Chapter 46
Project Broken Moon
During the fourth year of the Cylon occupation, the government quietly reopened an investigation into the disaster that had claimed over three thousand lives on the mining colony of Troy two years prior to the Cylon attack. No definitive conclusions were ever reached as the bulk of the research conducted by the Colonial Federation of Mines was on the Colony of Scorpia when it was destroyed during the Second Cylon War.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
On Sunday morning Laura woke up with a backache that did not go away even as she carefully rolled over in the bed. She shifted several times trying to get comfortable with no success. She looked at the clock. 5:33. She sat up.
"Is something wrong?" John asked softly.
"I didn't mean to wake you. It's my back." As she sat there the first mild contraction gripped her. "Oh."
"What?"
"A little twinge."
"A pain?"
"A little one."
"Should we go to the hospital?"
"Not yet. I need to see if it happens again."
"Lay down. I'll rub your back."
She felt his hand against the small of her back. She lay on her side and he pulled the covers over her shoulders. She grew warm and relaxed as he gently rubbed her tight muscles. She was almost asleep when another mild contraction gripped her. Even though she knew she shouldn't, even though her childbirth classes had taught her she should breathe through a contraction, she still held her breath.
"Another one?" John asked.
"Yes."
"Bad?"
"Not too bad."
"We should go to the hospital."
"Not yet. It was over twenty minutes since the first one. I don't want to go too soon. They'll just send me home."
"I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you that I don't know anything about delivering babies and neither does Kara."
"I'm not due for another nine days. And you went to every single childbirth class with me."
"So I could hold your hand and tell you to breathe, not deliver the baby."
"Let's get up and get you some breakfast and we'll go for a walk."
"A walk? It's barely light outside and it's cold."
"By the time you eat, the sun will be up, and we do have coats."
"I don't believe this. You're in labor and you want to go for a walk?"
"I'm not absolutely certain I'm in labor, and yes, that's what I want to do."
An hour later as they circled the block for the second time, Laura had a stronger and longer contraction eighteen minutes after the last one. She stopped and clutched John's hand. At least she remembered to breathe this time.
"That's it," he said. "We're going to the hospital whether you want to go or not."
When she could speak again, she said meekly, "All right. You talked me into it."
When they got back to the apartment, Kara was in the kitchen. "Where have you been? I didn't think you would go to the hospital without leaving me a note."
"We were out walking," John said. "And now we're on our way to the hospital."
"The baby? But it's not the sixteenth."
"Tell your brother that," Laura said as she put her hands on the kitchen counter to support herself. The backache that had disappeared almost completely gripped her again.
"I'm going with you," Kara quickly said and stuffed the last of a piece of toast in her mouth.
"You might be stuck there all day. My contractions aren't that close yet."
"I don't mind sitting in the waiting room. Somebody we both know has been trying to teach me patience."
John came back into the kitchen and handed Laura's bag to Kara. "Come on, let's go." He took Laura's arm.
"He doesn't always practice what he preaches," Kara said.
"Watch the mouth," her father snapped.
Several hours later, Kara called Lee. "Guess where I am?"
"Where?"
"The hospital."
"What happened?"
"Nothing happened. Laura got admitted a couple of hours ago. I'm probably going to get a brother today. I'm in the maternity waiting room...up on the second floor."
"You want some company?"
"I'd love some company. I've already looked at every magazine in here, even the ones about babies. All I can say is I'm glad it's not me."
Lee got there forty-five minutes later. Laura was in the private wing of the maternity floor at Caprica University Hospital. There was no one else in the waiting room when he walked in.
"How is she?" Lee asked.
"My dad came out a few minutes ago. The nurse midwife said she's doing fine…whatever that means."
"How is John doing?"
"Laura won't take anything for the pain yet, and I can tell it's freaking him out. He can't stand to see her hurting."
"Your dad knows something about pain."
"That's why it's getting to him."
Lee took Kara's hand. "How are you doing?"
"I'm learning patience."
"What are they going to name the baby?"
"They argued about it for the last month. Laura wanted to name him after my father. Dad said he doesn't want a junior because a kid should have his own identity, so in the end they followed tradition. They're going to name him Braedon which was his father's name and Stewart which was her father's name."
"Braedon Stewart Gallagher. I like it. Do you want anything to eat or drink? There's a little café at the other end of the hall. I know because I turned the wrong way when I got off the elevator."
"Let's go grab a bite. I'm sure this is going to take a while."
...
"You're doing fine," the nurse midwife said to Laura as another contraction ended. "Have you made a decision on the epidural? I'll send for the anesthesiologist. It will take her about fifteen minutes to get here."
"Not yet."
"Please," John said. "You don't need to do this. Please, take the painkiller."
"It's not you having this baby. It's me. It's my decision. I haven't touched anything since I found out I was pregnant. No alcohol. No aspirin. I don't want anything."
John looked at the midwife. "How about giving it to me, then? This is killing me watching her go through this."
The midwife smiled as she took a cold cloth and wiped Laura's face. "Is he going to pass out on us?"
"I hardly think so. He's no stranger to hospitals…or blood or pain."
"It's different when it's my pain," John said.
An hour later Laura was beginning to regret her decision to refuse the epidural. The pain was almost constant now, the contractions so hard she was having trouble breathing through them. She was sure she had crushed John's hands she had been squeezing them so hard. Her doctor walked in and conferred with the midwife before he checked her. If he told her she was doing fine, she was going to scream. He didn't tell her anything other than to push.
Ten minutes later their son entered the world and cried almost immediately.
"Fine set of lungs on that one," the midwife said.
Laura collapsed back against the pillows on the bed and shut her eyes.
John still had her hand. He brought it gently to his lips where he kissed her palm. She was too exhausted at the moment to open her eyes.
"Seven pounds fourteen ounces, twenty-two inches long," she heard the midwife say. "He's going to be tall, like his father."
Five minutes later her son was placed in her arms and Laura understood what Fiona had meant when she said the rest of the world would cease to exist for her for a while. She had never seen anything so beautiful in her life. She had made it through the entire birth without shedding a tear. Now her eyes filled and spilled over. She ran her fingers gently over her son's silky brown hair.
"There, dear," the midwife said as she pulled a small blue cotton toboggan on the baby's head. "We don't want him getting cold."
"He's got blue eyes," Laura said. "Dark blue eyes."
"Most babies do have blue eyes," the doctor said. "In four to six months you should have a better idea of what color they'll be."
"I want them to be green like his father's." Laura looked at John. "You'd better go tell Kara. And please go get something to eat. You've been with me all day. It's late afternoon."
...
Kara sat cross-legged on the couch, her shoes on the floor. "It's taking a long time for Laura to have the baby. I hope nothing's wrong. What time is it?"
"Ten minutes later than it was the last time you asked me."
"So it's 5:30?"
"17:30."
"What if it takes all night?"
"I don't think it will take all night."
"Oh, you're suddenly the expert on having babies. When I was in the camp I heard about a woman who was in labor for three days."
Lee shook his head. "I'm sure all kinds of stories went around the camp…true or not."
"Oh, so now you're an expert on the camp, too?"
"Lords of Kobol, Kara, chill out. Laura is getting the best of care, and I could do without the arguing right now. The mission has been moved up. It's on go for tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? And you're just now telling me? When did you find that out?"
"My dad called me right before I left to come over here. It's going to rain tomorrow. There will be a low cloud cover. That will work in our favor. Nobody will be able to see what we do. The less interest we generate the better."
"Tomorrow," Kara repeated. "Are you ready to do it tomorrow?"
"As ready as I'll ever be. I think I've gotten the hang of aiming the pulse generator."
"You think?"
"I've got it."
"You're going to shoot down a Cylon Raider over the bay?"
"That's the plan."
"Can I come out to the base tomorrow?"
"No."
"Why not? If Laura hadn't had the baby, my dad was going to be there. He said he was going to be in the Comm Center at the base when you flew the mission."
"Your dad is in the military. You're just a cadet."
"Is your dad going to be there?"
"I doubt it. He's got better things to do."
"What better things than seeing how his son flies the most important mission of his career? Your dad put this whole thing together."
"With a lot of help from his chief engineer and your dad and Colonel Burgher."
"It was my crazy idea. Don't you think that gives me a right to be there?"
Before Lee could answer John walked into the waiting room. Kara had never seen him smiling like that. "Seven pounds, fourteen ounces, twenty-two inches long, born at 4:44. Kara, you can go back and see Laura for a few minutes. And see your little brother, too. I'll sit here with Lee."
"Why can't Lee go, too?"
"Because when I left, Laura was still feeding the baby."
"I don't guess you want Lee looking at Laura's boobs."
John rolled his eyes. "Go see your little brother, smart mouth. Room 2402."
Kara was grinning as she got up and left the waiting room.
"Congratulations," Lee said. "How does it feel to be a dad again?"
"It hasn't sunk in yet. We weren't expecting it to happen quite this soon.
"My dad called this morning. The mission has been moved up to tomorrow because of the weather."
"I won't be able to be there. If Laura and little Braedon do okay, we'll be going home tomorrow after lunch."
"That's okay. I understand."
"I'm going to stay here tonight. Will you take Kara home?"
"Sure, John. Kara wants to come out to the airbase tomorrow."
"Your dad could probably arrange it. I'm going to call him in a few minutes to tell him about the baby. Do you want me to ask him about Kara being there?"
"Why not? If I frak it up, she'll find out soon enough."
"You're not going to frak it up, Lee."
"Tell my stomach that."
...
Kara knocked lightly on the door of room 2402 and then went in. Laura looked up and smiled. "Come in," she said softly.
Kara walked over to the bed and looked at the baby in Laura's arms. Her brother now appeared to be sleeping. "He's so little."
"Not so little," Laura said. "Almost eight pounds. Do you want to hold him?"
"You trust me with him?"
"Of course."
Gently Kara lifted her brother from Laura's arms and Laura buttoned the front of her gown. He opened his eyes briefly, the tiny fist coming to his mouth.
"I held a couple of babies in the camp. Sometimes when I was doing laundry one of the mothers would ask me to hold her kid. A lot of them carried their babies in a sling made out of material."
"Now you can buy the same thing for several hundred cubits in the high-end baby stores. I'm sure they made theirs from a few cubits worth of material."
Kara lifted the edge of her brother's cap. "I see brown hair."
"Like your father's. Braedon's eyes are blue now, but I hope they change. I hope he has yours and John's beautiful green eyes."
"He's got to have something from you," Kara said as she handed her brother back to Laura. "If he's lucky, he'll have your brains."
Laura smiled and Kara thought of what the Oracle had said, that her brother would map the stars on the way to Earth. He'd need brains to do that. She started to tell Laura and changed her mind. Now was not the time.
"Have you talked to Lee?"
"He's here with me, out in the waiting room. John wouldn't let him come back here because he thought you were feeding Braedon."
"He's welcome to come back now if he wants. I'm going to try to sleep before Braedon is awake and hungry again."
"Lee's flying the mission tomorrow."
"So soon? I thought it wasn't for two weeks."
"It got moved up. They're ready and the weather is going to cooperate."
"I definitely need to wish him luck."
Kara went back to the waiting room and brought Lee back with her. John was on the phone.
"Wow," Lee said. "He's…really…a pretty baby."
He didn't know what else to say. Most babies looked alike to him...not that he'd seen that many of them.
"Thank you," Laura said. "So tomorrow is your big mission."
"Yes."
"Nervous?"
"A little bit."
"Well I certainly wish you luck. I'm sure you'll be successful."
"Thank you."
John walked into the room. "I called Bill. I called Colonel Burgher and Colonel Winters and I talked to Fiona like you asked. She wants you to call her tomorrow after we get home or the next day, whenever you feel like it. I forgot to call Billy and Tory. I'll do that in a few minutes."
"We'd better be going," Lee said. "Congratulations to both of you."
Kara hugged her father, holding on to him longer than usual. The love they felt for each other was all there in the hug. She knew her dad had a son now, but she also knew it would never take anything away from what he felt for her.
"You'll always be my little girl," he whispered and his voice caught.
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
As she and Lee walked to the parking deck of the hospital and Lee's car, he took her hand. "John asked my dad about letting you come out to the base tomorrow."
"And?"
"He's going to call me later tonight."
"What time do you take off?"
"I'm usually in the air by 09:00 for a routine training mission. We're not going to deviate much from that. I went out to the base after I got off work on Thursday and looked at the Viper. Just looking at it you can't tell it's been altered in any way."
"That was the general idea, wasn't it? Make it so the pulse generator isn't detectable?"
Lee's mobile phone chirped and he looked at the caller ID. "My dad. I didn't expect him to call this soon."
"Answer it," Kara said eagerly.
After listening a few moments he turned to her. "He wants us to meet him for dinner at Channing's tonight. Are you game?"
"Sure. Why not?"
"We'll be there, Dad." He ended the call. "I haven't seen him since that night two weeks ago at your dad and Laura's. I've talked to him a couple of times, but we haven't seen each other."
Commander Adama was already seated at a table when they arrived at the restaurant. As they walked up to the table, he stood. He was casually dressed in blue camouflage fatigues and a tan sweater. An older-looking navy pea coat was hanging on the back of his chair.
They exchanged greetings.
"How is Laura?" Bill asked.
"She and the baby are fine. My dad on the other hand needs something to anchor him to the ground. He's so happy that he's in the clouds somewhere."
Bill was still looking at her. "I know how he feels. I remember when both of my sons were born."
"How? You weren't there," Lee said.
"Yes, I was, son."
"Mom said…"
"I was there. I didn't make it back to Caprica until a few hours after Zak was born, but I was there at the hospital when you were born."
Kara glanced at Lee and saw the play of emotions over his face.
"You were there when I was born?" Lee said to his father.
"I held you when you were ten minutes old."
"I…I didn't know that." They all sat without speaking for a minute. Finally Lee said. "About tomorrow…."
"You're going to do fine."
"It was Kara's idea," Lee said.
"John mentioned that. He said Kara has a way of thinking outside-of-the-box."
"I was joking when I said it to him. I didn't think anyone would take me seriously."
Bill smiled. "Don't hesitate to mention any more outside-of-the-box ideas you might have."
"I'd like to come out to the airbase tomorrow morning, sir."
Bill placed a small card on the table. "Come to the gate at 08:00 tomorrow. Have the MPs call that extension and I'll have someone meet you and bring you to the Comm Center."
"Thank you, sir."
"You're going to be there?" Lee asked his father.
"Where else would I be?" He reached into his pocket, pulled out a cigarette lighter and placed it on the table in front of Lee.
Lee picked it up. "My grandfather's lucky lighter."
"Bring it back to me, son. I always light my cigars with it. It's never failed me. Never. Just like it never failed your grandfather."
After the meal, Bill refused a ride saying he wanted to walk. In the car Lee sat for a few minutes before he started the engine.
"What's the matter?" Kara asked.
"Nothing," Lee said as he pulled away from the curb.
"Is it that hard for you to admit you've been wrong about him loving you?"
"My place or yours?" Lee asked.
Kara sighed. Lee was impossible sometime. "Take me by John and Laura's apartment. I'll get my uniform and my toothbrush. I'll spend the night with you."
"I don't know how much sleep I'm going to get. I might keep you awake."
Kara grinned. "Do you hear me complaining?"
...
Lee was awake at 05:00. He got quietly out of bed and went into the bathroom where he took a shower, shaved and put on his underwear. When he walked into the kitchen, Kara was sitting at the table in a pair of his sweatpants and a t-shirt. She had started a pot of coffee.
He sat down at the table. "Thanks. I slept better than I thought I would."
"Thanks to me."
"Thanks to you." He smiled. "You have a way of…"
"What?" She grinned. "Wearing you out?"
"Something like that."
"You're going to be fine, Lee. You're going to shoot down that Raider and then you're going to come back to the base just like any other routine training mission."
"So you're John's stand-in this morning. I get the pep-talk from you instead of him?"
"Afraid so."
The coffee stopped dripping. He got up and poured two cups. His nerves were so on edge that he probably should go easy on the caffeine. He wondered what Kara would do if he didn't come back. How long would it be before she moved on with her life? How long before she found somebody else? How long would it take her to forget him?
He felt her arms wrap around him from behind. "Wherever you are right now, don't go there."
"Pre-flight jitters."
"I'm going to take a shower."
When she got out of the bathroom, Lee was dressed in his uniform. The lights in the bedroom were turned off and he was standing at the window looking at the gray dawn and rainwater running down the other side of the glass.
"The weather is crap just like the weatherman predicted."
Kara dropped the towel on the bed and pulled on her underwear and then her uniform. "I didn't bring my raincoat."
"I've got an extra one. It'll be a little big but it's got a hood."
Silently they rode the elevator down to the parking garage. "You got the lighter?" Kara asked him.
"In my pocket. I'm going to take you to the hanger with me. It's too early to drop you at the gate. My dad won't be there yet. I'll have somebody drive you to the main building closer to eight."
Kara seemed to understand his need for silence as they rode out to the base. The wind whipped sheets of rain across the I-6. They were going out of the city instead of coming into it, but traffic still crawled.
Lee went over and over the mission plan in his mind. It was simple. It was no different from any routine mission with the exception that he was going to fly out over the bay and he was going to go head-to-head with a Cylon Raider that had been programmed to shoot him down the minute he deviated from a standard training mission.
He held his ID badge up to the car window and the MP at the smaller gate of the airfield waved him through after opening the heavy chain link gate. Lee knew he saw the base sticker on the inside of the windshield and didn't want to get out of his warm, dry booth to check the car. He should have asked for Kara's ID, but he didn't. He saw the military raincoat and opened the gate.
Lee pulled up outside the hanger and parked. Before he opened the car door, he looked at Kara. She reached over, put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him to her. The kiss was hard and had nothing to do with sex. It was fierce and passionate, like she was trying to give something of herself to him.
She finally drew back. "For luck. You come back to me, damn it. You come back. You kill that Raider and you come back."
"I love you."
They pulled up their hoods, got out of the car, and ran for the side door of the hanger.
There were eight Vipers inside. The one he would fly was in the middle, pointing at the huge doors which were still closed.
"I've got to go suit up. The lockers are at the back. Come on."
Feeling like she was in a vaulted temple, she walked with him.
There were greetings as he passed crewmembers who were getting his ship ready for the flight. The Crew Chief and one other crewman were the only two who knew what was in the Viper's KEW housing. They had helped the engineer and his team install and test it.
"Morning, sir…Morning, lieutenant…Rotten weather for flying, sir."
Lee smiled and acknowledged each with a nod. They kept walking. He didn't want to have to explain Kara to anyone yet.
They walked through the doors to the locker room. He punched in the combination code on his locker and opened the door. Without a word he took off his watch and stripped to his underwear and tank top before he pulled on his flight suit. He put on the boots and fastened the air-tight seal at both ankles. One of the crew members would fasten the seal at his wrists after he put on his gloves. He got his helmet out of the top of his locker. He looked at the chronometer mounted in the cuff of his right sleeve. An hour to go.
"I've got to go through pre-flight. I'm going to have one of the guys drive you up to the main building. Just go inside. There will be an ensign at the front desk. Have him call the extension my father gave you and say you're downstairs. He'll send somebody for you."
"Right. The lighter."
"Thanks. I almost forgot." He opened his locker again and took it out of his trouser pocket. He had Kara snap it into the left sleeve pocket of his flight suit.
She saw the squadron patch on his shoulder. She knew the Viper patch was on his right shoulder. "One day I'm going to have one of these flight suits, too."
"I'm sure you will."
They walked out of the locker room. He found the Crew Chief. "I need someone to drive Cadet Thrace up to the main building. My father is expecting her."
"Yes, sir. Follow me, Cadet Thrace."
Before she followed the Chief, she looked at Lee one more time and hoped the love she felt for him showed in her eyes. The Chief told a young female crewman to drive Kara to the main building. A few minutes later they were in a jeep and on their way. The rain had finally slacked, but the day was gray, the cloud cover low.
Five minutes later she was at the front desk. She gave the ensign the extension and waited. She was surprised that the commander himself came to get her.
The ensign was on his feet immediately and came to attention.
"As you were," Bill said.
Kara felt nervous in the presence of the commander this morning. Last night at dinner had seemed different. "Good morning, sir. Great weather, isn't it?"
"Just what we ordered," Bill said. "Come with me."
They went to an elevator, rode up to the third floor and walked partway down a long corridor. Bill stopped and opened a door. Kara went through. They were in a darker room filled with dradis screens and men and women sitting at consoles. They were wearing headsets and speaking into the curved mouthpieces.
An officer walked over to them.
The commander said, "Kara, this is Major Steadman. He's in charge of the Comm Center. Major, meet Kara Thrace. She's a cadet at the Academy."
They nodded at each other. "Good morning, sir."
"Kara is a special friend of my son's. She's also John Gallagher's daughter."
The major smiled broadly. "Welcome aboard."
"Thank you, sir."
"Is he in the air yet?" The commander asked.
"Not yet, sir. I believe they've just towed his Viper out of the hanger. He should be next in line to take off. If you'd like to come down to the end of this row, I have a place you can sit and monitor the mission. I wasn't expecting but one person, sir. I only have one chair available."
"No problem. I'll stand," Kara said and smiled at Bill. "I'm not sure I could sit still anyway."
...
Lee sat on the runway waiting for clearance to launch. He ran down the instrument check another time.
"Viper Four-Five-Zero," the voice in his helmet crackled, "proceed to runway Eight-Charlie-Alpha."
"Copy that. Runway Eight-Charlie-Alpha."
Five minutes later he was airborne and the Raider appeared off his starboard side as expected. He climbed to the altitude where he usually began his training exercises. He was far too high to take on the Cylon. At this altitude there was no guarantee that the Raider would land in the bay even if the plan worked. And wherever it landed, it would be in pieces. The idea was to get it down intact.
He put the Viper through the first set of training exercises before he slowly began his descent. He watched the altimeter unwinding as he neared the surface. The rain and low cloud cover kept him from seeing the bay, but he could tell by his flight coordinates that he was over it. He knew the Raider was still off his starboard side. He could see it on his dradis, but he could no longer make visual contact. The cloud cover was too thick. Hitting that red eye was dependent on him being able to see it.
He bled more altitude and thought he caught a glimpse of the metal quarter-moon shaped ship that flew with him. The name of the mission suddenly struck him. Project Broken Moon. He wondered who had come up with that. He dropped lower still. The Raider stayed with him.
He was barely five hundred feet above the water when the clouds and fog cleared to the point that he could see the Raider well enough to take a shot at it.
He heard the voice of the air traffic controller. "Viper Four-Five-Zero you have dropped below the hard deck. Resume altitude of three thousand feet."
"This is Viper Four-Five-Zero. I am having instrument difficulties and must rely on visual."
So far so good. The coordinates for the first attempt were coming up fast. He slowed his speed and banked to starboard. At first the Raider stayed on a straight course. Then something in its computer must have indicated Lee's deviation. The Raider turned toward him.
Lee tightened his turn. An alarm in the cockpit began sounding. The Raider had a missile lock on him. Lee saw the red eye and fired the pulse weapon. He almost expected the see the beam of light shoot out like it had so many times in the simulator. Instead nothing happened for the longest second of his life.
Then the red eye went out, the cockpit alarm stopped blaring, and the Raider dropped like a stone toward the bay. Lee followed it down. It hit the water hard with its wingtips pointing skyward and disappeared in a matter of seconds. Yes!
He could hardly keep the exultation out of his voice as he said, "This is Viper Four-Five-Zero. My escort seems to have developed some type of technical malfunction as well. It has crashed into the bay. Repeat it has crashed into the bay at the following coordinates." Lee relayed the approximate point at which the Raider had hit the water.
His joy was short-lived, however. The radio in his helmet crackled again. "Viper Four-Five-Zero you have an inbound Raider approaching at high speed south-southwest. Repeat an inbound Raider."
There it was on his dradis screen. Coming fast. In less than a minute it would be in missile range. He was in an unarmed Viper. There was nowhere to hide. Cloud cover meant nothing to a Cylon.
He thought of Kara. Would she ever know how much he loved her?
At the airbase Kara knew something was wrong even before the ensign gave Lee the warning. She saw the blip on the dradis getting closer to his Viper by the second. And she knew what was going to happen unless Lee did something fast.
The commander was seated in from of her. She grabbed his shoulder. "Tell Lee to fly up the coast toward the big hydroelectric power plant. The cooling towers will mess up the Raider's missile lock on his heat signature."
"Do it," Bill barked to the ensign without hesitation. He turned to Kara. "Good thinking."
She shrugged. "It's what I would do, sir."
Lee heard the instructions and immediately banked into a steep northward turn. He jammed the thruster pedal against the firewall and pulled the throttle back as far as it would go causing the afterburners to kick in. He could see the fuel gauge's needle dropping as his engines sucked in the tylium. He was getting every ounce of speed from the Viper he could get and he was still miles from the power station. Even though the Cylon had not managed to get a missile lock on him, it was still closing rapidly. If he kept his present rate of speed, he would overshoot the power station so fast that the heat from the cooling towers would probably offer him very little benefit. He dived toward the water and slowed his speed. Skimming along barely a hundred feet off the surface he hoped if the Raider did get a shot at him, he could eject and be in the water before it got him with its guns.
"What the hell is he doing?" Bill asked. "He's slowing down."
"No, no," Kara said. "That's all right. If he makes it to the power plant he can get behind the towers and play cat and mouse with the Raider. He's going to take it on. He's going to take on that Raider."
"He's going to get himself killed," Bill said. "The Raider is gaining too fast. He should just eject, damn it."
"No. Lee's smart. He knows what he's doing. It's what I would do. It's either that or ditch a four-million cubit ship in the ocean. And we don't have Vipers to spare right now."
"I'd rather lose every damn ship in the fleet than lose my son." Bill said so softly that Kara was sure that no one else heard him.
The cooling towers of the power station had never looked so good to Lee. He pulled a quick hundred-eighty degree turn as soon as he was past the first one and brought his Viper to a near stop, using the vertical thrusters to keep his ship in the air. He watched his dradis. His instinct told him that he had hit the first Raider with too strong a beam so he decreased the electromagnetic pulse.
The Raider closed the distance in thirty seconds. As soon as it was past the tower, it turned, its red eye seeking him. Lee circled the tower and came out the other side lining up on the Raider as he cleared the massive concrete structure. He pulled the trigger on the weapon. The Raider wobbled and the red eye dimmed, but didn't go out. Lee turned, flying low out over the water. The Raider was on his tail but had not gone to guns up or gotten a missile lock on him. He slowed and toned down the pulse again. The Raider slowed with him. Lee pulled his Viper into another fast one-eighty turn. He fired the weapon again.
The red eye dimmed to almost nothing. The Raider descended and slid along the surface of the water before a wingtip caught and it flipped. It sank just as fast as the other one had. Lee marked the coordinates.
He quickly climbed to a thousand feet. His dradis screen was clear. "This is Viper Four-Five-Zero. I am near bingo fuel and returning to base. My second escort appears to have suffered the same sort of technical malfunction as the first and has also gone into the ocean."
Kara punched a fist into the air. "Yes! He did it! Yes!"
Bill took several deep breaths. He turned to the ensign on the comm. "Tell my…tell Lieutenant Adama to come to the main building on base as soon as he lands that bird."
"Yes, sir."
"No, belay that. Tell him to wait in the hanger. We're going to him."
"Yes, sir."
Kara was nearly giddy with relief. Lee had done it. Why had she ever doubted he would?
Bill turned to Major Steadman. "Call the hanger and have the Crew Chief send someone to pick us up."
"Yes, sir," the major answered. "Offer your son my congratulations."
Bill didn't speak until they were in the elevator. "Lee probably owes his life to you. I don't know if either one of us would have thought of the hydroelectric plant. How did you?"
"My dad and I have a video game we play. One of us is the Raider and the other one is the Viper. We take turns. We played it all summer on the nights Laura was working late. It drives her crazy so we never play when she's home. I don't remember which one of us figured out that the heat from a power plant's cooling towers messes up a ship's heat signature."
"So my son owes his life to a video game?"
"Your son owes his life to a hell of a piece of flying…sir. My dad probably couldn't have done it better."
Bill didn't say anything, but for the first time that morning, he smiled. He probably realized that Kara had just paid Lee the ultimate compliment.
Lee was still high on adrenalin when his Viper was towed into the hanger. How could he be cool and go through post-flight when his heart was pounding like a jack-hammer in his chest? How could he climb nonchalantly out of the cockpit when he'd just put not one but two Cylon Raiders into the bay? His palms were so sweaty inside his gloves that the linings were saturated.
He knew that even now a salvage vessel was probably already on site where the first Raider had plunged into the water. He wondered how long it would take for divers to reach it. He wondered how long it would take to retrieve the second Raider. He wondered if his father's engineers would be able to get anything out of them.
Inside the hanger he released the canopy of the Viper and slid it back. A crewmember had the ladder up to his ship almost immediately. Lee unfastened his helmet and looked up. The Crew Chief was waiting to take it.
"How was the flight, sir?"
Lee handed the helmet to him. "My escort had some kind of trouble. It went into the bay. In fact two of them did. It looked like it might have been an electrical malfunction."
"Sir, your father is on his way out here."
Lee was surprised. "My father is coming to the hanger?"
"Yes, sir. It didn't take long for word to get around that your, uh, escort had some problems."
The Crew Chief backed down the ladder and Lee climbed out of the cockpit. He wasn't all the way down the steps when the side door opened and his father and Kara walked in. He wanted her in his arms, but he knew they both needed to show restraint in front of the crew.
"Commander on deck," the Crew Chief shouted and everyone stopped what they were doing and came to attention.
"As you were," Bill said. He and Kara walked over to Lee. "Congratulations, son."
"Thank you, sir. I have something that I believe belongs to you."
He looked at Kara and then at his left arm. She took the lighter out of the sleeve pocket and gave it to him. He handed it to his father.
His father took it and flicked it. The flame flared strong and bright. "It never fails."
"Whose idea was the power plant?" Lee asked.
"Who plays video games with her father?" Bill answered.
"I hope I get to see the footage from your gun cameras," Kara said.
"You know this was a classified mission," Bill said.
"Who pulled your son's classified mission out of the fire, sir?"
"Kara, you shouldn't talk to my father like that."
Bill Adama smiled. "I'm cutting her some slack today."
"I'm sorry, sir" Kara said. "Lee, your fancy flying saved your ass. I knew you could do it."
Lee grinned. "Is this the post-flight pep talk?"
Bill put the lighter into his pocket. He turned to Lee. "I need to see you back in the main building as soon as you get out of your flight suit and get a shower. Major Steadman's office on the third floor. We're going to debrief the mission."
"Yes, sir."
"Sir," Kara said, "If you could drop me at the gate, I can catch the subway back to the apartment. Laura and my dad should be home soon."
Lee looked at Kara. "I'll call you as soon as I can."
He watched her walk to the door of the hanger with his father. At the moment he felt like he didn't need his Viper to fly.
The rain had stopped when the jeep pulled up to the main gate and let Kara out. She took out her mobile phone and called her father. His phone went to voice mail so she didn't leave a message.
She walked to the subway stop. John and Laura were at the apartment when she got there.
"I tried to call," she told him. "You didn't answer."
"I turned my phone off in the hospital. I forgot to turn it back on."
"How're Laura and Braedon?"
"Both sleeping at the moment. How did it go this morning?"
Kara grinned. "You're not going to believe it."
"Try me."
"Lee got two of them?"
"Two? How did he do that?"
"I'll tell you what I think happened and then when you see the gun camera footage, you can tell me if I'm right. He got the first one out in the bay where he was supposed to. He got the second one up near the power plant."
"How did he wind up there?"
"You know in the video game how we…"
"Don't tell me it was your idea to send him up there?"
"Dad, let me finish. A second Raider came after him. It was either that or ditch the Viper in the ocean."
"He should have ditched."
"You wouldn't have."
"You're right. Lee did exactly what I would have done. Start at the beginning and go slow. I didn't get much sleep last night."
"That's too bad," Kara said. "I slept fine…when I finally got to sleep."
Her father lay down on the couch, adjusted one of the pillows behind his head and shut his eyes.
"How did Lee sleep?"
"He slept fine, too…when he finally got to sleep. Why don't you take a nap? You're tired. I can tell you this later when you're awake enough to appreciate it."
"I love you, baby."
"You've got a new baby now."
"You'll always be my baby girl. The day I pin your wings on you, you'll still be my baby girl."
...
Two nights later she and Lee and her father and Laura drank the last of the Siren's Kiss.
"To our son…and our daughter," John said.
"And to Lee's successful mission," Kara added.
"And to our future," Laura said.
"With no Cylons in it," Lee finished.
They raised their glasses. "So say we all."
...
On the second day back in class Karl was waiting for Kara outside the door to their Colonial History class. "I need to talk to you."
"How was the beach trip?"
"Did Sharon say something?"
"No. Should she have?"
"Will you meet me in the student union when you get out of class this afternoon?"
"Is something wrong?"
"I don't know. Can you be there by 15:00?"
"Sure. I get out of Basic Flight at 14:30."
Karl was sitting at a table with a soft drink when she arrived. She sat down at the table. "So what's up?"
"Do you know if something has happened to Sharon lately?"
Kara thought of the incident with Captain Reider. "Why? What's wrong?"
"While we were on vacation she had a couple of nightmares."
"It was probably because she was sleeping with you."
"This isn't funny, Kara."
"Sorry. What kind of nightmares?"
"She said she couldn't remember. Has she had nightmares before?"
"If she did, she never woke me up."
"You never heard her talking or crying in her sleep?"
"No."
"Would you tell me if you had?"
"Yes, Karl, I'd tell you if I'd heard her talking or crying in her sleep."
"She was…I don't know how to describe it exactly…she just didn't seem like herself. She was quieter…like she had something on her mind."
"Have you asked her if anything is bothering her?"
"Duh. Of course I asked her. She said it must be stress from mid-terms."
"You want me to talk to her?"
"Would you. I think if she'll tell anyone, she'll tell you."
Kara shrugged. "I'll see what I can do, but don't expect a miracle."
"Great," Karl said. "Great. I knew I could depend on you. How was your week off?"
"I got a new brother."
"No kidding. So Laura had the baby?"
"Last Sunday. He came a week early but they're both doing fine. My dad is taking this week off, too. Colonel Burgher is covering for him. I get to do my sim class with him this week. I'm uptight about that."
"Why? I heard you were doing great."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Cadets talk. Word gets around."
"Like what?"
"I'm just saying the world is full of jealous people and some of them are cadets here at the Academy."
"Are you telling me that some cadets don't believe I've got the chops to fly a Viper? My dad is harder on me than he is on anybody else. Did somebody say he's letting me off easy?"
"Maybe your father and Colonel Burgher both because they're friends. I know better, but some people are petty and jealous."
"Let's just throw Hugh Connelly and Mrs. Nagala in there, too, since they're friends of Laura and my dad. I guess people think they're just giving me grades, too."
"I don't think anybody knows about them…yet."
"I've studied hard."
"I know that. I know you're good in the simulator. I remember how you used to kick everybody's ass in video games back on Picon."
"Well there's one place you can't fake it. When I get to Flight School after I graduate, I'll show them and everybody else. Who's saying this stuff anyway?"
"I'm not going to call any names and have you get kicked out of the Academy because you confront them. Just let it go and chalk it up to them being jealous because they're not doing as good as you are. I'm your friend. Let me take up for you."
"Don't you do anything stupid."
"I won't."
Karl walked back to her dorm with her. Before she went inside, she looked at him. "After Flight School we're going to get assigned to the same battlestar, aren't we?"
"We'd better."
"It would be rough without my best friend to take up for me." She grinned. "I might have to kick somebody's ass."
When she got up to the room, Sharon was reading a chapter in her Colonial History book, and Kara didn't interrupt her to talk. She sat down on the other side of the modular desk and opened her own history book.
At 16:00 Sharon got up and changed her uniform for a pair of sweat pants and a sweat shirt. "I'm going out for a run. I'll be back in an hour or so."
"It's getting colder," Kara said.
"I'll be fine."
Karl was right. Something was a little off about Sharon. She seemed more distant or more preoccupied. Kara wondered if it were just the thing with Reider or if something else was bothering her.
Sharon had a nightmare that night, the first one Kara had been aware of. Kara wasn't sure what woke her, but she looked across the room and felt a surge of fear. Sharon was crouched on the floor in an animalistic stance, like a wolf or a leopard getting ready to pounce. For a moment she could almost swear that Sharon's eyes briefly glowed a dull red. Kara blinked hard, thinking she was still half-asleep and dreaming herself. When she looked again, Sharon's eyes were dark.
"Sharon," she said softly. "Are you awake?"
"The dome is cracking," Sharon said in a soft but terrified voice. "There's no way out. We're all going to die."
Kara got out of bed and carefully and slowly approached Sharon. She didn't want to turn on the light. She didn't want to do anything to startle her.
"Sharon, you're at the Academy. There is no dome. Everything is fine."
Sharon sniffed several times like a dog. "The atmosphere is too thin. It's poison."
She touched Sharon's shoulder. "The atmosphere is fine. You're fine. We're all fine here on Caprica."
"No one must know. It will look like an accident."
With that Sharon got back into bed. The whole incident hadn't lasted two minutes, but it had freaked Kara out. Is that what Sharon had done at the beach with Karl?
She'd gotten the impression that Sharon's beach nightmares were the old-fashioned kind where you woke up soaked in sweat and unable to breath as a dark night terror faded into the recesses of the dream world.
If Karl had found Sharon crouched tiger-like on the floor spouting words about a dome cracking, then no wonder he was concerned. The sight of Sharon on the floor had been more than spooky.
The next morning as they put on their uniforms, Kara said casually, "You had a weird nightmare last night."
"No kidding," Sharon said, acting more like herself than she had since the end of the mid-term break.
"You were crouched on the floor like a cat talking about a dome."
Sharon looked totally puzzled. "That's too weird. I don't remember a bit of it."
"You don't remember telling me the dome was cracking and that the atmosphere was poison and there was no way out?"
"That's what happened on the mining colony of Troy where my parents lived. The dome cracked and the poison atmosphere got in. Everybody died. But I couldn't have remembered that. I was here visiting my grandmother when it happened."
"You clearly said, 'The dome is cracking. There's no way out. We're all going to die.' You said, 'We're going to die.' Not they're going to die."
"I must have imagined what everyone went through. What's with the questions?"
"Karl told me you'd had a couple of nightmares while you were on vacation. Do you think that thing with Reider triggered them?"
"I don't know. Maybe."
"You saw him do something really bad. If you still don't want to turn him in or try to get the girl to come forward, then you should go talk to the Academy's counselor."
"You think I'm going crazy?"
"No. I think maybe you're having a reaction to what you saw him do. I think maybe your conscience is bothering you because you walked away and didn't handle the situation like you wanted to."
"We need to get lined up in the hall for breakfast," Sharon said.
"Think about it."
"I have been thinking about it. That's probably what's wrong."
On Thursday Kara stayed after her Colonial History class and waited until all the other students were gone. She walked up to Hugh Connelly's desk.
"How are Laura and your new brother?" He asked her.
"Good. Can I ask you something about history?"
"Sure."
"Do you remember a disaster involving a mining colony on Troy?"
"Sure do. It happened about six years ago. Not long before the Cylons attacked us."
"Do you remember exactly what happened?"
"After the Cylon workers left at the end of the First War, the mining company built a huge dome on the surface of the planet and created an artificial atmosphere in order to house the miners and their families. The dome cracked and part of it collapsed. Everybody died. The lawsuits were still going on when the Cylons attacked. The Colonies lost their biggest source of tylium when that disaster occurred. The mining company never tried to go back there."
"So there's no way anybody could have survived it?"
"None. Why?"
"My roommate's parents died on Troy. She said she was here visiting her grandmother when it happened. Two nights ago she had a nightmare and was talking in her sleep about it like she was there. She clearly said, 'The dome is cracking. There's no way out. We're going to die.' It sounded like she went through it herself."
"Maybe she did some research on it and read the reports. Maybe she's constructed a scenario in her mind of how her parents died. I wouldn't worry about it unless she keeps having nightmares."
"Something happened recently that stressed her out. She still hasn't come to terms with it."
"Stress sometimes triggers nightmares. I had more than a few in the camp. Of course I had some good dreams, too."
They looked at each other and for a moment they shared the connection they had formed in the camp. She smiled. "So did I. Thanks for the extra history lesson."
Connelly also smiled. "Anytime, Kara."
"I've got to go or I'll be late for Colonial Lit."
As she climbed the stairs to the third floor, Kara had more questions. What if Sharon had actually been on Troy? What if she had been there when the dome had cracked? What if she had died and downloaded into a new body? What if Cavil or one of the other Cylons had tried to reprogram her to forget about Troy and implanted the memory about her parents instead? What if they hadn't completely wiped out the memory of Troy from her brain or whatever a Cylon's memory processor was called?
Then came a much darker thought. What if Sharon had somehow caused the disaster on Troy? What if she had done something to cause the dome to crack? Hadn't Connelly said that the Colonies lost their biggest source of tylium when Troy was abandoned after the disaster?
And why was Sharon here now at the Academy learning to fly a Raptor? Could she be a mole? A sleeper who would be activated after she learned to fly and was stationed on a battlestar?
That was the probably the most important question of all.