mark Eight program before the attacks. Factor that with over two months behind enemy lines only to come back with considerable intelligence on the Cylons and their occupation force."
She set his folder aside, "I need a CAG with guts, with leadership. Most importantly, I need someone I respect. I had thought Stinger was that man, but I think I might have been wrong considering what happened." She looked at him, "I'm promoting you to Major, effective immediately. You're the new CAG." She held out her hand, "Congratulations, Major Adama."
Lee had barely avoided dropping his glass before he managed to take her hand, "Thank you, sir."
She nodded then released his hand, "I understand you've attempted to mount rescue operations. I promise you Major, once we get through this current crisis I will be mounting rescue operations. We're going back to the Colonies and we'll kick the Cylons right the frak out of our homes. What do you say to that?"
Lee felt hope surge within and at that moment there was no one he respected in the Fleet more, "That's probably the best idea I've heard all year, sir."
The Admiral nodded then said, "Report to medical and the CMO will make sure you are officially cleared for flight duty. That will be all, Major." Lee set his drink aside and snapped to attention before giving her a salute. She returned it and Lee exited her office.
He knew there was only one reason Karl and the Chief would attack Thorne and that was Sharon. He found a communication station and asked for a line to Galactica. When Dee answered he asked for the Commander and a few minutes later he heard, "Adama."
"Sir, it's Apollo. I need to know what happened to Boomer."
There was a tense silence on the other end of the line before Adama said, "She was attacked by Thorne."
"'Attacked?' You don't mean-"
His father's hard voice cut him off, "Yes. Are you alright?"
Lee was stunned, "I'm… I've been promoted and named CAG. Is-is Sharon okay?"
Adama's voice was gruff as he said, "Physically, yes. Keep an eye on my people, Lee."
He nodded, "I'll do what I can sir. I have to report to medical for flight clearance then speak to Helo and the Chief."
"Understood." Lee heard the click then hung up the receiver himself. He then made his way to medical to speak with the doctor.
The physical was brief and the doctor seemed pleased with what she saw in his results, she gave him flight clearance and released him. He rushed down to the brig and told the guard to let him in. He found Karl pacing the cell while the Chief was lying on his bunk staring at the bed above him. When the door closed, Lee spoke. "Before we get to anything else, I just spoke to Galactica and she's okay, relatively."
The two men both sagged with relief and Karl said, "Thanks Apollo."
Lee nodded then smirked, "Now let's get to the more important matter. How frakking stupid are you two, anyway?"
End Part