Disclaimers: I don't own this characters, I just play with them for a while.
Author's notes: This got very angsty and then a little light at the end. Some of the parts where the characters are jovial may seem out of place but grieving doesn't mean feeling numb or in pain all of the time. In fact it is common to laugh in the face of horrific tragedy. Sure you feel bad about it after but it still happens. Also I skipped a lot of time because I could honestly write and write on this for the rest of my life but I'd like to have an ending for it sooner rather than when I'm 100. Enjoy!
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Two months later they get married on the beach on Arelon. Kara's side is a little sparse but her crew is there and Karl and Sharon manage to make it for the reception. It's a small wedding, as they promise to love and cherish each other the rest of the days of their lives.
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Two years later…
Kara runs her fingers through her hair, frustrated. She's locked herself in her office, knowing she should go out and comfort the crew; she's just not up for that yet. The last haul was going relatively well, until one of the passengers who hadn't lost consciousness yet had started shooting at them. Moose had taken a shot in the chest and bled out before they could even move her. She sighs and gets up to go talk to her crew. Sure her husband would help deal with the grief, as he was a permanent part of their crew now but she was the captain.
The deck is a mess when Kara gets there. Copper and Music Man are fighting over who's fault the shooting is, Skid is crying quietly to herself and Leoben is trying to comfort her. Kara looks around at the disorder with dismay.
"It's my fault." She says brusquely over the yelling of the two men. They both stop to look at her. "I was her captain. It was my responsibility to keep her safe and I failed. It's my fault."
Leoben looks at her with reproach from across the deck; she shrugs at him and turns back to the body of their dead crewman. How could someone who was such a pain in the ass get to me? Kara thought as she felt the sting of tears. She hated crying and she hated crying even more in front of her crew, but she couldn't help it. Tears began to roll down her face and she said good-bye to the smallest member of her crew and the largest pain in the ass.
"I'm not sure what to say. Moose, you weren't easy to get along with. I'm sorry we didn't properly clear the ship before you came on. I'm sorry you'll never get to shoot anything but targets with your tiny gun and your explosive rounds. You deserve a more dignified death." Kara turned away from the body trying to breath. Copper and Leoben stepped up and each said something much more poetic, but Kara was lost in thought by that point. She only came back to the present when Leoben touched her shoulder. She looked at him and even though he was standing there touching her she felt very far away from everything around her.
"Captain Thrace to the command deck." Hammer's voice boomed over the ship. Kara starts, not even realizing Hammer wasn't with them. She looks over puzzled at her XO. She walks hastily to the command deck.
"What is it Hammer?" She looks at her comm. personnel.
"Sir, we're getting strange reports on the chatter."
"Why type of reports?" She asks taking the read out. She reads it three times before speaking again. "This can't be right."
"It's all over the wireless. Almost every ship reporting the same thing."
"Prepare the FTL." She shouts as she runs back to her office to get the star charts.
"We're going to Arelon."
"Then what sir?" Hammer looks like she's been sucker punched.
"Then we try to find a colonial battlestar and see if we can't hide in her skirts until this is over. Actually, here." She rights down the transceiver code for Galactica; she'd committed the code to memory when Zak had first died and his father had wanted her to join his crew. "See if you can contact this battlestar on the wireless." Kara calculated the best jump to Arelon. She gets onto the speaker and announces the jump. After the count down and jump Leoben and Copper join her on the command deck.
"Frak." Kara and Hammer both swear as the dradis is lit up with ships. It doesn't take long before some of the blips are heading right for them. She promptly looks back at her charts. Kara calculates another jump, perhaps not the safest jump but it should work she prayed as she punches in the coordinates. She watched as signals were getting closer and closer to them on drais and swore.
"Frak." She doesn't announce the jump; she just jumps out of the Arelon system.
"What is going on?" Copper asks. Kara shoves the print out at him. She checks drais; nothing. She turns to Hammer.
"Anything?" She asks.
"No sir. Nothing on the comm. even." Hammer confirms.
"Alright. I'm going to calculate another jump. I don't know how long we can stay here."
"Where is here?" One of them asks.
"The outer limit of Sagitarron territory."
"Starbuck, what is going on?" Leoben asks. Her head snaps up. He never calls her by her call sign. He knows something is wrong. Not that you could miss that something was going terribly wrong, she thinks before answering him.
"The cylons have attacked the twelve colonies."
"What?" Copper and Leoben say.
"That's what you just saw on drais coming right at us. Cylons. Lots of them."
"Where did we jump to the first time?" Leoben looks suspicious.
"That was Arelon space." She chokes out.
"Oh gods."
"What? How could they attack all twelve colonies at the same time?" Copper asks stunned. The printout falls to the ground.
"Shouldn't we check the other colonies?" Leoben asks. Kara had already thought about that. The read out clearly stated that all of the colonies were under attack. It had been extremely reckless to jump into Arelon space but she couldn't help herself. After years of not having any siblings or family to speak of Leoben's family had managed to worm their way into her heart. They were her family now. So she'd jumped to Arelon knowing it was likely the stupidest idea she'd had in her entire life.
"All the reports are the same. I've got Hammer trying to find Galactica or any other colonial battlestars. The report says they've nuked Caprica City." She almost whispers. The weight of the information hitting her as she speaks it out loud and she goes blank for the second time that day.
"Kara." Leoben says quietly coming up to stand in front of her. She doesn't respond. "Kara!" He says louder placing his hands on her shoulders. She looks up at him. "Where would the military go in this situation?" She stops panicking and thinks. If any of the ships had gotten away they would need supplies, especially weapons if they were planning to get into the fight. Most of the battlestar's weren't equipped with many nukes, since no one had even seen a cylon in over fifty years.
"There are a few remote storage facilities."
"Ok. Which is the best hidden or fortified?" He asks.
"Ragnar Anchorage." She breathes.
"Do you know where it is?" He asks.
"Of course."
"Would they have moved it?"
"No. It's well hidden." She punches in the jump coordinates. Once they complete the jump they face the problem of getting into the nebula. Kara vaguely remembers there being 9 turns but she doesn't have the map, the entire base is supposed to be a military secret.
"This is going to be difficult." She says sitting down at navigation. The drais would warn her if she was going to hit the gas cloud but she would have to be going very slow for the drais to pick up a solid signal instead of the interference the nebula spews out.
"I need someone to map the turns I make so we can get out of here faster than we're going in." Copper steps up and takes a chart to the command consul.
"Hammer or Leoben, would you go take stock of everything we have? If we don't find someone out here, we're going to need to start rationing."
"I will." Hammer volunteers.
"I will go alert the rest of the crew." Leoben says quietly.
It takes Kara and Copper three hours to navigate all of the twists and turns of the nebula. In the end Copper has a nice map of the entrance.
"Thank-you." She says looking at the chart. "Now I have to dock and hope to gods my entry code isn't rejected." She utters knowing it should be. They dock and find that her code is indeed invalid.
"Now what?" Copper asks.
"Now we wait."
"For how long?" He asks.
"Maybe a couple days. If someone doesn't come by then, they're not going to come."
Kara moves around the ship, which is silent. The motor is shut down; the crew is lost in their own thoughts. The halls echo eerily as she opens the hatch to her room. Leoben is lying on their bed staring at the ceiling. She had hoped he would be asleep. He doesn't move as she enters the room. She can barely tell he's breathing. She crosses the room and sits on the bed.
He lays there knowing he should talk to his wife, but he can't figure what to say. The worlds have ended, there isn't anything to say, his psychiatrist mind taking over the emotional side. Their species is gone, possibly all of them except the few on the ship. She lies down next to him and stares at the ceiling not really seeing anything before her eyes.
The names and faces come flooding back to her. The faces of the dead. She sighs, willing the tears to flow but they don't. She's still numb. She can feel that her world will turn inside of itself before long but for now she is just numb. She can't even feel the heat of the man besides her.
Neither of the people in the small room on Temptation are in the room with one another, they're both experiencing another place and another time. The melancholy clings to them like a cold mist, making the world they have left, seem small and uninviting.
Several hours later, or maybe minutes, Kara is unsure, the comm. buzzes. "Captain Thrace to the command deck." Hammer's voice resonates out over the loud speaker breaking the silence of the small room.
Kara gets up and moves silently to the command deck.
"Sir, Galactica is on the line." Hammer says handing off the head set. Kara sighs in relief. At least someone survived, she thought to herself.
"Galactica, this is Captain Thrace of Temptation. Go ahead."
"Good to hear your voice captain." A raspy voice says.
"You too sir. I figured someone would come here. Can you tell me the sitrep?"
Admiral Adama pauses briefly. "I'm sure you've heard reports."
"The last we heard Caprica City was nuked." She states in confirmation.
"Yes, as well as every major city on all twelve colonies. We're here to stock up and then run."
"Excuse me sir, did you say run?" She askes stunned.
"Yes Starbuck. It has been pointed out that with so many lives at stake it isn't feasible to launch an assault on the cylons."
"How many lives were saved?" She asks.
"We're still getting a tally. We've got the President of the Colonies on board, ultimately it was her decision."
"I understand. Tell us what you need."
"We need inventory of your ship and personnel. I'm going to ask that you come over to Galactica, as we are short pilots. It's going to be a hell of a fire fight when we have to leave."
"You were followed."
"Yes, we're sure of it. We'll send a raptor over. Galactica out." The line goes dead. She stares at the comm. for a long while after the conversation is over.
"Sir?" Hammer says.
"I've been ordered to Galactica. We're going to leave Ragnar Anchorage shortly. Page the crew to the mess so I can announce what is going on."
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Kara jumps off the raptor onto the flight deck and takes in the scenery. She grabs one of the deck hands and asks where the CAG's office is. They point her in a direction, irritated, and then scramble off to get the vipers ready. She squeezes through the crowded halls, lined with refugees. She beats on the door of the CAG's office and waits.
"Come in." She hears from the other side. She opens the hatch to find one Lee Adama waiting for her. She smiles.
"Captain Conoy." He begins.
"It's still Thrace." She corrects him.
"Captain Thrace" He amends looking annoyed, "As you were kicked out of the military but still pilot a ship you have been given an honorary title of captain. Don't let it go to your head. You will not be in charge of anyone until further notice, is that clear?"
"Sir, yes sir." She says snapping to attention.
"Good. Go find a flight suit." He goes back to his paperwork. "Oh and Starbuck?" She turns half way out of the hatch. "It's good to have you." She smiles.
"Good to see you too Lee. I'll see you out there."
Kara walks slowly to the pilot prep room to find a flight suit. There are butterflies in her stomach as if she's a rook. You are, she screams inside of her head. She hasn't flown a viper in 4 years. She brushes the thought off and tries to find her flight crew. The deck chief ignores her and she looks to the roster to see where her bird is. Her flight crew is slowly making their way around the bird when she arrives. No one notices her.
"HEY!" She barks. They all stop and look at her. "I MAY NOT BE IN CHARGE OF YOU BUT YOU ARE IN CHARGE OF THIS BIRD, SO GET A MOVE ON, WE'RE AT WAR." She calls out realizing the years away did nothing to quiet her temper at slow moving deck hands. She frowns as one of the deck hands gives her the preflight check. She moves around the mark II and examines her. Defiantly a her, she decides. She is checking off the ground observations when the chief comes over.
"You got a problem with my crew captain Thrace?" He says with much venom.
"Yes, sir." She says saluting him. "They're not going to have this bird ready to launch on time if they don't get a move on."
"I doubt anyone would miss you up there." He says between his teeth. She grimaces at him.
"Get a good seat in the observation deck chief, you'll need it." She salutes and climbs the ladder to finish her preflight. She hands the list to the deck hand as they give her the interlock collar for her helmet. She takes her time putting on the helmet and closing the hatch. They manage to get her viper in position in excruciatingly slow motion. Was it always this slow? She thinks. No, its just the excitement, she decides.
"Green?" The LSO asks.
"All green." She agrees. She can feel the maglock move into position. The thrust forwards is brief and she can feel the force on her body; she yells as she comes out.
"Starbuck, Apollo. Keep it together." He warns her. Wow, he's turned into a hard ass, she thinks to herself.
"Aye, aye commander." She tries to keep the sarcasm out of her voice and fails. She speeds off ahead of Galactica. The cylons launch raiders as they try to intercept the fleet. Kara tries not to think about Copper trying to orchestrate the FTL jump to the next coordinates. She'd given him and Hammer a crash course in calculating jumps. Lt. Gaeta had sent over the coordinates but that didn't mean they couldn't screw them up. She shook her head, they're a good crew, she tells herself then turned her focus to staying in formation for once.
"All squadrons, weapons free." Lee's voice came over the comm.. Kara moves to follow her squad.
"Starbuck, Minus. You got my wing?" A man's voice came over her comm..
"Absolutely." She follows her wingman as they break left.
"I heard you were crazy back in the day that true?" He asks as the raiders were closing on them.
"Still am crazy." She retorts laughing.
"Alright I break right you go left and try to keep up." He says taking aim at the first raider to come towards them. Kara waits until the raider is closer to open fire. The raider doesn't seem to have the ability to stay with her erratic flying. After destroying a few cylons she hears Minus voice come over her comm.. "Starbuck, I got one on me I can't shake, where are you?" Minus almost shouts. She maneuvers herself so the raider she was chasing is now following her. She sways back and forth catching up to Minus and his cylon. The raider following Kara hits the raider in front of her. She opens fire on the raider on Minus and immediately throws her thrusters to turn on her pursuing cylon and shoots it until it explodes into little tiny pieces around her.
"Damn, they were right about you." Minus says laughing. "Let's go get more."
"All squadrons return to Galactica. Combat landings authorized." Apollo commands. Starbuck makes her way around the debris, while tagging a few remaining cylons on her way in. They barely touch down before Galactica jumps.
Finally down on the flight deck again, Kara finishes her post flight check and turns off her bird. She smiles then frowns, not her bird. She was just barrowing it.
"You don't look as happy as I thought you would." Karl says leaning against the ladder.
"Oh I'm fan-frakking-tastic, but I just realized that it's likely a one time offer." She sighs and hands the deck hand her helmet and collar.
"It's the end of the worlds Kara. I'm sure they'll let you fly any time the cylons pop by." She hops down the ladder and unzips the uncomfortable flight suit. "I'm sure that's one thing you didn't miss."
"I actually did miss the swamp ass." They both laugh as they embrace.
"Starbuck?" A young man walks over and interrupts their reunion.
"Starbuck." She confirms standing up.
"Minus." He says putting his hand out. "Great wingman. I've never seen flying like that." Kara nods and shakes his hand. "And they were right, you are crazy!"
"Thanks. I haven't been called crazy by anyone except Leoben in a few years, feels good." She wags her eyebrows at Karl.
"Ready for some military debauchery?" Karl asks.
"I have to report to the CAG and Admiral right after I hit the head, maybe once I'm done there? Assuming they don't kick me off the ship."
"You know where to find me." Karl says taking off. Minus follows Kara to the shower recounting all of her kills. He's like a kid, even though Kara is sure he's older than she is. He doesn't even stop talking when she starts to strip down and gets in the shower.
"You're a regular chatter bug, aren't you?" She asks over the stall.
"What? Oh, not usually."
"Someone's got a fan." Lee says walking into the stall next to Kara.
"I'm not a fan."
"Did you even notice she undressed?" Lee asks. Minus turns bright red. "I didn't think so." Minus moves off to get undressed and join in the shower. He stops recounting the battle and starts asking questions. Obnoxious questions.
"Listen, Minus. You did well, but I haven't sleep in two days and I don't want to talk about me right now. I want to get clean and see what Mr. CAG and the Admiral want and then I'd like to crawl into a bunk and pass the frak out. I'll be around, you can ask me later." She finishes rinsing off and moves to dry off.
"I brought clothes for you Kara. They're on the bench there." Lee points to a pile of clean clothes.
"Thanks Lee." She says shocked. She was just going to put on whatever she'd brought with her from Temptation. The pants are a little too big but she ties the draw string and zips up the sweatshirt. "I'll see you at your father's quarters, I have to go see if the comm. officer will get my ship on wireless for me." She moves out of the head and towards the CIC. When she realizes she's not allowed in the CIC she heads for the admirals office.
The marine at the door pounds on the hatch and waits. They wait a good few minutes before the admiral opens the door himself.
"Captain Thrace." He says moving in. "Shut the hatch." His voice is gruff. Kara smiles. She complies then stands at attention. "Oh please Kara, get over here and give me a hug." He says smiling at her posture. He wraps her in a hug and says, "Your salute is a little lacking." She laughs and pulls away.
"I'll have to start practicing."
"Did you enjoy flying today?"
"Always sir."
"Good."
"Can I ask what this is about sir?"
"Have a seat Kara. I'll tell you and Lee at the same time, save myself some trouble."
"He'll be along soon. He was in the head."
"Sorry I missed your wedding."
"Duty calls. I understand. We have pictures onboard Temptation."
"Speaking of your ship, how did you get such a large shipment of ambrosia?"
"Luck." She smiles knowing full well what he is implying. Both he and Lee suspected Kara had fallen in with the wrong crowd but neither had ever asked her outright. "So what happens to it? Does the fleet as a whole commandeer it?"
"I've been speaking to the president. We're unsure what to do with foodstuff and liquor as money is meaningless. We'll think of something. In the meantime just don't drink all of it." He smiles. There is knock on the door. It's Lee in his dress blues. She smiles missing the feel of the stiff fabric as she moved.
"Admiral, Starbuck." He salutes his father.
"Son sit down. We need to have a little discussion." Lee and Kara look at each other then back to the admiral. "Yes, it is probably what both of you are thinking. I have decided to reinstate you Starbuck."
"Sir." She says seriously.
"We lack pilots. And better yet we lack flight instructors. I know you felt responsible for Zak but from the reports I've read, up to your court marshal, you were an exceptional instructor. I'm promoting you to captain, as it is what you have been to your crew for over two years now. I assume taking a new batch of nuggets won't even make you bat an eye after having a crew for a few years."
"Thank-you, sir."
"So Lee, you'll have the dubious honor of matching Starbuck up with a wingman and scraping together a batch of nuggets to train."
"Minus seemed quite taken with you." Lee teased. She makes a face. "I'll look at the CAP rotation."
"Oh sir. What about my husband? Do I just leave him on the Temptation?"
"For now, unless he wants to live in the bunk room with you?" The admiral jokes.
"Doubtful sir, very doubtful. Permission to tell him in person?" She asks.
"Granted. Four hours to gather your stuff and report to your CO." The admiral says. She turns to Lee and salutes.
"See you in four hours CO." She laughs and climbs through the hatch.
TBC...