Chapter 71
Letters and Videos
In the second of a series of interviews conducted by reporter D'Anna Biers with Aaron Doral, he claimed that pilots who were training on the battlestars spent as much time watching videos as they did actually flying. Admiral William Adama finally responded to Doral's claims by stating that pilots were being adequately trained and that he accepted full responsibility for their level of preparedness.
-Bartell, History of the Second Cylon War
.
Lee was four minutes past his last reserve of oxygen when the dark mass of land suddenly loomed on the monitor. He didn't see the airport, but thirty seconds later he saw a small clearing. He was dizzy and his landing wasn't graceful, but he managed to get the ship down using mostly his vertical thrusters. He spun the crank, unsealed the hatch and pushed.
Damp, ozone-scented air had never smelled so good to him. He lay with his face against the opening and took breath after breath until his heart stopped pounding, thinking only about the fact that he had made it back and that he was alive. It wasn't until he tried to contact Kevin, though, that he realized the one thing that hadn't come back up after the lightning strike was his communicator. Lee tried everything he could think of to establish communications without any luck. His headset was dead, the small electronics fried. He had no way to contact Kevin to let him know that he was safe. Lee shut down the computer system to conserve power and fuel. There was nothing to do now but to wait out the storm. He wasn't sure where he was on the island, but he was definitely going to be there until the next morning.
The storm blew itself out close to midnight. Using his small penlight, Lee checked the time when the rain finally stopped falling. He had only a small canteen of water and one cereal bar, but it was better than nothing. He lay in the velvety dark in the belly of the Raider and thought of Kara. He wondered what she was doing on the Galactica. He wondered what his father was doing. He wondered what Kevin and Lou were doing. He was sure they had notified the admiral by now that he hadn't returned, but there was no way that Lee could take off in the darkness. He would have to wait for daylight and fly low, following the coastline until he found the hangar.
Finally Lee rolled over on his back and shut his eyes. He didn't think he would be able to sleep on the semi-hard floor of the Raider, but he did. The tension and adrenalin of the day had finally leached from his system. He was drained, and exhaustion claimed him. He was thinking of Kara when he fell asleep.
He was awakened a few hours later by the raucous cry of a sea bird. There was gray light coming around the partially open hatch. He was thirsty and hungry but he forced himself to wait for half an hour before he booted the ship's computers. It wouldn't fly with the hatch open so he reluctantly closed it. He calculated that he would have about ten minutes before he would have to set down and open the hatch to replenish the oxygen in the interior.
He had to put Sadie down once before he found the hangar. John's ship was sitting on the tarmac beside it. Carefully Lee brought Sadie down on the runway. He opened the hatch and almost tumbled through it, his muscles stiff and sore with fatigue and not being able to move much for over twelve hours.
The last thing he expected to see was his father or to get the kind of reception he got. Bill Adama put his arms around Lee and didn't seem to want to let go.
"I'm okay," Lee finally said. "I'm fine."
"Thank the gods," Bill said as he wiped his eyes.
Lee looked at his father. It was obvious that he hadn't slept. John was standing in the hangar doorway with Kevin and Lou. Lee realized that none of them had slept. Lee walked over to John and the two friends embraced.
John tried to speak once, couldn't, and tried again. "So, you must have found some nice romantic place to spend the night with Sadie."
Lee glanced toward the ship. "We were down the coast about fifty miles. It was close last night, but I'm fine. I made it back."
John managed to grin. "Just think of the story you'll be able to tell yours and Kara's kids one day."
Bill had been on the satellite phone and now walked over to them. "We've got coffee in the hangar."
"How about something to eat?"
"We got that, too."
Lou had already driven the tow out and hooked Sadie to it. He pulled it back into the hangar as Lee was drinking a cup of coffee and eating a peanut butter sandwich.
"I'm glad you brought my girlfriend back," Kevin Abinell joked to Lee when Sadie was safely inside.
Lee swallowed the last of the sandwich. "I think Sadie took a direct lightning hit. The communicator got fried, but your backup systems saved my life." He shook Kevin's hand again.
Kevin nodded modestly.
Bill was on the satellite phone a second time.
"He's calling off search and rescue," John said.
"If I'd gone down in Sadie, there wouldn't have been any rescue involved."
His father walked over and put his hand on Lee's shoulder. "Good job, son. I'm proud of you."
On their way back to Caprica City, Lee sat behind his father who was in the copilot's seat and leaned his head against the window. He wanted the sunlight on his face. He'd come close to death for a third time and had cheated it once more.
He would sleep in his own bed tonight. He would call Kara and tell her, tell her that he had finally used his wish and her falling star had gotten him safely home.
...
Kara lay in her bunk on the Galactica with three letters that had arrived that afternoon on the mail transport, one from Maya, one from her father and one from Lee. She opened her father's letter first. A picture of John holding Braedon was tucked inside. Braedon had the big happy smile on his face that Kara loved. Her father was smiling, too. She realized seeing them side by side how much Brae looked like him.
The inside of her locker door was beginning to look like a photograph album. She began reading.
Kara,
Maya took this picture and insisted I send it to you. Now that Sam is practicing for the new pyramid season, she has way too much time on her hands even though she's taking a class. That's really a joke because she's taking care of Braedon much more now that Laura's campaign is in its final six weeks and I'm back at the Academy. Maya said to tell you that she's going to write to you again soon and that she's looking forward to seeing you when you get your first leave although she understands it will be during election week. I've given up on getting Brae to say 'Kara' so you may always be 'Kawa' to him. He says it now as soon as I show him your picture. I don't even have to ask him who you are.
Laura sends her love. She's at her campaign headquarters every day after work when she isn't making a speech somewhere. I'm with her a lot of evenings and almost everywhere she goes on the weekends. I don't have to tell you how glad I'll be when the election is over although that will be the start of a whole new phase of our lives.
We met Lee and Bill for dinner on Friday night at Channing's. Lee told us a bit about his camping trip. It sounds like it was a real adventure. I'm sure he'll go into much more detail when he sees you again. He's coming over one night this week to show me some of the pictures he took.
I can't tell you how much I miss you, but I know you're doing well. A battlestar is an experience that all Viper pilots should have. Be careful, work hard, and have fun with your friends.
I love you. Dad
PS. Watch that smart mouth.
Kara read the letter again and looked at the photograph. She missed her father and Braedon so much. She opened Maya's letter next.
Hi Kara,
I hope you like the picture I took of your dad and Brae. He is so cute now that he is walking. (Brae, not your dad.) John has put the picture of you holding your Top Gun Trophy on one of the bookshelves in the den and when I walk by with Brae, he points at it and says, Kawa. John is trying to get him to say Top Gun, but that is still too much for him. He is such a sweet, happy child. Of course since he started walking, he gets into everything that is not tied down so we have to really watch him now. Brae is a very curious little boy and I often wonder what is going on behind those beautiful green eyes. Sometimes they look so wise and knowing. Taking care of Brae and watching your dad with him is a big joy in my life. Your father loves him so much. It makes me think of Peter and our own little Hanna and the way he loved her.
Your father's pictures in 'The Caprican Gentleman' are very good. He said Colonel Burgher had asked him if he was going to give up teaching the simulator in order to become a model. Your dad wouldn't let anyone but the Colonel joke with him like that.
I know you've probably wondered about me and Sam. In answer to your question about where the relationship has gone, I'll tell you more when I see you, but I finally took the plunge. I hope I haven't made a mistake.
I talked to Lee for about thirty minutes one afternoon when he dropped by to see your dad and John wasn't home from the Academy yet. I let him chase Brae around for a few minutes and he said he wouldn't need a workout that night. We had a good laugh over that and I think he has a new respect for what's involved in taking care of an active little boy. Lee is such a nice guy and he loves you so much. I'm sure you'll have children of your own one day and I know Lee will be as good a father as John.
Take care on your battlestar and I look forward to seeing you in November when Laura is elected our next President. Maya
Smiling at how upbeat and happy Maya's letter seemed Kara read it again. So Maya had taken the big step with Sam. He had better treat Maya right. Maya was probably the sweetest and gentlest person Kara knew. She deserved a man who would treat her right.
Having saved the best for last, she finally took out Lee's letter.
Dear Kara,
Five weeks down, seven to go. We're over a third of the way there. Every morning I cross off a day on my calendar and know I'm another day closer to seeing you.
As you know I returned safely from my camping trip. Kevin and Sadie are home, too. I took Kev to dinner one night this week at L'Escargot since you don't have to dress up to eat there like you do at Bonnie Patrice, but the food is just as good. I joked with him that he was more worried about Sadie than he was about me, but he has her back in Caprica City now so he's happy. I owe him a lot. One day I'll tell you how much.
My dad and I looked at the pictures I took on my camping trip. He thinks I got some good ones. I found an old settlement while I was exploring that has some inhabitants now, but John was right about a new settlement many miles from the old one. That's an interesting development that my dad didn't think would turn out to be true. I think he wants to study the photographs some more. We can talk when I see you since they speak volumes about a place no one has visited in a lot of years. I'm sure we'll go there together some day. It's changed a lot since Irina went camping there over sixty years ago.
I haven't heard from my friend from Sovana since he left that night, but this week I checked his blog and he is writing again. He called this latest entry A Day in the Life of a Cave Dog's Friend. It is sad and yet there's a glimmer of humor in it. I wonder how a kid like him has stayed even partially sane with everything he's been through since Sovana was bombed. He was twelve when he was taken to that refugee camp outside the city. I wish he would let me help him, but at the moment he chooses to live his own life without asking anyone for anything. Maybe one day…
Cavil keeps reminding everyone that the skinjobs are now citizens of Caprica with all the same rights and privileges we have and that they will be voting in the election. We were talking at dinner Friday night and my dad, Laura and John all believe that Cavil's rhetoric is more for show and psychological impact. He wants to keep reminding us that the election is being held only because the Cylons, namely him, are allowing it. Laura is almost certainly going to win so I'm sure Cavil thinks he will make her life hell on a daily basis starting in January.
Enough about politics and Cylons. I'm keeping busy. I've been working out a lot just like I did while you were on restriction. Maya said she was going to write to you about my lame attempts to keep up with Braedon last week one afternoon while I was waiting to see John. I'm still trying to figure out how such little legs can move so fast. That was my workout for the day. Maya tried to get him to say my name but it sounded more like Yee. He is a cute and happy little boy.
I know you said in your last letter that the G's Viper Top Gun is a stim junkie and is giving you grief, but I know you can handle it. You're tough. Just bide your time and don't let her rattle you. You'll have her title and her mug one day. I know you will.
I miss you and I love you and I can't wait to see you again. Lee
Kara reread the 2-page letter several times. Lee was going to run out of stationery first. He wrote longer letters.
She knew something had happened on the mission to Nereid although he had referred to it as his camping trip. She and Lee had talked ship-to-shore once since his return and she could tell more by what he had not said to her than by what he had said. Something had gone wrong during part of the mission, of that much she was certain, but he had made it home. He was safe now and that's what mattered to her. She understood why he couldn't tell her the details over a ship-to-shore call.
Kat entered their quarters.
"Oh, look. Starbuck got another love letter. Three of them. What's your boyfriend find to say in all those letters?"
"One is from a friend and the other one is from my father," Kara said and almost immediately wished she had kept her mouth shut.
"Would that be the Caprican Gentleman?" Kat asked sarcastically.
Two days earlier someone had put a copy of the magazine on her bunk. She'd asked, but no one in their quarters would own up to it.
Kara had to admit that her father looked good on the cover. He was wearing a dark gray suit, pin-stripe shirt and dark blue-green tie. She saw what he had meant about the photographer's assistant messing with his hair. It had a tendency to stick up a little bit anyway, but she had messed it up even more. He looked…dare she even admit it about her own father lest she seem like she was bragging, but he looked really handsome. Seelix had seen the magazine before Kara had put it up. She had expressed it differently. She had told Kara that her dad looked totally hot. It had been more than Kara could take. She had made a face and said, "Pu-leeeze," which had elicited a snicker from Seelix. Diana was right, though. Her father made that suit look good, not the other way around.
Immediately after that, the magazine had gone on the top shelf of her locker. She planned to read the interview when no one else was around, but she hadn't gotten the opportunity yet.
"Hey, Hot Stuff," Kat said, "You going to be on the cover of some fashion magazine next month? Those tanks and fatigues are so in style. So are the boots."
"You're just bent out of shape because nobody writes you letters," Kara retorted. "Hey, Hot Dog. I'll give you five cubits if you'll write Kat a letter. Make it real mushy. Sign it Your Secret Admirer."
Hot Dog started laughing. "Deal. Give me the five cubits and Kat will get a letter."
"Frak you both." Kat said as she grabbed her towel and soap and headed for the shower.
Kara folded Lee's letter and put all three in a box she kept in the big drawer under her bunk before she grabbed a hooded sweatshirt out of her locker and pulled it over her tanks.
"I'm going down to the rec room," she said to Hot Dog.
"Okay."
She was almost to the door when she turned around and walked over to his bunk. He glanced up from the magazine he was looking at.
"Don't you ever look at anything but those sports magazines?"
He grinned. "I've got a few others I look at. You want to borrow them?"
Kara realized she didn't want to go there. "So what's Kat's problem with me?"
"You've got everything she doesn't…starting with a boyfriend who isn't a scumbag. Her boyfriend is in prison on Caprica. So's her father."
"What for?"
Hot Dog snickered. "What else? Dealing drugs."
Kara said, "I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. One of these days I'm going to have her Top Gun mug, too."
He lowered the magazine. "I think that's part of her problem with you. We all know it, too."
Kara left Hot Dog to his magazine and walked down to the officer's rec room. A lively game of triad was under way. She walked up behind Alex Quartararo and Dwight Saunders and put her hands on the top of their shoulders.
"Hi guys."
"Starbuck," Flat Top said. "Pull up a chair. We'll make room."
"I'm just going to watch for a few minutes. Maybe I'll join the game later."
"No coaching them," Narcho said. "I'm winning right now."
She smiled. "And give away my secrets? No way."
Kara got a beer from the bar and went to sit with Karl who was sitting at a table by himself.
"Where's Sharon?"
"Writing a letter."
"To Uncle Joe?"
"Yeah, she's going to show it to you before she mails it."
"How's it working out for you two being on a battlestar?"
Karl shrugged and grinned. "We're managing."
Kara rolled her eyes. "You are so lucky."
"It's not all that easy, especially since we're not in the same quarters. Just wait until you and Lee are on a battlestar together. You'll see."
"I guess nothing beats the privacy of your own apartment, huh?"
"I don't want to start thinking about it."
Kat walked in and went behind the bar. She took a beer and poured it into the Top Gun mug.
Kara said to Karl. "One of these days that mug is going to be mine."
"Is she still using stims?"
"Yeah. I tried to talk to her a couple of days ago. She won't even admit she's using, much less that she has a problem."
"Maybe she only takes them before she flies."
"What difference does that make? She shouldn't be taking them at all. It's not like we're under any real pressure here. Our training exercises are so easy Braedon could fly them."
Kat came over, sat at their table and put her feet on a vacant chair. She made a point of drinking from the mug. "This isn't a private conversation is it, nuggets?"
"Not anymore," Kara said.
"Where's Athena?"
"She's writing a letter to her uncle," Karl said.
"Writing a letter?" Kat snickered. "This is the most letter-writing and letter-getting bunch of nuggets I ever seen."
Kara looked at Karl. "I think it's about time for me to join the triad game. The guys are waiting for me to take their cubits."
"Don't stay up too late playing cards," Kat said sarcastically. "We get to play war games again tomorrow while the Cylons watch."
"War games," Kara snorted. "Karl and I played harder stuff at the video arcade when we were kids."
"Kids," Kat said. "You two knew each other before?"
"Since we were kids," Karl said.
"Helo is like my brother."
"Well, ain't we just one big happy family?"
"I'm out of here," Kara said. She got up and joined the guys at the triad table. Flat Top slid his chair over and pulled one up for her.
"Deal me in, boys. I hope you're ready to give me your cubits because I feel lucky tonight."
Narcho smiled. "We might as well quit now. When Starbuck feels lucky, everybody else will go home broke."
"I don't know about that," Pike said. "I'm up for the challenge."
Kara reached for the hand that Quartararo had just dealt her. "Don't say you weren't warned."
"Ouch," Flat Top said. "My luck has changed already."
"Told you," Narcho said.
...
The next morning Kara stayed behind after they had their briefing in the ready room. Her luck had been good at the triad table the night before. She hoped it held for what she was getting ready to do. When everyone else had left, she approached the CAG.
"What's up, Starbuck?" He asked.
"Um, I was wondering, sir, if we couldn't ramp up the training exercises."
Cole Taylor looked amused. "Ramp them up? How?"
"Most of us can fly the stuff we're doing with our eyes shut. I mean could we make the training exercises harder?"
"What we're flying has been approved by the Cylons."
"We did harder stuff in Flight School. The Cylons approved those."
"Tell me what you have in mind?"
"Tougher patterns. Not just flying straight out and around in a circle and then straight back in. Maybe two Vipers could practice squaring off with each other."
"We can't do is anything that looks like combat. The Cylons would never allow it. What they'll allow for Flight School nuggets on Caprica and what they'll allow off a battlestar are two different things."
Kara took a deep breath. "What do you know about my father, sir?"
"He's the Viper sim instructor at the Academy."
"He also flew a Viper off the Solaria in the First War. He taught us a lot of combat maneuvers in the simulator. The only ones who got the benefit of it were the Viper nuggets in my class. There's only eight of us on board. The rest of the Viper pilots on the G have never seen that stuff."
"What are you suggesting, Starbuck?"
"If I could get him to send me the combat sims, then we could show them in here like videos. I know it wouldn't be like flying them, but at least the rest of the pilots could see them and see some of the moves those Raiders make in combat. My dad put those sims together from hours of film footage taken from Viper gun cameras in both wars. Maybe he could send us that footage, too."
"That's a good suggestion. I like it."
"If you want an idea of what some of the sims are like, ask Narcho. He flew all of them. So did Pike."
Cole Taylor smiled. "I'll take your word for it, Starbuck. Let me run this by Colonel Tigh and Commander Cain. How long do you think it would take to get the sim videos here?"
"Maybe two weeks. I'll have to write my dad and he'll have to get them together on some discs."
"All right. In the meantime, don't mention this to any of the other pilots in case Cain won't go for it."
"Sir," Kara hesitated. "One thing you need to be aware of. Colonel Tigh doesn't like my father…or me either, so he might not be too much in favor of my idea."
"The commander will make the final decision. Tigh will have to go along. Pilot training is my responsibility."
Kara smiled. "Yes, sir. Thank you for listening to me, sir."
Kara turned to go and Taylor said, "Is there a reason you think we should know advanced combat maneuvers?"
She realized that she was on thin ice. She couldn't mention anything that might give away the coming battle.
"I thought it might help keep everybody awake out there when we're practicing if they could…visualize something other than simple training exercises. They're good as far as they go, but honestly, sir, they're boring. They're beyond boring."
He looked at her for a moment and Kara knew that he saw through her flimsy explanation.
"I understand you date Admiral Adama's son."
"Yes, sir."
She thought he was going to push her for another explanation, but all he said was, "I'll get back to you."
That afternoon as she was jogging through one of the lower corridors of the ship, she again heard her name come over the ship's intercom. This time she was told to report to Commander Cain's quarters. She wanted to shower, but she knew better than to keep the commander waiting. She didn't have to ask this time. She knew exactly where the commander's quarters were. Everyone did.
"Come in Lieutenant Thrace," Helena Cain said.
Kara stepped through the door and came to attention.
"At ease," Cain said. "Please close the door."
Kara complied and glanced down at her sweats. "I was jogging, sir."
"I understand that you think our pilots need some more training."
Kara was surprised. The CAG hadn't wasted any time. "Some combat training, sir."
"I take it that due to…family connections, you are aware of something that is coming at some point in the future?"
Kara knew that all of Admiral Adama's battlestar commanders were aware a battle was coming. They just didn't know exactly when. Lee had told her that all of them knew they had to keep their battlestars ready. They were all hiding the munitions that were slowly and carefully being sent to the ships in the food supplies.
"Yes, sir," she said to Cain. "I'm aware that the situation we're in won't stay the same forever."
She smiled at the diplomacy of her answer.
"And you don't think my pilots are ready?" Cain asked.
"I think we could always be more ready, sir," Kara said.
Cain went to the wall and picked up the phone. "Get me Admiral Adama's office." While they waited, she said, "Out here we're six hours ahead of Caprica City. The admiral should be in his office. You know what you want, but be careful how you word your request. The Cylons are always listening to our transmission and calls."
They waited.
"Admiral Adama, Cain here." The admiral must have asked because after a few moments she said, "Everything is fine on the Galactica, sir. I have someone with me who wants to make a request of you. It concerns a project she's working on with our CAG. I'm handing the phone to Lieutenant Kara Thrace."
"Hello, Admiral Adama."
"Hello, Kara. What can I do for you and the commander today?"
"I'd like for my dad to make a copy of some of his sims and send them to…Commander Cain."
"Any sims in particular?"
"Some of the more difficult ones from second semester. Tell him anything he's got that's similar to our favorite video game. He'll know which ones I mean. Also if he could send us his home movies."
"I'm making a note. I'll talk to him today. How is everything going for you?"
"Good, sir. How is Lee?"
"Lee is just fine since he got back from…" Adama hesitated.
"His camping trip?"
The admiral chuckled. "Yes, his camping trip."
"I guess I'd better give the phone back to Commander Cain. Tell Lee I said…hello."
"I will, and that you miss him, too. Right?"
Kara smiled. "Yes, sir."
She handed the phone back to the commander. Cain put her hand over the receiver. "That will be all, lieutenant."
Kara left, shutting the door behind her. Cain obviously had something else to say to the admiral.
She jogged back to her quarters, got her towel and went to the shower. Overall she felt good about the day and she was smiling. They were going to get some combat sims to look at. They might not be able to fly them, but they could all look at some of the Cylons' basic combat maneuvers and get familiar with them.
When she opened the bathroom door, she saw Flat Top with a towel wrapped around his hips. He was standing at one of the sinks brushing his teeth. She carefully kept her eyes well above the towel and thought again that he had a good body. Not as good as Lee's, but good nevertheless.
"How many times a day do you do that?" Kara joked as she walked by him.
"What?" He mumbled around the toothbrush.
She made the motion of brushing her teeth.
"A couple. Good oral hygiene is important."
"Maybe because you're going to be locking lips with Seelix?" Kara teased him.
He rinsed his mouth. "What? No."
"I thought you two…had a thing."
He shrugged. "We went out a couple of times at the Academy."
"Sang a few duets at The Shark Rider?"
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?" He asked and grinned.
"No."
He put his toothbrush back in the case and picked up his soap holder. "I'll see you later, Kara. Unless you want me to hang around and give you a hard time about brushing your teeth."
She was still smiling as she went into the shower and pulled off her sweats. She turned on the water and thought of Lee, of what they could do if he were with her right now. No, not of what they could do, of what they would do. She sighed. Five weeks down. Seven weeks to go.
...
Lee plugged the small USB drive into the side of John's laptop.
He said, "There were two cameras mounted in the missile well on Sadie. One was taking a broad picture. The other was high resolution close-up. This is an edited version of the images starting with the broad picture. Over half of both videos were snow and ice. Mr. Gaeta's jump coordinates brought me in over the planet's south pole. I didn't think you wanted to look at forty minutes of nothing but a white background with a lot of penguins and polar bears."
The video picked up near the part of Nereid where the vast forest gave way to a cleared area, the western-most part of the plain and then the beginnings of the ancient city. They looked at the ruins.
"That's some new construction," John said and paused the video for a moment.
"A cluster of new buildings near the center part of the city. There's demolition work going on, too. There's more to see on the second video that was taken with the high res, close-up camera."
"I want to get the overall picture first," John said. "How close were the maps I drew based on Irina Hoshi's journals?"
"Very close," Lee answered, "even down to the distance and location of things."
"That lends a lot of credibility to everything else in her journals."
They looked at the river as Lee had followed it to the dam and then had turned Sadie around and had followed it back to the city. Lee had then flown a grid pattern over the city.
"The Cylons destroyed the second dam but they routed the river around the lower part of the city," Lee said.
"What about the temple complex that Irina Hoshi mentioned?"
"It's on much higher ground, in the other direction. See it?"
"Barely."
"There's more on the second video. Look at what's coming up next on that high plateau.
"Buildings," John said.
"I missed them on the first pass. I was too far south."
John paused the video. "Two of them. They really blend into the landscape. No wonder you missed them the first time."
"Nothing over two stories tall. You can see them better on the close-up."
"I wonder if what we're seeing is all there is," John said. "They could have put the majority of the construction underground."
"That's an interesting idea. Too bad Kevin and Rick didn't equip Sadie with ground penetrating dradis. They thought of everything else."
"Maybe they ran out of room. From what I hear Sadie is packed with equipment."
"Yeah," Lee said. "I couldn't even roll completely over. I had to turn over in the same spot. I was on the verge of claustrophobia most of the time."
John let the video continue. Lee's last pass over the city continued into the forest beyond. They watched until Lee jumped Sadie and the video went gray and ended.
"What happened after you jumped?" John asked.
Lee scratched the side of his cheek. "Sadie got hit by lightning. I lost the computers. I thought I was dead. I would have been if Kevin and Rick hadn't built redundancy into everything. When the primary systems went off-line, the backup ones detected it and came on."
"You still had to bring Sadie down through that storm. That was a fancy piece of flying, Lee."
Lee shrugged and then smiled. "It would have been easier if I hadn't been nearly out of oxygen. I shouldn't have made that last pass over the city. I cut it too close."
"Yeah, you cut it too close."
"I can't explain why, but I just felt like I needed to go back over the city one more time. Let's look at the close-up video now. I think you'll be impressed."
John grinned. "With your flying or the video?"
"My flying, of course."
The video started at approximately the same place as the other one, near the city only the camera range was much narrower and the focus closer up. When he got over the city, the inhabitants were visible.
"Centurions," John said. "Hundreds of them. Were there any skinjobs?"
"Simon. You'll see him in a few seconds. There."
John paused the video. "Yeah, that's him. Anybody else?"
"Slow it down and keep going."
"Lords of Kobol!"
"Laura had her nailed as a Cylon a couple of years ago."
"Damn. D'Anna Biers. Darker blond hair, but it's definitely her. I guess that's all the proof we need."
"My dad has already added her to the list of Cylons that will be…dealt with whenever he puts his plan into place."
"Dealt with?"
"Put in prison or whatever."
"Has he ever named his plan?"
"He first thought that he was going to call it Operation Solstice, but he changed his mind because that gave too much away in terms of the time frame. He's calling it Operation Nemesis."
"After the goddess of divine retribution. That's good. I like it. Any more surprises on the video?"
"Keep going. I think you're right about the buildings on the plateau. One of them is a prison because there's a thick concrete fence around it topped with razor wire. You can see a piece of it. As for the other building, I don't know what it is."
" Probably a lab. They'd want it close to their lab rats," John said. "I see more centurions."
"Lots more. That's another reason we think it's a prison."
"Any humans?"
"No. If they're there, they're either not allowed outside or there weren't any outside when I flew over."
They watched the video as it showed Lee's trip back to the city and over the forest beyond. As he approached the mountains, the video ended.
"Wait a minute," John said. "What was that?"
"What was what?" Lee asked.
John backed the video up and played it again in slow motion. Just before it ran out, he paused it. "That." He pointed to a small white line on the video.
"I don't know. What do you think it is?"
"I think it's smoke."
"Smoke? As in smoke from a chimney? A little fairy-tale cottage in the woods?"
"From a campfire."
Lee laughed. "You think the Cylons went camping in the woods a hundred miles from the city?"
"Not the Cylons. I think there are humans down there?"
"Humans?" Lee said incredulously. "You're basing that assumption on a tiny white line on a few frames of video."
"Look at it. That's smoke. What else could it be?"
"A reflection? A defect in the digital process?"
John put the laptop on Lee's lap and stood. "I think it's smoke."
"And I think you're grasping at straws," Lee said although the more he looked at the white line, the more it did look like smoke. It started much lighter and well-defined at the treetops and then seemed to dissipate the way smoke would do.
"Don't you think if there were humans living on Nereid that Irina Hoshi's expedition would have found them sixty-two years ago?" Lee asked.
"Probably. The expedition was on Nereid for a year. The Hyperion was in orbit over the planet, always watching. So that means this campfire was built by escaped prisoners. Is there any way you can enhance those frames?"
"I can't," Lee said, "but maybe somebody like Kevin could. I'll see if my dad will clear it for me to show him just these frames and see what he can do with them. But even if it is smoke, what do you think we can do about it? John, suppose there are humans who escaped from the Cylons living in the woods or in the mountains. What difference does it make?"
"The difference is that they had the guts and determination and maybe the luck to escape from the Cylons."
"Why do you think the Cylons haven't gone after them?"
"Who knows? Maybe hunting them down is more trouble than it's worth. Maybe it's only a few humans and the Cylons have plenty in that prison. I can't really say. I'm not a Cylon."
Lee grinned. "I don't know. You called it right about the prison and lab complex. They built on the plateau, not in the city near the forest."
"That was just common sense."
They heard the door open. Laura walked in.
Lee thought that she looked tired. John walked over to her and took her briefcase. He put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. "Drink?"
"Please," she said and put her head wearily against his shoulder for a moment before she walked over to sit in her chair. She kicked off her shoes and put her feet on the ottoman. "Hello, Lee. What brings you over tonight?"
"I wanted to show John some pictures of my camping trip."
"Anything interesting?"
John poured a straight whiskey and handed it to her before he took the laptop and knelt on one knee beside the chair.
"Give us your opinion. What does that look like?"
She studied the screen. "Treetops?"
"What about this?"
"A grayish-white line that fades to nothing."
John tried again. "If you were flying over a forest and saw something like that, what would you think it was?"
"A column of smoke," Laura said.
Lee conceded. "Okay. I give up. It's two against one. I got a few frames of somebody's campfire smoke."
In the silence that followed his statement, he saw Laura processing the information.
"Someone built a fire in the woods on Nereid?" She asked them. "Cylons?"
"John doesn't think so," Lee said. "He thinks they're escaped prisoners."
Laura looked up from the laptop and her eyes met Lee's. "What does your father think?"
"We didn't notice this little white line before. He doesn't know about it yet."
John said. "Bill has asked me to take this information and add it to my existing maps of the planet's surface. I'm going to have to redraw a few maps, show the destroyed dam and the re-routed river. He won't want to waste a nuke on something that's already been destroyed, and I'm sure he'll want to put one right on top of that prison-lab complex."
"What prison-lab complex?" Laura asked.
John backed the video up. "This one."
Laura studied the laptop for a long time before she looked up at him. "You're sure it's a prison and a lab?"
"We're sure it's a prison," Lee said. "There's a better picture on the other video. You can see the wall with razor wire on top. And the place is crawling with centurions. We're not sure it's also a lab, but that makes sense. There are two buildings. If they're experimenting on prisoners, they'd build close to their…source."
John stood up and went to sit on the couch beside Lee. "We saw a copy of D'Anna Biers with another Simon. You were right about her."
Laura sipped her drink and shut her eyes. "This is one of those times I'd love to be wrong. I actually like D'Anna. She helped us when we were trying to get supplies to the refugee camps. She's been fair to me during the campaign. Even John has admitted her interview with him wasn't that bad."
John glanced at Lee and winked. "She's mellowed a lot since she interviewed us the first time. It could have been worse. It could have been as bad as the ribbing I've taken from some of the faculty members at the Academy since that magazine came out. D'Anna's interview was the best part of the whole experience. Still, she's a Cylon and we already know that not all copies of the same model are alike. Look at Sharon. One copy is Kara's friend and loves Karl Agathon. Another copy of her destroyed the mining colony on Troy and killed an instructor at the Academy."
Laura sighed wearily. "Then how will we ever know if we can trust any of them? I don't want to see our copy of D'Anna killed, but Cavil and Doral are a different matter entirely."
"Agreed, but back to the subject we were talking about. We know Bill's goal is to destroy the Cylons on Nereid," John said.
Laura nodded. "Our goal is to destroy the Cylons…both here and on Nereid."
"Lee, your sensors picked up two basestars, right?"
"Only two?" Laura asked in surprise.
"Only two," Lee answered. "That's not to say today or tomorrow two more might not show up or five more. There were only two above the planet when I was there."
John said, "I wonder if Bill would consider destroying those basestars and then letting us mount a rescue mission to save those prisoners before he nukes the planet. I think we could do that without risking a single battlestar."
Laura took another sip of the drink. "Why do you persist in saying we and us?"
"It's a figure of speech. Just like you said 'our goal is to destroy the Cylons'. What do you think of a rescue mission?"
"Are you asking me or Lee?" Laura said.
"Both of you."
"I'm in favor of it," Lee said.
"I can't answer for Bill," Laura said. "I'd suggest the two of you talk about it."
"You don't have an opinion?"
Laura said slowly and diplomatically. "If we're not putting our battlestars and Caprica at risk, then I won't object to whatever Bill decides. That's a military decision, not a civilian one. My job as President will be to insure that nothing puts this planet at risk. My job is to insure the survival of the human race. Bill knows that."
John said. "Okay, I'll talk to Bill."
Laura smiled. "What do you hear from Kara?"
"My dad talked to her today," Lee said.
"Bill talked to Kara?" Laura asked in surprise.
John said, "Kara wants my combat sims from the Academy to help train the pilots aboard the G. Bill called me after lunch today and said Kara had another one of her outside-of-the-box ideas. I'll have the sims copied to disk and ready to put on Monday's transport. Conrad and I talked. We're going to replace the Raiders with something less obviously Cylon since they sometimes monitor the ready room from that basestar. I'm also sending her what she calls my home movies. The film I compiled from years of gun camera footage."
Lee said, "Kara made enough of an impression on her CAG that he said something to Commander Cain."
John smiled. "I should have known if the thought comes into Kara's head, sooner or later it will come out of her mouth."
"I think it's a great idea," Lee said.
"I'm not arguing with you."
Laura finished her drink and stood. "I'm going to check on my son and then I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Lee."
"I need to be going," Lee said. He also stood. "Goodnight, Laura."
John indicated the small hard drive still plugged into his laptop and asked, "Do you want the video back?"
"It's a copy. Keep it. You'll need it to update your maps. Just keep it somewhere safe."
John nodded and walked with Lee to the door. "I had a short letter from Kara today. You'll probably have one, too, a lot longer one."
"What did she say?"
"The usual. She's fine. She misses us, especially Brae. She gave me some grief about the magazine cover."
Lee grinned. "It was good cover. A far cry from the beat-up pilot I met five years ago."
"Don't you start, too. It's bad enough taking it from Kara and everybody else."
"You'd better get used to being on covers. In November Laura will be elected President."
John finally smiled. "It's a long way from being the son of a humble fisherman on Virgon to sleeping with the President, isn't it?"
...
Lee met his father for lunch the next day. In the two weeks since the Sadie mission, Bill had called him more often for lunch or dinner.
"Lee. How are you?"
"I'm fine. I gave John the video last night so he could start working on the new maps. We watched it. He noticed something we both missed."
Bill sipped his cup of coffee. "What did we miss?"
"It was on the last couple of seconds of the close-up video taken over the forest right before I jumped. A column of smoke."
"Smoke?" Bill sounded amused. "What kind of smoke?"
"John thinks it's from a campfire," Lee rushed on. "Humans that have escaped the prison. They're near enough the mountains that it could be a hunting party."
"John disagrees with what we're going to do to Nereid. I'm not surprised he saw something he calls smoke. Don't tell me he's won you over?"
"Laura agrees about the smoke, too."
"And she's changed her mind about how we handle the Cylons on the planet?"
"She said she would leave the decision up to you since it's a military one, but if you can rescue the prisoners without putting Caprica at risk she has no objection to it."
"I'm not sure we can do that without risking some of our battlestars. I won't do that."
"There's got to be a way, Dad. There're only two basestars over Nereid."
"There were only two when you were there. There could have been four or five more that were away from the planet."
"My long-range sensors didn't pick them up."
"That doesn't mean much. They could be out exploring other solar systems."
"Then you won't reconsider."
"I told all of you that I would delay making a decision until closer to the time. I'm not going to get pushed into saying anything yet."
"But you don't want me or John banking on you making a decision to rescue prisoners?"
"No, Lee, I don't. We've got to protect everyone on Caprica. The humans on this planet are my priority. We're all that's left of humanity!"
"Maybe not."
"What does that mean?"
"What if there are clues on Nereid that point to Kobol. What if Kobol is the birthplace of humanity? What if there are humans still on Kobol, descendents of our common ancestors?"
Bill sat for a few moments without speaking. Finally he said, "Lee, while I appreciate what you're trying to do, I think you need to be aware that the humans on Caprica are my primary concern and always will be. We have no proof that Kobol is anything other than a myth. The humans on Caprica are real. We're all that's left of the Twelve Colonies."
The waiter came to take their lunch order. When he left, Lee said, "John said Kara asked for his Viper sims."
"I know. Commander Cain called me."
"What did she say?"
"Kara is adjusting to life on a battlestar like the rest of the nuggets. There are some rumors about another Viper pilot giving Kara a lot of grief. Verbal grief."
"Kara mentioned it in her last letter. The Viper Top Gun."
"According to Cain, Kara's handling it well."
Lee nodded. "John is getting the sims and other footage ready for Monday's transport."
"Everything we can do to help train our pilots without alerting the Cylons is good."
"Maybe we should send those sims to the other battlestars as well."
"Good idea, Lee."
"The Solstice isn't that far away, a little over two months."
"The excitement from the election will have died down by then, everyone will be getting ready to celebrate the Solstice and then to watch a new President sworn in. Cavil thinks we're creatures of habit. He won't be expecting anything. The element of surprise will be complete."
"I guess that special Raptor will be ready to fly, the one that will take the Raider full of explosives to the basestar?"
"It's flying now. I have a pilot training in it using another Raptor that's been configured exactly like the Raider. It's right under the Cylon's noses and they don't know what we're doing. They think one Raptor pilot is training another. There's a pilot in that second ship, but he's not doing anything. Everything is being controlled completely by the pilot in the first Raptor."
"Do I know the pilot?"
"I doubt it. He would have been on the Atlantia five years ago, but he was back here on Caprica attending his mother's funeral when the Cylons attacked. He's a good Raptor pilot."
"Does he know what kind of mission he'll be performing?"
"I told him it will be extremely dangerous. He volunteered anyway. He lost most of his friends when the Atlantia was destroyed.
"What's the rest of the plan, after the basestar over Caprica is destroyed?"
"On the morning of the Solstice, I'll make a call to each of our battlestar commanders telling them that I'm sorry they'll miss our Solstice party. It's the signal to get everything ready. The minute that basestar above us explodes, we send the second signal. All battlestars will launch half the missiles they've got on board at the basestar nearest them. If the basestars manage to get any Raiders in the air before they're destroyed, our pilots will engage and take them out."
"I'd like to be on the Galactica when that happens."
"I need you here, son. I need some good Viper pilots here on Caprica in case that basestar manages to launch any Raiders before we destroy it. As soon as each basestar is destroyed, the battlestars will bring all Vipers on board and jump here. Before the night is done, they'll all be above Caprica except the three that aren't structurally sound enough to jump. They should be here within a week."
"Then what?"
His father smiled. "Then I hope we can truly celebrate the Solstice and our freedom."
What are you going to do with Cavil and the others?"
"They'll be picked up early that evening before the fireworks start. They're going to a secure prison deep under the city. Their fate will be decided by a tribunal."
"A military tribunal?"
"I'll need to discuss that with the President."
"You're not going to stay on Caprica afterward, are you?"
"For a while. Laura has asked me to stay as her senior military adviser, but I want to go back to a battlestar. The commander of the Pegasus has wanted to retire for several years now. The Peggy is a newer and better equipped ship. I'm going to give her to Commander Cain and go back to the Galactica eventually."
"When you go to the Galactica, I'd like to go with you."
"I can arrange that if that's what you want. I owe you a lot more than that for risking your life getting the information about Nereid."
"I'll do anything that will rid us of Cylon control. Anything."
Bill smiled again. "I don't think you're alone in feeling that way."
...
There was a letter from Kara in Lee's mailbox when he got back to his apartment that evening. It had taken nearly a week to reach him. He opened it in the elevator and had read half of it before he settled on his couch.
Dear Lee,
Another semi-boring day on the G. I won a couple hundred cubits in a triad game last night so I'll probably wait a few days before I take their hard-earned pay again. It's safer that way since Pike's blood pressure goes up just thinking about losing to me and nearly a hundred of those cubits were his. I managed not to gloat too much.
Ask my dad about the whacky idea I had about enhancing our training.
I'm envious of Karl and Sharon. I never thought I'd say that, but they're together so I'm saying it. Karl said their training exercises are boring, too, but I always thought the whole Raptor thing was boring. I know they're necessary, but it's not for me. Give me my Viper even if it means taking grief from the so-called Top Gun. I think the reason she got the title is that everybody was too bored to challenge her or else they didn't want to listen to the trash she talks. She knows I'm on to her now about the stims and I've been dogging her each time we go out. Sooner or later she'll lose her cool and I'll have her. Even my dad describes me as an in-your-face kind of person. If Kat wants to be the Top Gun, she should earn it, not get it because everybody else is too bored or too afraid to challenge her.
I miss you so much. All I think about each night when I'm in my bunk is that I'm one day closer to seeing you again. All my love forever. Kara
Lee read the letter a second time before he leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. He missed Kara and wanted her there with him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and breathe the scent of her skin and hair. He opened his eyes and forced his thoughts away from the painful reality that he was still almost seven weeks away from being able to touch her. Nothing could be gained by torturing himself with memories of what her body felt like against his or thoughts of what they would do the next time they were together.
There were other things to think about tonight, things he had avoided thinking about for weeks, things that the Sadie mission had kept pushed out of his thoughts. The events of the last couple of days swirled in his mind. Even though he understood his father's and Laura's position on Nereid, Lee found himself agreeing with John. The humans on that planet who had survived five years of captivity and the gods only knew what kind of monstrous experiments by the Cylons didn't deserve to have Colonial nukes dropped on them.
Maybe they could destroy those basestars and then rescue the prisoners. Maybe they wouldn't even have to destroy the planet. Maybe they could just destroy the Cylons on it and leave Nereid for further exploration. Maybe the map to Kobol was there. Maybe Kobol was the birthplace of humanity, and maybe Kobol held further clues to another place, a place of myth that some believed was the birthplace of the gods. A place called Earth.
If they destroyed Nereid, they might be destroying the only clue that would point them backward to their origins and perhaps forward to their future. Lee didn't believe in the gods, but he knew that humanity had not originated on Caprica or any of the other twelve Colonies. He knew they had come from somewhere out there, somewhere beyond their own sun, from a past that was now shrouded in mystery and confused by legends and stories pulled together in the scripture books of the one God and the many gods.
In that regard, Lee thought, the Cylons were almost lucky. Despite Cavil's denial of their humble origins as mankind's helpers, the Cylons knew who had created them and where they had come from. Despite their myths and legends, humanity really had no idea where the spark of their lives had begun. Lee was beginning to believe that the first answers to understanding the mystery of their own origins lay on a planet thirty light years away in another solar system and warmed by another sun, a green and beautiful planet that he had seen and now couldn't get out of his mind.