Chapter 66
Check Ride
Conditions in the city of Sovana deteriorated rapidly during President Adar's last year in office. Criminal organizations operated with near impunity in parts of the city and an overwhelmed police force could do little to control them. Kidnappings for ransom escalated. Corruption was rampant in the local government. Businesses were forced to pay protection fees to continue to operate. The drug and sex for hire trades flourished. Cavil did nothing to halt the deterioration of the once beautiful city and frequently used Sovana to illustrate his claim that the Cylons were superior to humans in every way.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Lee stood in the whitewashed portion of the special hangar at the boneyard outside of Caprica City and looked at the Raider. He wasn't sure why it evoked such a visceral reaction in him, almost like someone had punched him in the gut. Maybe it was because a Raider had come to represent for him everything that he hated about the Cylons.
Rick Rafferty, his father's chief scientist and engineer, had told them that an undamaged Raider had some degree of intelligence. The neuroscientist who had dissected and examined the brain estimated that intelligence was roughly equivalent to a dog, definitely sub-human, but not entirely without the capacity to learn and with the ability to feel the physical sensation of pain. Lee wondered briefly what the Raider had felt when he had hit it with that electromagnetic pulse. Had it hurt?
The neuroscientist wouldn't go so far as to say the Raider was sentient or self-aware to the same degree as the skinjobs, but it wasn't simply a programmed machine either. Now it was dead, stripped of its internal organs, its insides wired to a computer. It was a tool of the humans now, and yet for Lee, the scythe shape of the Raider made him think of Death, of a painting he'd seen at the Caprica Museum of a scythe-carrying ghoul, the antithesis of Posiden's Daughter, the opposite of everything beautiful and good.
Rafferty walked over to Lee and his father.
"Is it ready to fly?" Bill asked.
"Almost. We had to forget a CO2 scrubber for the interior. There's not enough room after we installed the recording computer for the cameras. That means carrying oxygen tanks on board for your pilot. It will cut the mission time to two hours tops. I'd say an hour and a half to maintain a margin of safety."
"That's not nearly enough time to recon a whole planet and the area around it," Lee blurted.
"If that's all the time Rick can give us, we'll have to go with it. Based on Irina Hoshi's recollections of the high-altitude photos taken by the Hyperion, there's only a small area on the surface of the planet that will need to be photographed."
"You're basing that on memories that are sixty years old. A lot could have changed since then."
"I'm aware of that, son. I want two things out of this mission. I want to know if Cylon ships of any kind are in the Prolmar Sector. If there's a single basestar near the planet, that's reason enough to consider destroying Nereid."
The enormity of what his father has just said nearly overwhelmed Lee. "You do realize that the minute our Raider shows up over the surface of Nereid, we may have tipped our hand. If there are Cylons there and they have a way of communicating with the ones here on Caprica…"
"The first jump won't be near the surface of the planet. The first jump will be just far enough into the Prolmar Sector that the Raider's pilot can get some long-range sensor readings. If there are basestars over the surface of the planet, then the second part of the mission will be scrubbed. Any sign of Cylon activity will be enough for me."
"And if the planet's atmosphere isn't crawling with basestars?"
"The second jump will be into the atmosphere. A flyover of the city and surrounding area with the cameras rolling and then a jump back here."
Lee asked, "How are you going to conceal jumping the Raider here on Caprica? The Cylons will pick up a jump on their dradis right away."
Rafferty answered him. "Not if we jump it in the middle of an electrical storm. Major Gallagher had the idea and I checked it out. The dradis signature of a lightning strike and a jump are almost identical."
"So," Lee said to his father, "on the day of the mission you order up a storm replete with thunder and lightning? When did you get a hotline to Zeus?"
Bill ignored Lee's sarcasm. "We're going to crate the Raider and ship it to an island three hundred miles off the southeast coast of Delphi. We'll house it in an abandoned hangar at an abandoned airstrip. There are no military installations on the island so the Cylons shouldn't be interested. It's called Heliops, about a hundred miles east of Mykos. John found it when he was flying around a few years ago looking for a vacation place. October is the stormiest month down there. The first of October my pilot will join the Raider on Heliops. Then we wait for a storm. We shouldn't have to wait long. A few days, maybe a week. This was John's idea. I haven't come up with a better one. Maybe you can."
"So your pilot twiddles his…or her…thumbs waiting on the weather?"
"Give me an alternative, Lee. Give me something else that will conceal a jump out of Caprica's atmosphere and back in."
Lee knew they needed some type of EM interference to mask the jump. Jumping during an electrical storm would be dangerous, but it would work.
"What about practice runs? What about becoming familiar with flying the Raider?" Lee asked.
"That will happen on the island."
"So we don't even know if the damned thing will fly."
"It'll fly," Rafferty said. "All of our computer simulations…"
"Computer simulations!" Lee exploded. "Do you seriously expect a pilot to crawl up in that thing with only the assurance that a computer said it would fly?"
Rafferty sighed, turned and walked away from them.
"Easy, son," Bill said. "You've got no idea how hard Rick and his engineers and technicians have been working on this project. The fact that they've made this happen at all is nothing short of a miracle."
"You get that Raider to the island. I'll take it up. I'll make sure your pilot and your Raider aren't going to end up on the bottom of the ocean before it has a chance to jump."
A smile crossed Bill Adama's lips. He pointed to the ship. "Go ahead. Get inside and see what you think."
His emotions were still running so high that Lee ducked under the Raider's wing and climbed up into the ship without bothering to get a protective coverall for his clothes or booties for his shoes. It was a tight fit. His shoulders barely went through the hatch. The smell was not as bad as he remembered.
He stretched out. The contours of the ship didn't lend themselves to human comfort. He looked at the computers, at the small keyboard and monitor. He saw the small joystick that looked more like it belonged on a video game than a device that could control a ship.
He placed his feet against the rudder pedals. He could handle it. It wasn't like the flight was going to take hours.
Lee carefully lowered himself from the hatch. He then went over to Rick Rafferty and apologized for losing his cool.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I see this from the pilot's point of view. Nobody wants to go up in a ship that hasn't been tested. If that thing were to go down, it's a death trap. The pilot wouldn't stand a chance. He couldn't even eject."
"No offense taken," Rafferty said. "I'm an engineer, not a pilot, but we have built in as many safety features as we can. There's a lot of redundancy. We've got it all running smoothly in simulation. We've done our best."
On the way back into the city, Bill said, "You can drop me at my office."
"No other comments?"
"Not right now, son. I'll keep you informed of what's going on with Operation Sadie."
"But I won't be flying it."
"I didn't say that. I'm still putting the final pieces of this mission together. John's still working on a map of the surface for me. And I'm going to look at all the pilots' folders again. I'll make a decision long before that Raider is taken to Heliops Island. I want the pilot to work with Rafferty and his flight simulations."
As Lee took the exit back into the city, he wondered whether this morning had made any difference to his father at all.
…
Laura was happy to see the skyline of Caprica City as it came into view late on Sunday afternoon and even happier when the bus pulled up outside of their apartment building. The campaign tour had been grueling. She was glad to be home. She knew everyone was.
Their luggage was unloaded on the sidewalk before the bus pulled away. The weekend doorman began calling transports for her staff and volunteers. D'Anna Biers had a car waiting for her and her cameraman.
"I'll be in touch," D'Anna said. "John still owes me an interview."
Holding Braedon's carrier John walked over to Laura. "I know that woman is a reporter, but damn, she's persistent."
"I think she has a big crush on you," Laura teased. "She sat beside you on the bus every chance she got."
"A snowball has a better chance in Hades."
Maya walked up to them. "Are you sure you want me to take next week off?"
"You've worked every day for three weeks," Laura said. "Yes, I want you to take next week off, with pay of course."
John said, "I'm sure there's a nice young man out there who's waiting for you to return his last phone call."
Maya smiled as she blushed and looked down. "Maybe."
Another transport pulled up and the driver loaded Maya's luggage. As it pulled away, Laura turned to John, "A nice young man?"
"Sam Anders. Maya met him the night she and Kara went out. I think Anders has called her every night since we've been gone."
Laura bit back the comment that Maya hadn't mentioned Sam to her. She couldn't blame her for talking to John. Laura barely had time to talk to Maya about her son, much less to chat about her romantic inclinations. Laura had hoped that Maya and Tory might form a friendship on this trip, but there had been an unmistakable coolness between the two women from the start. No, that wasn't fair to Maya. The coolness had been on Tory's part. Now Laura understood why. Sam Anders. He had once been Tory's lover. Now he was apparently interested in Maya.
The outside door of the apartment opened and Kara came out. Laura took the carrier so John could hug his daughter. Laura knew how much he had missed Kara. He had called her every day.
Kara leaned over and looked into the carrier. "Little star-mapper," she said. "I've missed you."
Braedon began wiggling happily in the seat and reached for her. Kara picked him up.
Billy and Tory had just walked up to them. "Star-mapper?" Tory asked.
Kara turned. "Just my nickname for him."
Another transport drove up. Tory and Billy decided to share it.
As it pulled away from the curb, John asked Kara, "Where's Lee?"
"Gone to Channing's to pick up something for dinner tonight. You said you'd be home by six. It's almost six."
During dinner that night they all let Kara talk about Flight School. She had a lot to relate. Later Laura insisted on giving Braedon his bath and getting him ready for bed so that John and Kara could continue their conversation. When Lee left a little after eight o'clock, Kara and her father were still talking.
Laura walked back into the den and flopped in her favorite chair. Kara could tell that she was tired. John got up and poured her a drink of ambrosia.
"I saw part of your speech at the camp on television," Kara said. "It was good."
"Thank you," Laura said.
Kara turned to her father. "I saw you holding Braedon. I saw Maya sitting beside you. She looked like she was crying."
Her father and Laura glanced at one another. Laura finally said, "Maya had a very difficult time that day."
John said, "After Laura's speech Maya wanted to go to the memorial wall. I finally had to go look for her while Laura kept the press occupied."
"He found her…" Laura started. "He can tell you."
"I found her sitting on the ground at the wall with her hand over her little girl's name. She was sobbing so hard I literally had to pick her up."
Her father stopped talking for a minute and looked at the ceiling. He was almost overcome with emotion. He took a breath and blew it out. Finally he went on.
"All I could think about was that your name could have been on that wall just like Maya's little girl."
"So do you think Maya's okay now?"
"I hope. I got her to a bench and sat with her while she cried and told me what had happened to her little girl. There's a special place in Hades for the men who ran that black market."
"A real special place," Kara said. "So is Maya okay now?"
Laura said softly. "She was better after we left Antioch. She's seemed…less burdened."
"I remember the day I left the camp behind," Kara said. "That was a good day for me, too."
Laura stood. "I'm going to take a bath and go to bed. Tomorrow I go back to the office after being away for three weeks. I can't imagine what I'm going to find. I know you two still have a lot to talk about."
Kara got up and poured her father another drink before she sat down beside him on the couch.
"I never blamed you," Kara said. "You came back for me. You tried. It's Tom Zarek's fault we were separated…and the Cylons. They're the reason I was in that camp."
He put his arm around her and sipped his drink. "Do you want to go back and see the camp the way it looks now? We can go together. Just you and me."
Kara knew her father wanted to share something of the camp with her, but she knew he never really could. The camp that had been her home for almost three years no longer existed. It had been wiped away under the blades of bulldozers and other machinery and also the loving hands of those who had planted the garden and built the fountain and carved the names of those who had died in all three camps into the wall.
But the camp she knew wasn't really gone. It lived on in Karl and Connelly and Maya and Maggie and Jared and her. It lived on in every single human who had struggled through the mud and the cold and the heat and the poor food and the deaths and diseases. That camp could never be planted with grass and trees and brightly blooming flowers. That camp was still just a memory or a nightmare away. That was the camp her father could never fully understand or share with her. And yet he wanted to try.
She finally said, "After I finish Flight School, before I go to the G, maybe you and me can fly up there one day and see it. Maybe Karl can go with us…and Lee, too, if he wants to."
She put her head on his shoulder. The camp was part of the past, but it was still part of her. She could visit it one last time. She could do it for her father. She could do it for both of them.
…
On Monday morning it took Laura nearly two hours to read the correspondence that had arrived during her absence, both letters and emails. She had told both Billy and Tory to take the day off. Tory had listened to her.
At ten o'clock she met with her Vice-Presidential candidate, Scott Mickelson. He was leaving in three days to follow roughly the same campaign trail that Laura had just completed. They went over the agenda and strategy for nearly two hours. He left just before noon. Thirty minutes later Bill Adama arrived.
She had not seen Bill since the night of Kara's graduation party over five weeks previously. She stood as he walked through the doorway of her office. Bill walked over and took both of her hands. He smiled warmly.
"It's good to see you again, Laura."
She squeezed his hands. "My sentiments exactly."
"How's your family?"
"Fine. Lee ate dinner with us last night. I believe he and Kara spent quite a lot of time together while John and I were gone."
"I'm sure they did."
"You know he gave her a ring for graduation."
"No, He didn't mention it to me. An engagement ring?"
"Nothing quite that serious yet, but I think he might as well have. Kara calls it a promise ring."
"How does John feel about it?"
"John accepted them as a couple a long time ago. Given Kara's age, I'm not sure anyone but Lee could have passed muster with him. He trusts Lee to do the right thing."
"I think my son is very much in love with Kara."
"I think she feels the same way about him."
Bill dropped his gaze. "We don't want our children to make the same mistakes we did."
"No," Laura said. "We always want to spare them our pain. I've ordered lunch for us from the dining room downstairs. It should be delivered soon. Would you like some tea?"
"Do you have any coffee?"
Laura walked to the doorway and asked Billy to bring the admiral a cup of coffee.
When they were seated at the table, Bill said, "I've made a military decision about something, but I'd still like your opinion."
Laura smiled. "You know I've never been shy about offering you my opinion."
Bill returned her smile. "I'm asking you because I value your judgment and I'm also asking because in six months you'll be my Commander in Chief. You'll be our duly elected President."
"You're presuming a lot."
"Not based on the most recent polls."
"Ask your question, then."
"There are probably humans on Nereid. How many is unknown, but an estimate of the passengers from the ships that vanished during the attack five years ago is a minimum of five thousand, potentially double that amount. If the Cylons took survivors from any of the nuked planets before the radiation killed everyone, that number could be substantially higher."
"And you think they've taken these humans to Nereid?"
"If that's where their homeworld is now, yes, I do."
"And your decision concerns what to do after we've destroyed the Cylons on Caprica."
"We obviously can't leave them on Nereid to regroup and return. My dilemma is how to formulate my plan of attack. Do we jump into Nereid's atmosphere with guns blazing, destroy the basestars and nuke the planet or do we plan an attack that would allow us to try to rescue any human survivors?"
Laura thoughtfully sipped her tea. Her heart told her that any surviving humans deserved the chance of rescue, but her mind told her that from a military point of view the price might be too high. She knew Bill had already made a decision.
"How many crew members are on a battlestar?" Laura asked.
"Depending on the age and class, anywhere from seventeen hundred to over twenty-five hundred."
"Then it really does become a numbers game, doesn't it, Bill? You've got to assume that in the last five years, many of the initial survivors may have died from…their mistreatment at the hands of the Cylons or illness or even natural causes. There may be only a handful left. How many lives, how many ships are you willing to put at risk to save the remaining humans on that planet?"
His blue eyes locked on hers. "That would be your official position, then, as President?"
"Yes," she said sadly. "Can we risk the loss of Caprica's main protection, your battlestars, to save a few thousand people?"
"I'll see what information the reconnaissance flight in the captured Raider brings us. I'll make two plans. We probably won't go to Nereid right away, not right after we destroy the Cylons here. All of our battlestars need some serious downtime for repairs. It will take several months to get our nuclear arsenal inventoried and redistributed. We're going to need nukes to go to Nereid."
"I'd like to be kept informed of all your decisions."
Bill nodded. "Of course."
Billy came to the door. "Your lunch has arrived. Should I bring it in?"
"By all means," Bill said. "I'm starving."
While they were eating, Laura asked, "Your battlestars will make it through the coming fight, won't they? They aren't that much in need of repairs, are they?"
"Most of them will. Fourteen of the seventeen will be able to jump here after they destroy the four basestars the Cylons have watching us. Three are in too poor shape to withstand a jump. They'll have to get here without jumping."
"Bill," Laura said with concern in her voice, "Is this going to work? Are we not taking a huge risk?"
"The risk is worth it."
"I know how you feel about living under Cylon control…"
"Do you, Laura? Do you really?" Bill said with deep feeling in his voice. "Do you know what it did to me to watch us surrender to them? To watch them neuter our battlestars and the military in general? To hijack our research and try to render our children sterile? To tell us what we can and can't even say in a speech?"
"I can only imagine how you feel," Laura said softly. "I know how I feel, but…" she left the sentence unfinished.
"The warrior and the diplomat," he said wearily. "How can I expect you to understand?"
Laura walked to the window and stood for a long time before she turned around. The emotion was clearly evident in her voice as well. "I don't want to take a chance if there's a possibility we will lose. If we lose, the Cylons will destroy us, destroy Caprica. You know they will. I don't want my son to die before he has a chance to live."
Bill got up also and walked to the window. His eyes softened as he looked at her. "Becoming a mother has changed you."
"It changes every woman," Laura said.
"Your son will grow up free. You have my promise on that."
As Laura looked into the blue eyes of the man who had once claimed her heart, she realized that she had placed her faith in him once again, but faith of a different sort this time. She had entrusted her son's life to him, the lives of all the children of Caprica. She prayed that she hadn't made another mistake.
…
Late that afternoon Billy came to the door. "Romo Lampkin is here."
Romo walked past Billy. "A cup of tea sounds good," he said. "And a bit of cake or a biscuit if you have it."
"I think I have some cookies in my desk drawer," Billy said. "Chocolate chip."
Lampkin made a slight face. "The cup of tea will do."
"That will be all, Billy," Laura said. "I'll get Mr. Lampkin his tea."
"Join me in a cup then," Romo said as he sat at the table.
Laura fixed two cups of tea. When she turned he had his briefcase open. A report that looked like it was a dozen pages thick lay on the table.
"I see you have news," Laura said.
"Dr. Gaius Baltar has the inclinations of an alley cat with regard to women."
Laura smiled. "Tell me something I don't already know."
"Your suspicion is correct. He's seeing the Cylon woman again on a fairly regular basis. She goes to his place. I never observed them out anywhere."
"Ah, so Natasi is making…house calls."
Romo smiled and took off his sunglasses. "Politely said."
"How often?"
"At least once a week, sometimes more, usually on weeknights. Always after she preaches her sermons at the warehouse. Perhaps preaching invigorates her. Interesting woman…although I doubt you would call her that."
"You attended her sermons?"
"Two of them. In the name of research. I always like to know what makes someone tick."
"And what makes her tick?"
"She seems to be sincere in her beliefs. She seems to want everyone to believe in her God. Her emotion in the pulpit seems genuine."
"It's her programming," Laura said. "Surely you weren't taken in by her. She's a machine."
"I've studied the photographs taken a year ago when she had her tearful breakup with Dr. Baltar outside the restaurant. She was hurting. Those were real tears."
"You've deduced all that from hearing two sermons and looking at a few photographs? Have you analyzed me, then? What makes me tick, Mr. Lampkin?" Laura asked in an amused tone of voice.
"The desire to take something that is broken and fix it. The desire to make life better for others. But underneath there is a desire to control…others and yourself. You fear losing control, Ms. Roslin."
"You're an astute observer."
"A skill I learned from watching Joseph Adama in the courtroom. He had a talent for reading a person quickly. It put him at a great advantage during a cross-examination."
"Thank you, Mr. Lampkin. Gaius is working on a rather time-sensitive research project that I think his Cylon could greatly aid. I want to see if he's enlisted her help."
"Ah, but I'm not finished with my report. Dr. Baltar has other lovers."
"They are of no concern to me."
"One should be. She works for you."
"Works for me?" Laura's voice was tinged with disbelief.
"Tory Foster."
"Oh, dear gods. Billy suspected she was seeing someone that she wanted to keep secret. I thought he was married. I was going to ask you to find out who he is."
"I can't say that she doesn't have other lovers, but Gaius Baltar is definitely among them. They see each other at least once a week. Disconcerting, isn't it?"
"More than you can imagine. Tory has access to everything in this office."
"And if she and the good doctor engage in a little pillow talk and Baltar passes it along to his Cylon, then…"
"It goes straight to Cavil," Laura finished the sentence for him. "What am I going to do? I can't fire her because of who she's dating, and I can't ask her to end the affair because he's single."
"Therein lies your dilemma. Do you trust her to keep your business confidential?"
"No," Laura finally said. "I don't trust her the way I do Billy."
"Perhaps Ms. Foster thinks Baltar is faithful to her. Perhaps she knows nothing of the others. Perhaps she would end the affair if she were to find out."
"You think I should tell her about the others?"
Lampkin pointed to the report on the table. "It's all in here if you should choose that route." He stood and put on his sunglasses. "I wish you luck in dealing with your problem. If I can be of further assistance…"
"Yes," Laura said, "thank you. I'll be in touch. You handled the situation with Elliott True very well. I saw a copy of the tabloid while we were away. He made the front page. Billy has told me that the link to True's web site no longer works."
"A man should practice what he preaches," Romo said, "especially one who is so fond of throwing moral stones at others. I feel no guilt about taking a man like that down a peg or two. After all, it's for the best of the Colony, wouldn't you say?"
"Yes, for the best of the Colony."
"Keep my name near the top of your list for Attorney General. Good day, Ms. Roslin."
When Lampkin was gone, Laura picked up the report on Gaius Baltar. She would take it home with her. She couldn't chance leaving it in the office. Her ivory-handled letter opener lay beneath the report. She was certain, absolutely certain that it had not been there before. She picked it up and tapped it thoughtfully against her cheek. Romo Lampkin had a secret of his own. She wondered if she should look for anything else missing on the table.
…
As Kara and the instructor sat on the runway in the two-seated training Viper waiting for clearance to takeoff, she mentally ran down her instrument checklist for the third time. She was now twelve points behind Pike on the classroom tests. She had to start making it up. Today was her ninth training flight and her first check ride. She didn't know exactly how students were assigned to an instructor for one of the four check rides, but it was just her luck that she had gotten Captain Tomas Buzz Jessups for her first one. He was medium height with reddish-blond hair and pale blue eyes. He was not bad-looking, but his eyes reminded her of Sergeant Ackerman.
She tried to ignore the feelings that evoked in her. The scuttlebutt around the base was that Jessups had been called back to active duty from the Reserves to become an instructor the previous year. Scuttlebutt also said that he wasn't happy about it and that he was harder on the nuggets because of it. Maybe that's why some of the nuggets referred to him as Buzzard behind his back. He gets you when you're circling the drain, one of them had said to her, and he picks your bones clean.
At least Jessups wasn't a screamer. Out of the twelve instructors, she had already gotten one of those.
Her first training flight had gone fine. The instructor had handled the takeoff and landing and most of the flight. Her assignment had been to watch everything on her instruments and watch the way the control stick moved as he put the Viper through a defined series of maneuvers. The instructor had told her to ignore the Raider beside them.
Her second training flight had been with what the other nuggets had dubbed a screamer, a guy who yelled his instructions over the cockpit communicator. Her takeoff had been nearly perfect, but after twenty minutes of the yelling in her ear as he had picked apart her every move, she had become rattled. The flight had gone downhill from there. Her landing had been less than stellar…way less. Then she had to stand on the hot tarmac with the sweat running down her face and have her flight critiqued. She knew everything she had done wrong. It shook her to hear it played back at a deafening crescendo. After her fourth or fifth 'Yes, sir, I understand what I did wrong, sir,' she was close to tears. She hadn't been close to tears during her entire time in Flight School. She had never messed up that badly in the simulator. She had never messed up that badly in her father's ship.
After she had showered, she had sat for a long time on the bench in the locker room. She hadn't flunked since it was only a training flight. It wasn't a check ride, but she knew exactly how Seelix had felt when she had flunked the first water test. It wasn't a good feeling. At least no one had yelled at Seelix.
That afternoon she had been late exiting the base and getting to the subway entrance. Dwight Saunders and Noel Allison were waiting on the platform for the next train back into the city.
"Starbuck," Narcho said. "Why so sad looking?"
Kara shrugged. "I got a screamer today. I let him rattle me. I screwed up a couple of simple maneuvers including the landing."
Saunders said, "Narch and me were just talking about going to get a beer somewhere. Want to go with us?"
Kara shrugged again. "I'm on my way to a place called Zeno's. It's near Lee's apartment."
"Zeno's," Narcho said. "I've heard of it. That's fine with me. As long as they sell beer."
They rode into the city and walked the two blocks from the subway station to Zeno's. The mid-July heat shimmered on the sidewalks making the dim, cool interior of the bar all the more welcome. They found a booth near the back.
Flat Top and Narcho sat on one side, Kara on the other. The waiter didn't card her like she had feared he would, but they were all three wearing fatigues so he must have decided she was old enough. While they waited for the beer to arrive, she got up and went to the restroom. She sent Lee a quick text message telling him where she was and asking him to join them when he got off work.
The beer was at her place when she got back. She turned it up and drank a fourth of it before she put it down.
"So you got a screamer," Narcho said. "Which one? Wever or Adderly?"
"Wever. And it's not just the screaming. His tone of voice is like a mosquito in your ear." She looked at Flat Top. "How's Raptor training going?"
"Okay. I had my first training flight today. No screaming, though."
Narcho grinned. "Not that he minds a little screaming. He just doesn't like it coming from an instructor."
Flat Top elbowed him.
Kara finally smiled. "Did you ever make it through those pipes on the obstacle course?"
"Yep, I finally made it through those pipes. I did fine on everything except the Spin and Puke."
"He hurled in the S&P," Narcho said. "I did, too."
"Lee and my dad had already told me what to expect," Kara said. "They both told me not to move my head too quick while the capsule was rotating."
"Now you tell us," Flat Top said. "I get dizzy just thinking about it."
"Lee explained it to me. Moving your head messes with your inner ear. He had about a two-page explanation, but the bottom line is that it makes you motion sick. It's what happens to you when you're pulling Gs and turning in a Viper. You've got to keep your head still and back against the headrest until you pull out of the turn."
"I guess you did okay in the deep space simulator," Flat Top said.
"That was the easiest thing I did. Lee almost died in it a couple of years ago. His suit had a leak and nobody knew it. He was in the hospital a few days. He missed a week of Flight School."
"And still graduated at the top of his class?" Narcho asked.
"Took the Top Gun trophy and all."
"Man, that was some accomplishment," Flat Top said. "Do you ever feel like you're competing with him…with his record?"
Kara nodded. "Sometimes I do."
Narcho said, "That must be tough on the relationship."
"No. Lee wants me to do the best I can do. He's always encouraging me. I bitch and moan and he tells me that I'm doing fine."
"So he wouldn't care if you beat his score?"
"That's not what's important to me. I just want to finish at the top of the Viper class this year." She grinned at Narcho. "No offense to you."
Flat Top said. "She's promised me she's going to beat Pike." He smiled at her. "We'll hose you down with champagne instead of beer if you beat Pike."
"That's a deal," Kara said.
She knew that was another long-standing tradition. On the last day of Flight School, the top-scoring Viper pilot and the top-scoring Raptor pilot got to stand together while the other nuggets shook bottles of beer and sprayed them until they were soaked. If things went the way she expected them to go, Flat Top would be the Raptor pilot getting doused with beer beside of her…if she managed to beat Pike.
They were on their second beers when Lee joined them, slipping into the booth beside Kara. He greeted the other two.
"Be nice to Starbuck," Narcho said to Lee. "She got a screamer today."
Lee looked at her. "He rattled you?"
"Big time."
"It's not the end of the world. This is only your second flight. You've got six more to go before your first check ride. You're going to do fine."
"I don't think I can take six more if they're like today."
"Yeah, you can." Lee smiled. "You're tough."
Kara grinned. "See what I mean, guys? I've got my very own one-man cheering squad."
…
Now she sat on the runway and did her engine check. She got clearance to take off.
"Take it up, Lieutenant Thrace," Jessups said.
"Yes, sir," Kara replied.
She did well on the check ride. Her turns were tighter than the exercise called for. She always wanted to make tight turns, but the rest of it had gone well. Her takeoff was nearly perfect. Her landing was good, too, although she knew she had probably lost a few points by not setting the Viper down nearer the beginning of the runway. Still, in her estimation, she had performed well.
That's why she was shocked when Jessups gave her a score of 80.
She knew that a trainee never argued with an instructor, but when they were on the ground and standing beside the Viper, she couldn't help herself.
"How could you take off twenty points for my turns and the landing, sir?" She asked in disbelief.
Jessups was obviously surprised at her challenge. "You have a problem with how I scored your check ride?"
"Yes sir, I have a big problem with it."
"What do you suggest we do about this problem?"
Kara realized she was headed for trouble, but she wouldn't back down. She should have lost eight or ten points for the turns and landing, not twenty points. She should have made at least 90 on the check ride.
"I'd like for you to reconsider, sir. I think you deducted too many points. I don't think my turns and my landing were bad enough to lose twenty points."
Jessups seemed to be trying to decide how he was going to reply to her. Finally he said, "You're just as cocky as your father. Go back and study the maneuvers in the plan and you might understand why you lost those twenty points. The score stands. I suggest you drop it now, Lieutenant Thrace. Insubordination won't keep you in Flight School." He turned and walked away, effectively dismissing her.
Kara walked around to the other side of the training Viper muttering to herself. Son of a bitch. She kicked the Viper's skid before she got herself under control. What was she going to do? Have a temper tantrum right there on the tarmac? That would help her image as a cool Viper jock with the other nuggets and instructors getting out of their ships.
Carrying her helmet she slowly walked back to the locker room. Jessups' first comment finally penetrated her anger. You're just a cocky as your father. She couldn't wait to get home and ask her father how he knew Captain Jessups.
She found him sitting in the den with some star charts laid out on the table. Braedon was in his playpen. He crawled to the side expecting Kara to pick him up. Instead she said to her father, "Tell me about Captain Tomas Jessups."
"Buzz Jessups? He and I served together on the Solaria for a couple of years. Why?"
"He did my first check ride today. He deducted twenty points on my turns and landing. They weren't that bad," Kara said in anguish.
"Damn," her father said. "Okay, there's some history between me and him. I'll make a phone call and see if I can get another instructor to redo your check ride."
"No! You will not make a phone call to anyone about anything. I'm going to take care of it. I just want to know what his problem is with you."
"What do you mean you'll take care of it? You will get yourself thrown out of Flight School is what you'll do. I let you talk back to me about the simulator because you're my daughter, but that was probably a big mistake on my part. You don't ever talk back to an instructor."
"Well, it's a little late for that now. I challenged the score he gave me."
"Lords of Kobol! Don't ever do that again, Kara! Do you hear me? He can take you before a review board for insubordination and have you disqualified. And there goes your dream of flying a Viper. When an instructor evaluates you, you stand there and you keep your mouth shut and you take it. I don't care if you think it's fair or not."
"What is his problem with you?" Kara asked, her tone of voice betraying her anger although she wasn't sure if she was angry with her father now or still angry with Jessups.
Her father got up and walked to the terrace door. "What do you think his problem is with me?"
"A woman?"
"A Raptor pilot on the Solaria."
"You snaked his girlfriend?"
"She wasn't his girlfriend. And I didn't know he had a thing for her…until he and I almost got into it one night after he'd had too much to drink. That was over twenty years ago."
Kara sat down on the couch, kicked off her shoes and said sarcastically. "The sins of the father…karmic justice and all that, huh, Dad?"
"I'm sorry, baby. Are you sure you don't want me to…"
"I'm sure. I'll handle this."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll tell you what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to let Pike take that Top Gun trophy just because you couldn't…keep it in your pants twenty years ago. I'm not going to settle for letting Jessups take out his personal beef with you on me, either."
"Kara, please..."
She bent over, put on her shoes and stood. "I'm going over to Lee's for a while."
"Kara…"
"No, Dad. I've got to work this one out on my own. You'd better just stay the hell out of it, too. You'll only make things worse. When are you going to realize that you can't fix everything that goes wrong in my life even if you're the one who caused it?"
They looked at each other for a moment, and she saw the pain in his eyes, those mirrors of her own, before he turned away and looked out the terrace door again.
…
Lee had just gotten home from work when Kara buzzed the door. He let her in the outside door and stood waiting in the doorway of his apartment until she got off the elevator.
"What's up?"
Kara pushed past him and closed the door. Without a word she put her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth.
"Kara, what…"
"Make love to me, Lee."
Lee sensed that something had happened that day but he had no idea what.
There was anger in her lovemaking, something he had never felt from her before when they had been intimate. It was evident in the way she touched him, the almost roughness of her hands on him.
"Kara," he groaned, "Wait a minute. Slow down. We don't need to rush."
"Yes, we do. Please, Lee."
He got her panties off before she pulled him back on the couch. She wanted him on top of her. Her bent knees slid up beside his hips. The hot feeling of pleasure coursed through him. He managed to hold back just long enough to feel her body arch under him and her fingers dig into the muscles of his lower back.
They lay for a long time without speaking. Finally Kara got up, picked up her pants and underwear from the floor and went into the bathroom. He heard the water running. When she came back she was dressed. Lee had put on his uniform slacks and was sitting on the couch. Kara walked into the kitchen and came back with a beer.
"Do you want one?"
Lee shook his head. "Not that I didn't enjoy what just happened with us, but can you tell me what's going on?"
Her anger seemed momentarily to have dissipated. She sat down beside him. Slowly, struggling at times with her emotions, she told him.
Lee's reaction was identical to her father's. "You questioned the way an instructor scored your check ride?"
The anger rushed back. "You're damned right I did! He took off way too many points."
"You don't do that, Kara. You never question an instructor. Ever."
"Jessups took off twenty points. Twenty frakking points. Yes, my turns were tight and yes, my landing was short, but not twenty points worth. That score probably cost me the Top Gun trophy. I'm probably going to have to sit through graduation from Flight School and watch that asshole Pike walk up and accept it. And I've got my father to thank for it."
"So what is this about, Kara? Jessups or your father or Pike?"
"All of them," Kara said sulkily. "You don't know what it's like. You don't have a father who frakked every woman who crossed his path when he was…"
"Whoa, Kara. Wait a minute. Your father admits he shared a bunk with one Raptor pilot on the Solaria and suddenly he's frakked every woman who crossed his path? I shared a bunk a couple of times with another Viper pilot on the Triton and I sure haven't frakked every woman who crossed my path."
"You did what?" Kara asked.
"It was after Blaire broke up with me and it didn't mean anything…not to either one of us."
"Lords of Kobol! Is this a Viper pilot thing or is it just you and my dad? Twenty years from now is our kid going to get screwed over in Flight School because you frakked a Viper pilot who becomes an instructor and…."
"Kara, stop it! There's something else going on with you. I don't know what it is, but you've blown this thing way out of proportion. You don't know that Jessups deducted any more points from your check ride than he did any of the others. Pike may make the same score or lower. You're a better pilot than he is."
She was suddenly close to tears again. "I don't know what's the matter with me. I don't know what I'm going to do. I feel like I'm losing it."
Lee reached over and pushed Kara's hair back from the side of her face. He gently took her chin and turned her toward him. "I know how tough Flight School is. I know how much pressure you're under. What you're going to do is go back out to the base tomorrow and go up in a Viper again. You're going to do your best. You're going to put today behind you. You are not going to confront Captain Jessups. And you're not going to blame your father for what happened, either. John loves you, Kara. I sometimes don't think you realize how much. So you're going to give him a break."
That night when she got back to the apartment, she went over to her father and hugged him. "I'm sorry I lost my cool. I've been under a lot of pressure, but that's no excuse. I want to be the best. I want you to be proud of me."
He drew a deep, ragged breath as he held her. "I'm already proud of you. I'll be proud of you no matter where you graduate in your class. I know how good you are. I love you, baby."
"I love you, too. Now I've got to go study. I've got a whole new group of training maneuvers to learn."
Laura had watched the exchange between father and daughter. Now she watched her husband go over to the cabinet and pour a drink.
He turned to her. "Do you want one?"
"I'll pass tonight. What's wrong, John?"
"Something I did over twenty years ago came back today to bite Kara. She wants to handle it on her own."
"Then you should let her."
"She's just so young."
"She's a few months younger than you were when you started flying a Viper."
"I know."
"What did you do twenty years ago that affected her today?"
"It involved a Raptor pilot on the Solaria…"
"One of the two from the shower?" Laura asked teasingly as she remembered the story Chuck Winters had told her about John.
"No," John said sheepishly, "another one."
"Dear gods, how many were there?"
"Let's not get into that, okay? I've told you before those days are long behind me. I'm not the same man I was then."
"All right. There was a third Raptor pilot. Please continue."
"Another Viper pilot, Buzz Jessups, had a thing for her, but I didn't know that and she said she wasn't interested in him. I had a very healthy ego back then. I also had a certain reputation with the ladies. I didn't realize until later that she was just using me to make him jealous. This was a year or so after the fighting was over and we were all in the officer's rec room one night and there was some drinking and he got in my face about her."
"You got into a fight?"
"No. A couple of the other pilots grabbed him and kept him from taking a swing at me…and now he's a flight instructor and did Kara's check ride today. He graded her down. It's my fault."
"Do you seriously think that he's harboring a grudge after all this time?"
John shrugged. "He mentioned me to Kara so he knows I'm her father."
"And you think he's so unprofessional that he would penalize your daughter for something you did over twenty years ago?"
John shrugged.
"Is he going to do all of her check rides?"
"No. To ensure fairness four different instructors do the four check rides."
"Then I think you're making too much out of this. Does she have the right to challenge a score?"
"No. She's lucky he didn't haul her before a review board and make an example out of her."
"Perhaps you're the reason he didn't take her before that board. Perhaps he didn't want to chance the very thing you're accusing him of."
"Kara just wants that Top Gun trophy so much. She deserves it. She's a better pilot than Eammon Pike. He was good in the simulator, but not as good as Kara."
"Then you've got to trust that if she's that good, she will get the trophy. Perhaps this Jessups grades everyone severely."
"Maybe he does," John said sadly.
She put the speech she was working on aside, got up and went to sit beside him on the couch.
"Do you even remember her name, the Raptor pilot that Jessups was in love with?" She asked softly.
"Sabrina Baxter. Her call sign was Tiger. I remember all of them, every single one I had a relationship with. I know you probably think I made a lot of conquests during those days, but…the truth is that a lot of those times I was the one being used. Men aren't the only ones who use sex to handle the stress of putting your life on the line."
"And yet many of them chose you? Have you never stopped to wonder why?"
He snorted softly. "I was too busy thanking the gods for my good fortune."
Laura smiled. "John, you have a great deal to offer a woman when it comes to sharing a bunk or sharing the shower. I'm very sure your level of expertise in helping another pilot handle her stress was equaled only by your skills in the cockpit."
Her remark finally brought a smile from him. He gave her a sideways glance as he turned up his drink. "Why, thank you, Laura. I never had a woman tell me I'm a good lay exactly like that."
"What happened to Sabrina Baxter?"
She transferred off the Solaria not long after Jessups tried to punch my lights out. He followed her. Then I got in trouble over the two Raptor pilots and that incident in the shower. Chuck Winters made it clear he wasn't going to tolerate any more of my shenanigans. I wanted to keep flying so I slowed down."
"You slowed your love life from Mach 2 to Mach 1?" She asked teasingly.
"That was a long time ago, Laura. It's all in the past. I have another life now. I wouldn't go back to the old one for anything. It's you I want. It's you I love."
She pulled him down to her and kissed him, just a soft touch of their lips at first and then it deepened. No matter how many other women there had been for him, Laura knew he was telling the truth. They belonged to his past. She was the one he made love to now. She was the one he loved.
…
Late the next afternoon Kara stood outside the instructor's ready room. The door between the student's ready room and the instructor's ready room was rarely closed, but even so, there was an invisible line across the threshold that no student dared cross without a clear invitation. Even she was not bold enough to break that unwritten rule.
She had already stood at attention for nearly ten minutes. She knew the instructors inside were all aware she was standing there, but no one was in a hurry to acknowledge her. It was how things worked. She was the one who had come calling. It was like waiting for an audience with a king. She watched the clock on the wall tick off the minutes…eleven…twelve. Wever, the screamer, got up and poured a cup of coffee from the pot sitting on the table near the door. He finally glanced at her.
"Can I help you, lieutenant?"
Kara considered twelve minutes a big victory. She had heard of one student who had stood outside that door for forty-six minutes waiting to be acknowledged.
"I need to speak with Captain Jessups, sir," she said in her most respectful voice.
"Let me see if he's here."
Jessups was clearly there, sitting in a comfortable chair near the far wall, but Kara knew he could refuse to see her. Wever walked over and said something to him. Jessups glanced up at her. For a minute she thought he was going to tell Wever to send her away, but he finally got up from his chair and ambled to the door.
"Let's walk," he said.
Silently she followed him outside. He put on his sunglasses and they started down the sidewalk.
"Well, Lieutenant Thrace?"
Kara took a deep breath. "I'd like to apologize, sir, for questioning the score you gave me on the check ride."
"You think you deserved better?"
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
"My turns were good. They were too tight, but they were good." He didn't say anything and she hurried on. "My landing was good, too. I know I didn't put it on the runway soon enough, but it was still good."
"On your landing you came in too fast and too high. If I'd asked you to make a combat landing, you'd have gotten a good score. But we aren't doing combat landings yet. I wanted to see a normal landing. I didn't get it."
"And the turns, sir?"
"If we were up there in a dogfight, your turns would have been acceptable, even commendable, but we weren't in a dogfight. You didn't follow the assigned maneuvers. You didn't follow instructions. I don't have a lot of patience with a student who can't follow the assignment or my directions."
Kara took a deep breath. "Then my score didn't have anything to do with my father?"
Jessups made a short sound that could have passed for a laugh. "You've got a cocky attitude just like he had. That's all I meant by my remark. I'm not faulting you for that. A lot of fighter pilots have cocky attitudes."
Kara didn't say anything. She remembered the pain in her father's eyes when she had walked out of the apartment the day before. She had hurt him badly for nothing, for something that had been her own fault.
"Tell me, Lieutenant Thrace. Do you think your score was lower than anyone else's who has done a check ride with me?"
"I don't know, sir."
"No one else has gotten above 70. Most have gotten less. Learn to fly the maneuvers as they're laid out. Keep your instructors happy. You've got a lot of potential. You're going to be a good Viper pilot just like your father was."
"Thank you, sir."
Jessups turned to go and then turned back around. He took a business card out of his pocket and scribbled something on the back before he handed it to her.
"My mobile number. I know your father is a busy man, but tell him to call me in a couple of months after you get out of Flight School. I wouldn't want anyone to think there was favoritism involved because your old man knows one of your instructors. I understand you had to deal with that misperception at the Academy."
Kara took the card and slipped it into her pocket. "Yes, sir. I did. I'll give him your card."
"Maybe your dad and I can get together and have a beer. I'd like to see him again. There's not many of us left who served on the Solaria during the First War. We can drink a round to fallen comrades."
"Yes, sir. I'll tell him."
As Kara slowly walked to the subway station, she was thinking about the past, about how some people remembered the past with bitterness and held on to grudges while others chose to forgive the slights and move on the way Buzz Jessups had done, as her father and Dreilide had finally done. Some remembered the past exactly the way it had happened, the memories clear and precise and unchanged by time. Some would think of the refugee camp and forever remember the mud and the inhumanity. And some would chose to temper their memories, to honor their pain as Kara hoped that one day she would be able to do with a fountain and brightly blooming flowers and names carved into a memorial wall.
One day soon she would go back with her father and stand at that wall and share a piece of her past with him.