Laura Roslin Stellar Nursery
Galactica Raptor Six-One-Nine
Dwight Saunders Callsign: "Flattop" Piloting
Dwight Saunders had been piloting Raptors for three years prior to the Attack; he'd been on Galactica for just over a year and was coming up on his six-month FitRep and Officer's Evaluation. He'd been expecting a good one, and was hopeful that he might even have earned enough points to receive a promotion to Captain. From there he'd put in his application to the WJC War College and enter the command program.
Before the Attacks, Dwight had made a decision to make military service his life's work. He'd loved the military life from the first day of the Academy to the day of the Attacks. The regimented lifestyle gave him a sense of order and discipline he'd never had growing up. His father had been the First Officer on a freighter that made the rounds of the outer Colonies when he was growing up so he could count on his fingers the number of times he'd be home on Aquaria per year. The money he made was good but it left his mother alone to raise nine sons, of which Dwight was the third youngest.
One mom and nine sons meant chaos was a frequent visitor to their lives.
Dwight was a good student and he was rarely in trouble, his oldest brother Gabe had long since taken it upon himself to police his brothers and act as a surrogate father to them. Gabe was a golden gloves boxer and an MVP on the Sagittaron Archers during two of their Colonial Cup runs. The idea of Gabe coming down on you for something was enough to keep eight Saunders boys towing the line.
Dwight was the academically inclined son; he'd learned to read just a month shy of his fourth birthday and had maintained some of the best marks in his year all through school. When Dwight hit high school and took the military aptitude test and scored extremely high, the recruiters were knocking on his door.
The Academy intrigued him far more than simply going to college and drifting through four years of his life trying to figure out what he wanted to do with his life, a short conversation with his father on the wireless and a much longer conversation with his mother later; he submitted his application to the Military Academy.
During his time at the Academy he'd qualified for flight school and though his numbers were passable, just barely, for Viper training, he chose raptors instead and excelled. During his first tour on Columbia the CAG did convince him to retake his viper qualifications and passed them but despite what viper drivers liked to tell themselves, some pilots really did enjoy raptors more.
Dwight was one of them.
The Attacks had changed many things, billions of lives ended and those that didn't end in death ended in turmoil and chaos.
It had taken a year but it seemed turmoil and chaos had slowly left them behind in favor of rebirth. Life began anew in different ways that none of them expected, but in a way for the crews of Galactica and Pegasus things were almost easier. They had the comfort of routine, the comfort of discipline and the comfort of duty to fall back on.
More than ever these things they'd been told over and over would save their lives meant something. They were in a daily fight for their very lives and pilots like Dwight were right on the front line.
This brought him to today.
After Starbuck and Helo had disappeared with Pegasus, the Old Man called him up to CIC and gave him a promotion then named him Acting-CAG until the situation was resolved one way or another. That long overdue promotion came as a complete shock but the message behind it was just as shocking. The Old Man was not taking the betrayal of his son lightly and those who sided with Lee Adama were likely going to catch his wrath as well.
Of course that wrath would require the battlestar to survive their return to Cylon-Occupied Caprica so Admiral Adama could merely be fuming at a crew that was little more than debris now.
Either way, Flattop did not envy the Commander of Pegasus.
He heard an annoyed groan from the ECO station and he turned back to see Racetrack scowling at her station. The pair had been assigned the task of waiting for Pegasus yesterday and they'd been here a little over nine hours with likely another ten hours of waiting before jumping back to Galactica. "At least the view is nice, 'Track."
The brunette scowled at him then shifted in her seat tiredly, "Frak the view. I was planning on spending some time with Abel today; maybe use that two-hour private pass in the Observation Lounge I won last week. This frakking blows."
He smiled, his backseater certainly never failed to express herself, she reminded him a bit of Starbuck, though hopefully without the right hook, if for no one's sake but his own. "Well, it's important. It's smarter for us to be here than Galactica and as we don't know where they are if it happens to be the Toasters that show up instead of the Beast, we're the only ones who have to run."
Maggie looked at him like he was a complete jackass; he'd grown used to it in the last few days. He was the CAG after all. But it didn't mean he liked it, "Listen, I know it sucks to be out here, but we need to wait in case Pegasus makes it back. So you can keep looking at me like I'm an asshole or you can accept it."
She scowled at him for a moment before her face softened in a grin, "Sorry CAG." She sighed and checked her readouts then said, "By the way, there's no 'if.' We're dealing with Starbuck and Apollo; those two have probably performed more miracles in the last year than half the Frakking Lords of Kobol. Hell, they'll probably come back with the Frakkin' Lords so there's no doubt in my mind they'll jump in any minute now."
Dwight chuckled. Like so many of Galactica's Pilots, Maggie was enthralled by the legend of Starbuck and Apollo. The star pilot and the man who survived over a month alone behind enemy lines only to return and rise to a place at the right hand of a living legend the likes of Commander Cain. The pair had come up with the plan that destroyed the Resurrection Fleet, and then later fought three Base Ships to a stalemate. A streak of hero worship surrounded the pair on Galactica, a streak that rivaled the loyalty of the Pegasus crew for President Cain and Commander Adama.
He supposed that much of it was deserved; both individually and as a pair, it seemed that they had saved everyone's lives a dozen times over and a year on the run had done nothing to diminish anyone's desire to go back and take their homes back not even the promise of a "Bight Shining Future" on Earth as Roslin had once called it.
Quietly, so that the Admiral or President wouldn't overhear, nearly every officer had expressed pride in the crew of Pegasus and hope that by some miracle their loved ones would be among those they brought home.
He could only imagine what it would be like for the pair to return after a successful rescue mission on the Colonies. He smirked to himself, Starbuck and Apollo could probably take over the Fleet if they returned and declare themselves King and Queen.
Privately, Dwight wondered how the crew would react when Lee and Kara were brought on board Galactica in shackles to stand trial for mutiny and treason. This was the only possible outcome of this situation he could see-
Racetrack's sudden cry from the ECO station shook him from his musing, "Contact!"
Sixteen ships jumped in right on top of their raptor and Dwight prepared to run as he barked, "Friend or Foe?"
He heard Racetrack enter in several commands before she exhaled, "They're friendlies, Colonial Transponders and ID signals. Pegasus is among them."
Flattop took his hand off the throttle and took a deep, calming breath. "Open a channel to Pegasus."
A moment later they heard Hoshi's voice on the speaker, "Galactica Raptor Six-one-niner/Pegasus. Mission accomplished."
Dwight looked down at his DRADIS display and saw the fifteen ships alongside Pegasus and saw the three Fleet signals identifying another Battlestar and two frigates as well as the five stars along side Pegasus' blip signaling a Fleet Admiral on board. He keyed his mic and said, "Pegasus/Flattop, no shit!" Racetrack laughed out loud along with the laughter coming from the other side of their connection.
They were sent landing instructions and Dwight powered up his raptor to land on Pegasus.
&
Galactica and the Colonial Fleet sat quietly on the edge of a brown dwarf system, about the only real activity in CIC at the moment was from Gaeta as he used the rare opportunity of calm to use the ship's systems to study the dead star. Felix was at heart, a scientist and he had never before had a chance to study the stellar phenomenon. He'd had a decided spring in his step the last few days that most of CIC took notice of.
Bill Adama was not so excited, after Pegasus had jumped away, the Fleet continued on while the President and Admiral worked out whether or not to allow Pegasus to return or to abandon them altogether.
In the first few hours, Bill was decidedly in favor of the latter, just the thought of seeing his son again filled him not with hope but the sting of betrayal followed quickly by undeniable rage. He was certain that the moment Lee was escorted off the raptor by a contingent of Galactica's marines he'd cross the deck not to embrace his last surviving son but to throttle him right there on the Flight deck.
Helena was in favor of waiting from the start, in the hopes of making Lee answer to the charges of mutiny.
Eventually the pair calmed themselves enough to think more reasonably. They didn't want to abandon the Pegasus and privately Bill didn't want to abandon the hope that Lee would succeed and rescue some of their lost friends or family. He wanted to hope, he wanted it desperately.
Whether or not Lee would spend the rest of his life in hack would wait until he learned whether or not his son was dead.
However a few days after Pegasus disappeared, the Fleet encountered a squadron of Raiders. Just as the raiders were about to attack however, they jumped away. The Fleet stayed at Condition One for thirty-six hours before Bill determined that the raiders hadn't been a scouting group but they still hadn't figured out the strange behavior. A part of Bill wondered if Lee hadn't had something to do with it and he privately thought it was a very good sign.
Outwardly, he had to pretend that nothing was different. He continued to log his hours in CIC and toured the ship as though nothing had changed. He still expected Kara to come around every corner during a jog with a lop-sided grin and half-hearted salute before jogging alongside of him and sharing some story or joke. He expected to pass the rec room and find Karl dealing cards with Sharon sitting next to him while Kara sent a barrage of trash talk at everyone at the table. He expected to see Lee on the flight deck talking to the Chief.
The old girl didn't seem the same without them and Bill himself felt like he wasn't the same either. Maybe that was why his eyes seemed to constantly be drawn towards the clock in corner. Today, Pegasus was supposed to jump back to the rendezvous point to meet up with the Fleet.
Each hour that passed seemed to deflate him a little further as his mind started to work out the astronomical odds it would require for the Pegasus to actually escape the Colonies much less succeed in their mission. He'd admit that his son seemed to have a flare for the miraculous since the Attacks, but miracles are only that because they happened rarely. Lee couldn't continue to tempt fate and not pay the price eventually.
That thought made him feel old and alone as he realized his only surviving son had charged off to face death without his mentor's blessing or his father's support. Lee may have laid down his life thinking he'd defied his father to do so. Bill gave up his family once again, and like before he'd given him up without a fight.
"Contact!"
Bill looked to Lieutenant Thornton at Tactical and then the DRADIS to see sixteen ships had jumped into the system. As one blip resolved into the familiar symbol with the words "Battlestar Pegasus" written underneath. The blips around it resolved into Colonial signals as well and his eyebrow rose first at the three other Fleet ids then to the flag next to Pegasus.
Dee spoke from communications, "Sir, Pegasus is on the line."
He shook himself from his wandering thoughts then picked up his receiver, "Go Ahead, Lee."
He was stunned into silence when it was not Lee's voice he heard but that of an old friend he thought dead, "Such a shame Bill, I thought I taught you wireless protocol better than that."
He was stunned for several seconds but eventually he managed to stammer out, "Will?"
He heard a chuckle on the other end then Will said, "That's me, how are you doing you ol' bodocker?"
He was still stunned as he replied automatically; it was a strange feeling of familiarity that caused him to recall the first time Pegasus had jumped in out of nowhere. He really wished he had a word to describe it at the moment. "I'm good Will, what the hell-"
Will's voice cut him off, "Then I humbly request the presence of yourself and the President aboard Pegasus at your earliest convenience. We have a lot to discuss."
That seemed to snap him out of it, "Don't bullshit me Will, you've never done a damned thing humbly. You're not starting now."
Will's only reply was to laugh.