Chapter 76 EVA
Starbuck climbed up the Raptor's ramp, and ducked into the dim interior. As the only other person on the scheduled flight, she took the co-pilot's spot with a small nod of greeting to the woman already seated at the pilot's station. Busy running the pre-flight checklist, Athena flashed her a distracted smile. After ticking off the last item, the darker pilot swiveled her head to the blonde settling in beside her.
"Good to have you aboard, Starbuck," she said, her welcome tentative, probably not sure what kind of reception to expect after their shared experience in the gym the night before.
"Athena," Kara neutrally acknowledged as she secured her straps in preparation for launch. Though SOP required the pilot and co-pilot to be fully suited, on milk runs between ships it was often disregarded, but Kara donned her helmet anyways, a tact statement that she didn't want to get into a heart-to-heart with the other woman. They'd be able to talk via the comm, but they'd be monitored by Galactica the entire time.
From her peripheral vision, she saw Sharon give a shrug and latch her own helmet in place. Then Athena cleared them for departure and nudged their ship away from Galactica's busy launch bay and aimed the Raptor's blunt nose toward their destination.
As the short trip to Colonial One passed in silence except for Athena's comm chatter with Colonial One's flight command, Kara reflected on the dinner she'd just finished with the Admiral. After last night…after her freak out with Tigh…she'd been withdrawn throughout the meal, sneaking peaks at Adama as he determinedly ignored the fact that he was carrying the entire conversation.
Her thoughts kept ricocheting between the memories that had returned to her and the Old Man's likely reactions when he found out. And she was sure he would. He'd promised no more secrets, and Laura wasn't going to let her keep this one from him. Kara swallowed and turned her gaze towards the dark expanse out the window, wishing that she could just take control of the Raptor and leave it all behind.
Approaching the President's ship, Kara saw a civilian shuttle nip in ahead of theirs. Whatever frakker was piloting the other craft obviously didn't know proper docking protocol, landing too near the entrance and forcing Athena to engage reverse thrust to keep them from plowing into the rear of the other vessel in the tight quarters.
As a result, Athena touched her craft down with a sharp jolt that rattled Kara's teeth and reminded her of how Boomer had earned her callsign. She was about to make a caustic comment about the jouncing, when she felt a slight shudder and heard a sound that did not belong on their bird!
"FRAK!" both women said in unison as Athena kicked up the Raptor's engines, sending the shuttle streaking back into space and away from the civilian ship.
"Galactica, Athena. I'm declaring an emergency. Requesting SARs launch with explosives team onboard," Athena stated in a calm, clipped voice as she swung away from the President's ship and put distance between them and other nearby vessels even as Kara released her straps and flung herself into the passenger section.
"Going EVA," Starbuck called out as she grabbed a tether line from the storage unit and snapped the hook onto her suit ring and the other to another ring by the Raptor's door.
"Athena, Galactica Actual. State your sitrep, Lieutenant," the Admiral commanded, his gravelly voice echoing across their suit comms. Both women briefly ignored their commander as they each concentrated on their own task.
"Pop the hatch, Athena. I'm good to go," Starbuck's order come over the pilot's headset, sounding distant even though she was just feet away.
"Hatch up. Careful, Starbuck," Athena warned. "And for fraks sake, if you find something, don't poke at it, Ok," she added, her teasing words belied by the tension in her tone.
"Got it. No poking without prior permission," came back the cocky answer as Starbuck cautiously propelled herself through the open hatch into the blackness beyond.
Pulling herself along the Raptor's wing, Kara heard Sharon explaining their situation over the comm, "Galactica, Athena. Starbuck's gone EVA to investigate an…unusual sound and vibration that we detected on landing on Colonial One, Sir." Distantly, Kara heard worry creep into Sharon's voice now, "What's the status on that SAR bird, Admiral?"
"SAR's ETA at four minutes, Athena. Keep me appraised of situation," the Admiral said.
"Acknowledged, Sir."
"Starbuck, talk to me," Athena called to her.
By this point, Starbuck had swung herself upside down to get a look under the ship.
"Undercarriage appears nominal. No damage. No leaks. No uninvited guests. If you'd be so kind to keep your finger off the thruster, I'll swing aft," she replied and hand-walked with incautious speed towards the engines.
Time slowed for Starbuck as she squinted through her helmet at the blinking red light that didn't belong wedged between the mount assembly and thruster ring. She counted…one…two…three beats before the light's meaning dawned on her. Instinctively drawing back, she started to drift away from the Raptor and it's dangerous hitchhiker. Starbuck stretched her gloved hand forward…reaching with precise care towards the tether line. Closing trembling fingers around the thumb-sized cable, she flexed her arm to drag her floating form closer to the spacecraft's tail section.
Starbuck's focus narrowed to the rectangular object embedded like a tick into the ship. Glistening sweat beaded her brow and a twitch in her cheek kept time with the metronome rhythm of the signal. She tasted bile in the back of her constricted throat as her stomach twisted.
Wetting dry lips, Kara inhaled the stale air of her suit and triggered her comm. "Ok, good news, were still alive," she said, "Bad news, that could change any second now. Found a ticking pest in the thruster mounting. The pretty flashing lights are making me nervous. I say we bail now and let the boom boys have a look, Athena."
As Starbuck's words struck at her, Sharon was momentarily frozen. They'd raced away from Colonial One because SOP said to put distance between them and other vessels if the possibility of an explosion existed, but…she hadn't really expected that to be a likelihood, let alone a certainty as Starbuck was suggesting.
"Galactica Actual here, copy you Starbuck," the Admiral said. "Evac now. Say again, evac right now! SARs will pick you up," his voice cut into Athena's paralysis, spurring her hands to slap at the release tabs, and she pulled her way towards the open back hatch. Even as Athena thrust her feet against the hatch's lip to give her momentum, she saw Starbuck unhooking from her tether. Athena was slightly ahead as they both propelled themselves away from the Raptor and its explosive passenger, each desperate to put distance from them and the ship, not wanting to be in the vicinity if the bomb blew.
With her back to the Raptor, Starbuck didn't see the explosion that tore the ship apart behind them, but she had the impression of light and saw debris streaming past her.
As a piece the size and shape of a tube of toothpaste tore into Athena's back, time slowed again. Kara saw the metal rake a trail diagonally across the shoulder blade of the other woman and lodge into her clavicle at an angle.
The wound itself wasn't likely life threatening, but the gaping tear in her suit meant that Athena's air was gusting out even as the deathly cold of space stole in. Knowing that she only had seconds to act, Starbuck stretched out towards the figure. She was nearly within reach. If she could just snag her cuff…Got it!
As Kara pulled Sharon's limp form towards her, she realized that the shard was protruding a good inch outward. Frak, this is gonna hurt! she grimly thought as she pulled Athena's shoulder against her own front, intending to 'patch' the other woman's suit with her own body. Kara gasped as she felt the sharp fragment slice through her own flight suit and into her side. Breathing suddenly became much harder as each inhale sent fiery pain lancing outward from her punctured side.
Through her rasping breathes, Starbuck realized someone was calling hers and Athena's names, demanding to know their condition. Fighting against her dimming vision, she tried to get enough air to answer the Admiral.
"Star…buck, here," was all she managed before a cough racked her, driving out what little air she'd had, along with her ability to speak. She didn't even try again, just held the unconscious woman firmly against her and silently cursed the SARs team for taking so frakkin' long.
Fighting grimly against the encroaching blackness that threatened to move from the space around her and into her head, Starbuck clung to the smaller form in her arms. She knew that if she released her grip on Athena now, both of them would die before they could be rescued.
As the bright searchlight of the SARs Raptor pinpointed the pair from their transponder locators, Kara shut her stinging eyes against the sudden glare, knowing that she'd be able to let go in just a few more minutes. Just a little longer now…
Arms carefully pulled them in through the Raptor's hatch, sealing it once they were safely ensconced within. As internal environment was restored, the medics eased the two women to the floor and tried to separate them.
"Captain Thrace, we've got her. You can let go now," the senior medic, Paul Jacobs, said as he tried to pry the larger woman's arms lose from about the smaller one. When they finally managed to unclasp Starbuck, they rolled her onto her back and were shocked to see the blood and torn suits, both on Starbuck's torso and Athena's shoulder.
"What the frak?" the younger man said, staring from the fragment sticking out of one woman's shoulder to the open wound on the other woman.
"Stop staring, Thomas, and hand me the kit," ordered Jacobs as he knelt beside Kara and gently eased the blonde head from the helmet. He promptly heard her pained gasping and glanced again at the wound in her side. "Hell, she's punctured a lung," he muttered, swiftly unfastening the flight suit, then grabbing the chest tube pack and peeling it open. Working quickly, Jacobs slapped a sealant bandage over the sucking wound, then jabbed a needle into Kara's exposed side and drew back on the syringe. As he suctioned out the air, Jacobs could hear her breathing ease significantly as her collapsed lung refilled. Setting the syringe aside, he shifted his attention to their other patient.
Thomas had already removed the darker woman's headgear, and on examining Athena's back, Jacobs decided to leave the her treatment to Doc Cottle. The fragment would have to be surgically removed, but at the moment there was only minimal bleeding. A carefully applied bandage would suffice for now. He was concerned about the frostbite surrounding the wound, the skin obviously having been exposed to space when her suit had torn. Glancing again at Starbuck's wound, on noting that no frostbite was evident, Jacobs eyes widened slightly as he discerned what had happened and why.
"Frakkin' crazy," he muttered to himself, admiration coloring his thoughts as he proceeded with his triage workup on the two women as the Raptor rushed them back to Galactica.