on't you miss him too?" Athena asked gently trying to get
pass the pain
she could now see behind those all too bright eyes.

"No." Boxey crocked out the one word response as a barely
contained sob.

Athena was taken aback by his response.  "Why Boxey?" she
asked as she
leaned over to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him
to close but he
angrily pushed it off and moved farther down the couch the
angry scowl on
his small face would have been comical if the situation
wasn't so serious.
Athena sat there unsure what to do but afraid to push him at
this point.

Just then Sheba entered the youth center and spotted Athena.
"Athena? I
didn't know you were Youth Protector today" she said as she
looked around
the room "I was looking for Cassiopeia."

"She said she had some tests to run in lifecenter so she
asked me to help
out for a few hours today."  Athena got up and walked over
to where Sheba
stood by the door.  "Rigel's in the video room with most of
the kids."

"Oh, I was hoppChange of Command
by Alice Baltes - Quist

Omega jumped as the lights dimmed and the red alert sounded.
Instinctively
he sprang up and bolted for the door.  As he entered the
corridor he was
slammed against the wall as it shuddered and the decking
bucked beneath him.
The pressure doors at each end of the corridor were already
closing.  He
raced forward but with the sound of re-pressurizing the door
sealed itself
shut.  Somewhere on the Galactica the hull had been breached
and an air seal
had broken.

Omega starred numbly at the closed door as another jolt
knocked him off his
feet.  "My God" he whispered, "What's happening?"

"Omega!" doctor Salik called as he entered the corridor.
His face paled as
he saw the sealed doors.  He swallowed and recovered some of
his composure.
"Well you can't help them now, but you can help me, come
on."  Omega just
stood there numb with conflicting emotions.  He needed to
get to the bridge.
Whatever was happening, it was bad.  But, he couldn't just
ing to catch Cassiopeia and have a word with
her."  Sheba
looked around at the mess of toys and papers strewn across
the floor. There
was no unruly herd of kids currently playing in the room but
she could hear
the loud jabbering of kids talking over the sound of a video
in the next
room. "I didn't think this was something you'd want to
volunteer for."

"Oh, why not?" Athena asked as she walked over to the table
" I love kids."
she stated as she began to pick up the broken color sticks
then looked back
over at Boxey, a worried frown on her face.  Straightening
up she turned her
attention back to Sheba.  "As a matter of fact I was one of
the first
teachers when Kenton set up the learning center."

"Really?  I didn't know that.  So why aren't you still
teaching?" Sheba
asked curiously.

"Well, there were others more qualified for the job than I
and in the end it
was a bit much with my bridge duties.  Besides, I needed the
extra time so I
could get as much in-viper flying time as I coabandon Rigel.
She was giving birth to their first child.  He couldn't just
leave her.

"Come on son.  You can't get to them and Rigel needs you
now. "  Reluctantly
he followed the doctor back into the life center.

Meanwhile elsewhere on the Galactica....

"Boomer, you alright?" Starbuck called out as he looked back
over his
shoulder to where Boomer was picking himself up off the
floor.  The last
jolt had sent Starbuck flying into Apollo and had slammed
them both up
against the corridor wall as Boomer, who had lost his
footing, went sliding
into the other wall.  Boomer waived Starbuck on ahead as he
hurriedly limped
after him.  Satisfied that his friend was O.K., Starbuck
turned and raced
after Apollo who had just disappeared into the launch bay.

Upon entered the launch bay Starbuck gagged from the acid
smell of smoke as
it assaulted his lungs and eyes.  His eyes, now welling with
tears, stung
from the toxic fumes that filled the bay.  With desperate
urgency he ran
toward his Vuld." Sheba
nodded in
understanding.  Adama had tried to keep his only daughter
safely on the
bridge.  Subtly but not overtly stalling her attempts to
remain an active
pilot, stating that they needed bridge officers as much as
they need pilots.
Perversely Athena wondered what her father would have
thought of how ironic
that situation had turned out.

Looking past Athena, Sheba spotted Boxey and smiled. "Hi
Boxey, how are you
doing?" she asked but Boxey studiously ignored her.  Sheba
looked
inquiringly at Athena who motioned her back over to the
door. "He's really
upset today and won't talk to me about it."

"Oh," Sheba looked back over at Boxey her concern evident as
she took in the
crossed arms and angry face. "How did he take...Adama's
death?" Sheba asked,
and Athena didn't know if was emotion or sympathy that
caused her to
hesitate.

"About as well as the rest of us" Athena sighed then looked
over at Sheba
and let how worried she truly was show through.  "Worse
actually," sheiper.  He jumped into his cockpit flipping
switches as fast as
he could.  If they'd taken such a bad hit already without
the Vipers
launched then the Lords help them if they didn't get out
there before it was
too late.

----------------

"Get those Vipers launched!" Adama barked, his hands
frantically working at
the fastening of his tunic, as he sprinted up the short
flight of stairs to
the main control deck of the Galactica's bridge.  It was the
middle of the
third shift and Adama had been asleep when the alert had
sounded.  Without
thought he had jumped into his uniform and raced down the
short corridor to
the Bridge, reaching it just as the pressure doors began to
close.  He had
caught sight of Tigh make a running leap through the up
deck's door just
making it as it closed behind him.

Now, Adama scanned the monitors of the stations around the
main deck.  The
Galactica's two launch bays were a flurry of unwelcomed
activity.  Beta deck
was on fire.  Adama watched as pilots ran 
confessed.  "He refused believe me when I told him.  He kept
yelling at me
that I was wrong, that the bridge was the safest place on
the Galactica and
his dad would come and prove Him right and Me wrong." Athena
looked
anxiously back over at Boxey.  "It broke my heart to see the
look of
betrayal Boxey gave Apollo when he showed up and had to tell
him it was
true.  Apollo's had a hard time with him ever since."

"Really?" Sheba looked troubled. "I didn't know."

"You didn't?  But, I thought...."  Athena began but Sheba
cut her off with a
shake of her head.  Now that was news to Athena.  The last
time she had
taken noticed of her brother and Sheba they were clearly an
item.  She
wondered what had happened and when?

"No, not for a while."  Sheba looked away obviously not
wanting to discuss
the matter.  "Do you mind if I try and talk to him?" Sheba
asked gesturing
to Boxey.

"No, please." Athena stepped aside and watched Sheba walked
over to where
Boxey sat, arms no longer crossedpast the debris
and fire toward
their vipers as the ground crews franticly tried to move the
nearest vipers
away from the flames.  Alpha deck had faired better.  The
monitors showed
some vipers powering up and Adama watched as each launch
tube indicator
turned from red to green signaling the pilots were ready to
launch.

"Get fire control to the landing bay before that fire
spreads!"  Tigh cried
out as jumped into the flight officer's chair and began to
pull up data on
all the monitors there.  His tunic top was askew where he
had missed
fastened the top three closures.  "Third wave coming in from
quadrant three"
He called out.

"Do we have any vipers up yet?" Adama asked, trying to keep
the desperation
he was feeling out of his voice.

"No sir" Tigh replied.

Their eyes meet and they exchanged worried looks. "Lords
help us." Adama
murmured.

---------------

"Blue squadron ready to launch!" Apollo cried out.

"Transferring control to viper craft, launch when ready!"
came th but still obviously upset,
as he
circumspectly watched Sheba approach.  Athena decided to
stay where she was,
not wanting to make Boxey feel like they were ganging up on
him but still
close enough if needed.

Sheba stopped and stood beside Boxey waiting for him to take
notice of her.
When he refused to do so she knelt down before him. "Hi
Boxey, it's good to
see you.  I've missed you."

"No you haven't" Boxey challenged back, starring straight
ahead, even though
he could no longer see most of the vidscreen."

"I haven't?  Of course I have, why wouldn't I" Sheba
countered.  She looked
worried about this cold and almost hostile greeting.

"You would have come to see me if you did" he answered as
his anger seemed
to drain out of him.  "But you didn't," his softly whispered
bewildered and
hurt  "You just stopped coming." Athena could barely hear
him now and she
wondered how much this was hurting Sheba as her own tears
threatened.  But,
Boxey wasn't done with his mood swings for the e rapid
response from the bridge personnel.

Apollo's viper rocked down the launch tube.  He could see
pinpoint sparks of
laser fire at the end of the tube and abruptly realized that
the Cylons were
strafing the launch tubes hoping to destroy any launching
vipers.  All he
could do was hold his breath and pray as he burst forth from
the launch tube
his lasers firing trying to clear a path for himself.
Immediately laser
fire surrounded his viper.  "They're strafing the launch
tubes!" he cried
out a warning.

Starbucks viper suddenly appeared at his side firing wildly.
"To your right
Apollo!"

"We have to keep the launch tubes clear!" Apollo called out.

"We can't stay here for long the fire's to thick and we're
to closely
packed.  Just perfect targets" Starbuck responded. "We need
help."

"If we don't keep the launch tubes clear then our help will
never make it!"
Apollo called back.  His ship rocked to the left as he took
a grazing shot.
A quick check of his instruments told him day and just
as suddenly as
his anger had left it returned in full force.  Athena
cringed; the look he
turned on Sheba was filled with resentment "I guess, I was
just a silly
little kid to think you cared about me."

Sheba was obviously taken aback by this.  Athena knew how
much Sheba cared
for Boxey - loved him in fact.  She had once described him
to Athena as a
sometimes-annoying yet lovable little boy that she couldn't
get out of her
system.  It must have been very painful for her since well,
whatever had
happened between Apollo and her.  It was quite apparent it
had hurt Boxey
too.

"Oh Boxey, of course I care about you.  I'll always care for
you no matter
what." Sheba took his small hands in hers trying to get him
to look back at
her.  Athena could see the tears brimming in Sheba's eyes.

"But, you stopped coming by.  I figured you didn't care
about us anymore."
he said his anger once again replaced by uncertainty.

"I'm so sorry Boxey, it's all so complicated." Sheba
squeehe had sustained
little damage.

"How many squadrons are up" Apollo asked as he mentally
tallied the ships he
could see.  With the fighting so close to the launch tubes
additional vipers
couldn't be launched without risking a collision.  Blue
squadron was the
only one that had made it out on this side.

"Silver Spar's out on this side but, Green's lost three
pilots just trying
to launch." Bojay frantically responded.

'Two?' Apollo fought off the sinking feeling this
information left him with.
There were just too many raiders for just two squadrons to
hold their
ground.  Starbuck was right they were perfect targets all
clustered near the
launch tubes and without reinforcements they were doomed.
"Boomer, Jolly
make a run forward.  Giles, Greenbean you guys head aft.
See if you can
draw off some of these raiders.  Starbuck you and I will
keep the launch
tubes clear.  Let see if we can make some room so we can get
some ships
launched." As the four vipers pealed off several raider
fozed his hands as
he looked doubtfully down at her  "But, you're right, that's
not an excuse.
I didn't mean to hurt you and of course I care.  Its' not
like I can stop
caring for you like I would turn off a switch."

"But you stopped caring for my dad."

Sheba looked helplessly over at Athena, who was by no means
any help at all,
as she raised her eyebrows also awaiting Sheba's response.

Sheba looked back at Boxey. "It's complicated with adults
Boxey." She gave
his hands a gentle shake "But, I DO care for you and I have
no intention of
stopping.  I've missed you.  How about I talk with your dad
about us
spending some time together. OK?"

"Then you still care about me?" he looked back at her
uncertainly.

"Yes, I do." Sheba said forcefully.

"Then why don't you come by anymore?" Boxey asked.

Sheba sighed and spoke very softly, "You'll have to ask your
dad that one."




Two sleek vipers flew silently through the darkness of space
rapidly
approaching a planetary system that llowed.

 "This is as good as it's going to get!  Yellow squadron
launch!" Apollo
cried out hoping with all his heart that he wasn't sending
them to their
deaths.

With in seconds the first vipers began to emerge from the
launch tubes.
Apollo wanted to cheer as they successfully made it out but,
he need all his
attention as he followed the nearest raider that was
starting a strafing
run.  He lined it up, fired and watched as it turned it into
short but
intense fireball.  Starbuck was arrowing in from the
opposite side also
turning his target into charred space dust.  Apollo turned
his viper to
retrace his path while he tired to keep the launch tubes
clear.  Then he saw
a raider start it's strafing run from a point below him.  He
inverted his
viper in an attempt to bring his guns to bare on the raider
before the next
viper launched but it was too late.  As the viper emerge it
was hit by the
cylon's laser fire and disintegrated in it's own lonely
fireball.  Gritting
his teeth in rastretch out before them.
The light from
the system's sun was so dim at this distance that the ships
blood red
markings appeared gray.

"Hey Boomer you awake over there?"  Across the darkness of
space Starbuck
could just make out the illuminated outline of Boomers face
as he turned his
head to glance over in his direction.

"Yah, I was just thinking." came the subdued response.

"Hum, careful you might get into the habit." Starbuck
replied solemnly.

"Huh, oh thanks!" Injured, Boomer grumbled out his thanks.

"Anytime." Starbuck cheerfully shot back.

"Doesn't anything bother you when you're out here?" Boomer
asked wondering
anew at Starbucks never-ending optimism.

"Lots of things but, I just don't given em a chance to ruin
my naturally
charming disposition." Boomer could just imagine Starbuck
tossing his head
back, brushing his hair out of his eyes and giving one of
his devilish
smiles as he spoke.

He snorted. "Ah huh.  Seriously, it's a bit scary when you
think about our
w anger Apollo blasted the cylon raider into
oblivion.

"Bojay let me know when you've got all your vipers out."

"You got it Apollo" with the extra vipers out Bojay's voice
was now filled
with bravado. "We'll hold it here.  But, I just saw a group
take off.  I
think they're heading toward the bridge."

"Blue squadron out to point, protect the bridge." Apollo
turned his viper in
an upward arc that would bring him up the Galatcia's side to
her back.  His
maneuver would allow him to traverse her spine while
Starbuck came around
from the side. He knew that behind him Boomer and Jolly were
mirroring their
maneuver while Giles and Greenbean would come in from the
other side.

As Apollo's viper reach the apex of his turn a Cylon raider
came careening
towards him from across the Galactica's back.  Apollo
instinctively reacted
before his mind could even process what was happening.  His
viper turned in
an attempt to spin off right to avoid the imminent
collision.  He felt a
shuddering jolodds of survival out here."

"I don't do *seriously*" Starbuck interjected "and I
definitely don't put it
and *odds* in the same sentence." he admonished.

"Yah right, well...."

"No, really Boomer." and now Boomer could hear the
earnestness in Starbuck's
voice " I've given up on doing the odds for this fleet.
The odds have been
against us since day one of this nightmare and if I had
believed in those
odds I would've given up sectars ago!  But, this fleet
doesn't *do* odds.
What this fleet does *do* is miracles!  And yes, at times it
seems like it
would take a miracle for us to survive.  But then again
Boomer, that's what
we do best."

"You know you have a very unique perspective on things
Starbuck." Boomer
replied his mood improved despite himself.

"That's what they pay me for!" quipped Starbuck.

*Beep* *Beep*

 Boomer could hear the alarm sounding in Starbuck's viper a
micron before
his own sounded.

"Got something." Starbuck was all business now.

"Yah, I got it too." t as the raider tagged his left wing as it
plummeted past him.
Flames and debris surrounded his viper as the raider
impacted on the
Galactica.

--------------

On the bridge the lights flickered as the Galactica gave a
massive shudder
tossing everyone to the side. "They're making suicide runs"
Tigh called out
as he grabbed the railing for support.

"Damage." Adama called from as he clung to the monitors
before him for
support.

"Two bad hits to port, forward of the main flight decks on
beta section. One
hit starboard on alpha section." The duty office reported as
he held onto
the stair railing with one hand and his data pad in the
other.  "We've lost
air seals on three levels of beta section and in the main
connector between
the landing bays.  Also, Alpha landing bay has lost her air
seal, the vipers
can only land on beta deck."

"Get the flight crews in pressure suits.  The pilots can
stay in their ships
as the crews refuel them, but, we need Alpha bay
functional." Adama studBoomer watched his scanner try to lock
on the signal it
had detected.  It couldn't identify it.  He switched the
view selector to
directional mode and watched as the screen shifted to a view
showing the
solar system before them, one sun and 7 planets.  Then, as
his systems
tracked the source of the signal, the view changed again to
show the third
planet with its 5 satellites.

"It looks like it's just beyond the second moon of the third
planet."
Starbuck said. "You wait here while I go in behind the
planet and take a
closer look."

"Be careful we don't want to be detected ourselves." Boomer
cautioned.

"Careful is my middle name." Starbuck said as his viper sped
away from
Boomer's and headed toward the planet.

____________________________


Part 4c

Athena put three fruit juices down on the table,  "I think
Cassiopeia told
me they were Kella flavor today."

"I haven't had Kella fruit in so long I think I've forgotten what
it tastes
like," Sheba exclaimed. "How about you, Bied
the monitors before him.  The attack had come upon them so
suddenly that
half of their off duty personnel had not made it to their
stations when they
had lost the airlocks.  All the monitors told the same
story.  It was going
bad.

"Suicide runs coming in point four!" Tigh suddenly called
out.

"Watch out there goanna hi..........."

------------

"Oh my God" Starbuck cried out.  His ship had just come up
even with the
bridge when he saw a Cylon raider dive down and explode on
impact, "they got
the bridge!"

"Captain Apollo to the Galactica come in!  Captain Apollo to
the Galactica
come in!  Dam it answer me!"  Apollo wanted to scream in
frustration.  He
pushed his viper as fast as it could go.  Maybe Starbuck was
wrong, maybe it
had just hit near the bridge.

"How bad does it look Starbuck" Boomer anxiously asked as he
followed Apollo
's viper forward.

"Bad,...I don't think....oh my God."  As Starbucks viper
came around he
could see the bridge.  There was a blacken choxey, do you like Kella
fruit?"

Boxey shrugged his shoulders noncommittally as he punched his
drinking straw
through the thin foil cover of the fruit juice container.

"What is your favorite flavor then?" Athena asked as she watched
Sheba try
unsuccessfully to punch her straw though the top of her fruit
container.

"Frak, I can never do these things."

"We aren't supposed to use that kind of language here," Boxey
replied with a
sidelong glace at Athena.

Athena had to stifle a laugh with a cough at Boxey's obvious
attempt at
doing an impression of herself.  She caught the mischief in that
glance and
wondered anew at the rapid change in moods kids could have.
"You're right!
What do you think we should do about it Boxey?" she asked him as
her eyes
implored Sheba to go along. "Shall we have Sheba stand in the
corner?" she
asked, but at Boxey's shrug, she tried harder. "Or maybe make her
write an
apology on the wall board 10 times?"

"Yah, maybe," he said as he looked over at Shebarred area just
to the right of
the main view port.  In the center he could see a tangle of
metal.  There
was nothing left of the raider in that burned out jagged
hole but worse, he
could see that the bridge was venting gases.

Since Apollo's viper was flying down along top of alpha
section he could see
the geyser of venting gases before he saw the actual impact
site.  "No..."
the silent whisper seemed to echo from Apollo's very soul.

It echoed in every pilot's heart.  Had they lost the bridge?
Had they lost
the Commander?

"Starbuck to your right. Look out!" Boomer called out.

As the battle continued there was no sound from the bridge.

------------

"They're pulling out, they're leaving" Gile's voice was
weary and strained.

"No.  They're just going for reinforcements." Apollo snapped
back.

"Should we pursue them?" Boomer asked in a subdued voice.

"No.  We go home and see how bad the damage is."  As Apollo
gave the orders
for the squadron to return his mind was already a then back at
Athena. They
both saw the mischievous spark that ignited in his eyes. "Maybe we
should...."And he dashed from the couch and grabbed up a small
canister from
the floor.

"Oh no!" Sheba got up holding her arms out before her and began
backing up.
"No, that's not a good idea...." she began as Boxey let loose and
sprayed
her with that childhood favorite and adult nightmare, Crazy
String. She felt
it should have more correctly been called Staining String and
groaned loudly
as she allowed herself to be pelted with the rope-like rubbery
*colored*
strings.  Boxey giggled maniacally as he closed in for the kill,
spraying
the sticking stuff on Sheba's hair and face. Athena was no help as
she
laughed encouragingly from the safety of the couch.

"What's going on here?"

They all froze guiltily and started at the doorway where Apollo
and
Cassiopeia stood quite stunned at the sight before them.

"Boxey, how many times have I told you kids not to spray that
stuff on
people's haielsewhere.
His eyes scanned
the blacken side of the bridge.  His mind would not accept
what his heart
was telling him.  Not until he'd seen all the evidence
himself.  But in his
soul he knew that the Commander was dead.  His father was
dead.



The instant Apollo's viper touched down he punched the
canopy open and was
out and heading for the lift before his ship had even come
to a complete
stop against the landing restraints.

As he bolted from the lift he could see the crowd that had
gathered at the
pressure door to the bridge.  The door was sealed shut.  His
heart pounded
in his chest and all he could hear was a buzzing in his ears
as he headed
toward the sealed door.  The once short passage now seemed
to stretch on
endlessly.  Pale faces turned toward him but he determinedly
ignored them as
he continued on to the sealed door.  He could almost see
beyond the glass
view port in the door when suddenly his forward momentum was
halted as
someone grabbed his right arm.  He tried tor!" Cassiopeia admonished as she regained her senses.

Apollo just stood inside the doorway and looked on in amazement at
all the
strings clinging to Sheba and tried not to laugh.

Cassiopeia quickly crossed the room and held out her hand to
Boxey.

"It's Sheba's punishment...." Boxey began as he reluctantly handed
over the
offending weapon.

"We were just having some fun.." Athena interrupted.

"No harm was done..." Sheba protested as she tugged at the stingy
mess in
her hair.

Boxey walked back to the couch, kicking at an errant toy on his
way.

Apollo's smile faded as he watched his son sulk to the couch and
plop
himself down in front of the videscreen. "Boxey?" he called out
after him,
only to have his son studiously ignore him. Apollo sighed heavily
and looked
over at Athena. "How was he today?"

"Quiet.  I was so busy with the other kids I barely even noticed
him today.
Then just a while ago I caught him swearing at Muffet. When I
asked him
about it he got mad at me. Lu shake it off,
ignore it and
brush past, but it held fast.

Apollo turned on the man holding him and his eyes meet with
those of Chief
Engineer Shadrick.   Apollo abruptly turned away, as if
burnt, from the pain
and pity he saw reflected in those eyes. "Let me go Chief"
came his
whispered plea.

Shadrick looked at the fixed expression on the face before
him. "What good
will it do Apollo?" he gently asked.

"I have to.....have to see" The words caught in Apollo's
throat but Shadrick
could see nothing behind the veiled eyes.

"There's nothing to see." Shadrick gently responded.  He was
apprehensive by
the lack of emotion he was seeing in the individual be fore
him.  Apollo had
always shown great caring for those around him and never
hesitated to show
it.  He had on several occasions cried unabashed at the loss
of a fellow
pilot.  It was eerie to see him so seemingly unemotional at
this moment.

"Shadrick you don't understand" in frustration Apollo tried
to push past the
chief hickily, Sheba came along and together
we managed
to improve his mood.  As you can see, it was not without some cost
on Sheba'
s part.

"Too bad it didn't last very long" Sheba pointed out.

"Yah", Apollo motioned to her yards of newly acquired strings
"Thanks for
your sacrifice. It looked like he was enjoying it."

"He was." Sheba stopped tugging at the coating of strings and
looked up at
Apollo "I was too. I've really missed him." Sheba searched
Apollo's face for
a moment then turned back toward Boxey. "He thinks I stopped
caring for him
simply because I haven't been around. He's wrong." Sheba looked
back at
Apollo, who was starring at her, his expression unreadable. "I'd
like to
spend some time with him occasionally, so he doesn't forget that."
Sheba
paused then asked " Is that alright with you?"

Apollo didn't say anything at first. He just stared at Sheba with
a
unreadable expression. "Sure," was all he finally said.

Athena watched the interchange between the two and didn't ks eyes staring fixedly at the sealed door before
them.

"Apollo listen to me," Shadrick grabbed Apollo by both arms
forcing him to
look at him.  He had seen a similar look in the eyes of one
of his engineers
when he had been helping an injured friend out of a damage
section only to
have the corridor collapse leaving the engineer alone with
no sign of his
friend.  It alarmed Shadrick to see that look in Apollo's
eyes.  He had to
get him to understand what had happened. "When the raider
hit it fractured
the outer hull."  He swallowed as he mind searched for the
right words to
get through to Apollo.  "They lost their air seal.  There
was nothing we
could do."

"No..." still refusing to believe what Shadrick was trying
to tell him, what
he knew was true, Apollo struggled to pull himself free from
Shadrick grip,
to get away from the truth in those words.

Desperate to make Apollo understand him, Shadrick cried out
"Apollo they're
all dead!"

At that moment, Starbuck and the rest of bnow if
she dared
breath, least she break the moment. Sheba had clearly indicated
that their
relationship was estranged; yet the atmosphere around the two
fairly
shimmered with desire. Athena was dieing to know what was going
on.

Then the moment was lost, and Apollo turned away.

Sheba walked over to Cassiopeia as Apollo walked over to stand
next to
Boxey.

"Boxey?" He sat ridged, his eyes fixed on the screen before him,
stubbornly
refusing to acknowledge his father. Apprehensive, Apollo sat down
next to
Boxey. His voice filled with emotion as he softly whispered
"Boxey, please
look at me."

"No." came the stubborn reply.

"Please?" Apollo was trying to keep his emotions under control. He
didn't
think he could go through another scene like last night with Boxey
shouting
that he hated him.

"I don't wanta" Once again he crossed his arms across his chest,
determined
to be angry.

"Why not?" Apollo coaxed. Apollo knew Boxey was angry with him for
breaking
his faith by tellinglue squadron
entered the corridor,
the chief's words reverberated off the walls of the short
corridor halting
them in their tracks.

Slowly, Apollo raised his eyes to meet Shadrick's.  They
were brimming with
unshed tears and Shadrick flinched at the pain and loss he
saw there.  "He's
dead." Shadrick continued.  Although he was relieved that he
and broken
though to Apollo he regretted the necessity of it. " I'm
sorry."  was all he
could say as he dropped his arms releasing Apollo.

Apollo turned away defeated.

Starbuck watched as the life seem to drain out of Apollo.
Starbuck's chest
tightened with such force he could barely breath.  He
blinked back the tears
that now threatened.  Dead.  They were 'all' dead?  Adama
had been the
father Starbuck had never known.  Since the time he and
Apollo had first
been assigned together Adama had taken him into his family
and treated him
like a son.  His loss was unthinkable but combined with the
loss of the
entire bridge crew it was inconcei him his grandfather was gone.  Apollo could
still
remember that look Boxey had given him. It was as if he'd
extinguished
something inside him. Apollo had always been amazed and thankful
for Boxey's
resilience to all that had happened; the destruction exploding
around him,
the lost of his dagget and then the terrible loss of his mother.
Yet, he had
gone through it all and still retained that spark of innocent hope
that
things would still be alright in the end. It was that spark that
Apollo
feared he had extinguished, along with his son's trust in him.

"Because."

"Are you mad at me?"

"I guess," came the uncertain answer.

"Oh," was all Apollo could say for a few moments. He desperately
looked
around the room as if looking for something that could help him
solve his
problem. His mind searched for a way to get past Boxey's anger.
His gaze
passed over Sheba as she talked to Cassiopeia on the other side of
the room.
He smiled slowly. If Sheba had seen it she'd have been better
prevable.  His mind couldn't
grasp the
thought.  This couldn't be happening.  It was so unreal like
some bad
holovid.  Unheeded tears began to flow down his face as he
looked over at
Apollo and knew what his friend was going through.

Apollo placed his hand on the corridor wall and seemed to
collapse against
it.  Starbuck approached wanting to offer some comfort but,
not knowing how
or what to say.  As he stood behind him Starbuck gently put
a hand on Apollo
's shoulder.

"Apollo, I..." Starbuck faltered as his throat closed in on
his words.

"No." Apollo whispered.  "NO!" he shouted and pushed himself
away from the
wall with such force that Starbuck staggered backward as he
watched Apollo
sprint back into the lift.

Regaining his balance Starbuck immediately started to follow
but Shadrick
placed an arm across his chest to stopped him

"Let him go Starbuck, he needs some time to be alone, to
sort this all out."

"But, chief I want to help.  I can help." Starbuck
protested.

"Nopared.

"Sheba, could you come over here," he called out to her.

Sheba looked over and saw him bend down, then stand up and gesture
for her
to join him by the couch. As she approached she noticed Boxey
looking
worriedly from one adult to the other.  Once she was there, Apollo
turned
back toward Boxey.

"You know, Boxey, it's not right to spray this stuff in others
hair," Apollo
said in his most official "Captain" voice. Boxey looked guiltily
up at
Apollo then over to Sheba.  His anger was gone in a moment of
panic as he
sensed a disciplinary storm coming.

Ignoring the panicked look on his son's face, Apollo continued.
"If you're
going to shoot someone, the proper place is between the eyes," and
before
Sheba could react, Apollo aimed the can he'd retrieved from the
floor at her
head and set words into action as he shot her, right between the
eyes, with
strings.

Ignoring her started protests, Apollo then turned his weapon on
Boxey.
Boxey's jaw dropped and he looked up at his ft now Starbuck, later he'll need someone to talk to, for
now let him come
to terms with what has happened."  Starbuck glared at
Shadrick unconvinced
and continued to the lift.  He ignored the questioning look
Boomer gave him
as he pushed the lift's call panel.  "No, you don't
understand."

Starbuck disregarded the looks he was getting and waited for
the lift.  As
the doors opened he was startled when Boomer and Jolly
joined him in the
lift.  Jolly just nodded and Boomer just gave him one of his
'you know you'
re doing this alone" looks.  Starbuck's mouth quirked into a
slight smile as
his mood lightened by the support of his friends.  He called
back to
Shadrick as the doors began to close. "No one should be
alone at a time like
this."

_________

Where Apollo was going he did know.  He just walk on putting
distance
between himself and reality.  He had tried to sort it all
out but it was as
if his mind had gone numb.  How had the cylons gotten in
such a deadly
attack with out warather, stunned.
Surely his dad
didn't just do that? As Apollo turned the can toward him, Boxey
let out a
squeal as he ducked the first shot and propelled himself off the
couch,
giggling as he ran across the room. He grabbed up his confiscated
can from
the shelf where Cassiopeia had place it and turned to return fire,
only to
find Apollo was already on him. They faced off and splatter each
other with
yards and yards of colored sticky stings, howling in shear joy.
Laughing,
both stood there admiring each other's new coating of strings,
when Apollo
grinned at Boxey and purposefully looked back over his shoulder at
Sheba.

Sheba's eyes went wide as she feebly placed her hands before her
to ward off
the attack, but it was too late as two cans of strings pelted her,
plastering her uniform with a new coating of strings. Once Boxey's
can was
empty, he launched himself at his dad, tumbling him into Sheba,
and they all
went crashing to the ground in a heap of giggling, laughing
strings.

Boning?  Such a deadly attack. It was all
so unimaginable.
Every time he tried to image all those they'd lost this day
his mind would
focus on those he couldn't see how he would live without.
He couldn't image
not finding Tigh, at all hours, stalking the bridge forever
keeping the
bridge crew on their toes.  The crew that now was gone.
Apollo shook his
head to try to dispel the images that unwillingly came to
him.  He turn down
another corridor as if this could take him farther from the
images his mind
was determined to plague him with.

The thought of how they had died haunted him down each
corridor as he tried
not to think of his family suffering such a fate.  But, they
had.  Athena.
The same thought kept returned to him every time his mind
came to her.  He
was supposed to look out for her.  He had always looked out
for her even
after she had threatened him with bodily harm if he didn't
stop. That's what
big brothers do he had told her at the time.  He had lost
his little brother
axey climbed up on Apollo's back, giggling with delight as he
proclaimed
himself king of the daggit pile with woops of laughter.  Apollo
laughingly
looked down at Sheba, who lay beneath him shaking helpless with
her own
laughter. She looked up at him, and her smile froze on her face as
his gaze
turned from humorous to something else. She just stared at him
like a forest
antelope caught in hovercrafts lights. For a moment, she thought
he was
going to kiss her but then Boxey tumbled off Apollo, accidentally
kicking
him in the side, breaking the spell.

Apollo quickly rolled off of Sheba and got to his feet, stripping
off the
strings as he went.  Hastily, he turned back to offer her a hand
up, but she
was already on her knees and didn't take the offered hand as she
rose to her
feet.

Athena, who was now standing next to Cassie, noticed the exchange.
As Sheba
turned away and began removing the strings from her hair, Athena
watch
Apollo.  His gaze fairly devoured Sheba but as soon as shend now his little sister.  His rational mind knew that they
were both
adults and warriors in their own right, but in this numb
state there were no
rational thoughts.  All he felt was the protective big
brother in him that
could not let go of the feelings of failure.  He hadn't
protected them when
it mattered.

He turned down yet another rarely used corridor.  He knew
every corridor and
passageway of this old ship.  As a child he had played down
the now
seemingly unused corridors.  Areas that had been cordoned
off due to damages
now seemed  to beckoned him.

Adama...Commander of the fleet...President of the Council of
the
Twelve...his father.  Thoughts of his father were still to
painful to
consider as he wandered down each corridor.

How long Apollo wandered the corridors before he found
himself at the Life
Center he didn't know.  His mind seemed to have just shut
down as his feet
took him farther and farther down each corridor until he
looked up and found
himself here.  He knew  turned
back he
looked away.

"What's with that?" she quietly murmured.

"I wish I knew" Cassiopeia responded.

Athena looked over at Cassiopeia to inquire about what she might
know about
the situation when the alert sounded.

Apollo and Sheba reacted immediately as they both bolted for the
door, but
the sudden scream from Boxey stopped them in their tracks.

"NO! Don't go!" Boxey lunged forward. Apollo barely managed to
catch him as
he leaped up and clasped his arms around Apollo's neck, holding on
for all
he was worth. "Don't go. Don't go. Please, Dad, don't go!" he was
crying
out.

Apollo was shaken by the sudden emotional outburst. Never had
Boxey acted
like this before. Apollo was at a loss on how to deal with this
new
disturbing aspect of his son. "Boxey, I have to. I don't have a
choice. You
know that." He said trying to sooth his son, yet gently pry his
arms from
around his neck. Once freed, Apollo held Boxey's hands in his and
looked
into his son's terrified eyes. "Bhe'd find his father here.  But, the
Gods knew he
didn't want to, had prayed not to.  Unbidden his hand pushed
the entry key.
The door opened and Apollo stood there uncertain as to what
to do now, then
slowly, almost mindlessly he headed into the life center
toward the back.
Toward the cold rooms there.

Doctor Salik met him half way.  "Apollo, I'm sorry."

"He's here."  Apollo stated.

Dr. Salik nodded his head. "You don't have to go in."

"Yes, I do.   I have to, to see for myself." Apollo
hesitated his eyes never
leaving the doors ahead of him.
.
Do you want me to go in with you?" was all the doctor could
offer.

"No...no.." his voice trailed off as Apollo started forward.
As the door
opened, cold air surrounded him.  A chill ran down his spine
that had
nothing to do with the cold air.  Apollo started forward
into the room his
eyes scanning the pods.  For the first time he realized just
how bad the
Galactic had been hit.

The room was full.  Too full.  The low stasis pods foxey, I'm a Warrior," he started,
then
stopped and tried another approach. "I'm not leaving the
Galactica. I'll
just be on the bridge..."

"I know, I don't want you to go there." Boxey's whispered his fear
still
very evident.

Apollo understood, and he hated himself for what he had to do, but
he didn't
have the time they needed to discuss this. "I know you don't, but
I have to
go." Apollo lifted up Boxey, handed him over to Cassiopeia and
turned and
left. He tried not to listen to Boxey call out after him as the
door closed
behind him.


___________________


"What is it?" Apollo asked Omega as he came up behind him.

"We're getting a partially jammed transmission from one of our
patrols, "
Omega answered, his voice calm as ever.  Apollo wondered if
anything would
jar that calm while Omega was on duty.

"Let's hear it"

".......Patrol 1 to Gal..tica.......detected........third
moon.......lon......"

Apollo instantly recognized the voice - Starbuck! There was no
emotion inilled
the room, there
were even bodies in the isles where they had run out of
pods.   The cold
gases that floated near the flooring now swirled around him,
stirred up by
his entry.  It formed ghostly shapes before him as if the
dead was taking
notice of his arrival.

Then his eyes found the pod he'd been looking for.  For the
moment all
thoughts of  the others were gone.  Slowly he approached the
low pod his
eyes never leaving the face before him.  He reached a hand
out to the next
pod to steady himself and drew it aback as he realized that
the other pod
held Colonel Tigh.  Slowly his gaze traveled back to his
father.  "Father."
slowly Apollo sank to his knees at the side of the pod.
Apollo's mouth
opened and closed as he tried to say what he was feeling,
what was in his
heart, but he could say nothing.  As the shock faded and the
reality of the
fact that his father was not just sleeping before him but
was indeed dead
began to sink in, he finally found his voice. "Oh Lord
father w
the static filled transmission, but Apollo had been Starbuck's
wingman long
enough to hear the concern in his voice, and a concerned Starbuck
was a
Starbuck in trouble.

"That's it. The rest is just static." Omega said as he stopped the
playback
and turned around to look at Apollo. "Possibly the transmission is
just
being affected by the nebula Patrol 3 discovered and not actually
jammed.
It was giving off tremendous radiation bursts."

Apollo gave Omega a knowing look "You don't believe that anymore
than I do,"
he said. "Launch Blue and Green squadrons to check it out." Apollo
had to
fight down the suffocating anxiety as he ordered others out to do
what he
desperately wanted to do himself - help Starbuck. "What sector
were they
patrolling?"

Omega walked over to the large star chart behind the bridge's main
station.
He pointed to a system in the upper right of the chart. "They're
checking
out a planetary system in quadrant Gamma delta 4, by Beta 3, delta
2."

"It sounds like hat now?
What are we going to do now?  What am I supposed to do?" The
tears that he
had not shed now streamed down his face unheeded.

"I don't want to be alone." the anguished cry echoed
hollowly around the
still room. "Whom do I turn to for answers now?" his mind
searched and
researched until a new fact, hidden by his greif,  finally
became all to
clear to him.  He looked back at Tigh lying just as still as
his father,
then back to his father. "There is no one.  I'm it."  A
weight of
responsibility so strong it was painful seemed to settle on
his shoulders.
"Oh Lord father, no.  I don't think I can.  I'm not ready,
I..." his gaze
traveled around the room then back to his father.  He said
no more as he
bowed his head and finally gave in to his emotions and
grieved.

He heard the door open then close but did not turn.  He
didn't care who it
was.  There was a sob as someone fell to their knees beside
him breathing
raggedly as they cried.

Apollo looked up in shock as his unbelievithey may have found our missing basestar," Apollo
said as he
looked over the chart, noting the distance of the system to the
fleet. Most
definitely close enough to be the basestar that had launch the
attack on
them.  Far enough away to avoid detection and attack but close
enough to
keep and eye on them. "What's the status of our maneuvering
thrusters?"

Still off line while under repair." Omega replied.

"Get me Shadrick. We're a sitting target if we can't maneuver!"


_______________

PART 5


Starbuck rolled his viper to the right just as a laser bolt
shot past his
fighter a mere micrometron from his cockpit. "I don't know
if they got my
message or not, Boomer.  That baseship is sending up quit a
lot of jamming."

"You call this careful?  You need to change you middle
name."  Boomer cried
out as he turned his viper in a reverse roll from
Starbuck's.  "How many
raiders do you count on our tail?"

Starbuck checked his rear scanner.  The green light from the
scanner flashed
ng eyes fell on
Athena.  He
hesitated only a moment before he gathered her into his arms
crying her name
"Athena! Oh God Athena, I thought you were dead."

 "Oh Apollo." she cried as she crumpled in his arms. " He
can't be dead he
just can't be."

"Where were you, how...Oh Lord, I'm so glad you alive!"
Apollo held Athena
close almost crushing her in his relief.

Athena looked up and realized what he was saying. "Oh Apollo
I'm sorry, I'm
fine" she pulled back and look into his eyes.  " I had gone
on break.  I
went down to the galley to get a coffee.  I was bring one
back for Reggie
when the alert sounded.  I dropped the drink when the first
hit was felt.  I
ran as fast as I could but the pressure door had already
closed!  I couldn't
get back on to the bridge!  I tried every passage I could
but there was no
way in! "  Her voice was growing more and more strident. "I
managed to get
into the scanner room when another hit knocked me down.  I
couldn't get up
in time to get out of the racross his face as he spotted five targets trailing them.
"Five"

"Five?  That's unusual, they usually travel in packs of
three. You sure?

"Hey, check your own scanner if you don't believe me!" came
Starbuck's
irritated response.  He was having trouble shaking the ones
following him.
"Boomer, these guys just won't give up!"

"Hang on Bucko, I've almost completed my loop.  How many
party crashers do
you have?"  Boomer double-checked his rear scanner before
adding. "I've got
two on my tail."

"I've got three," Starbuck responded.  They'd done this
maneuver millions of
times; head strait for each other and then at the last
micron do a snap
roll, bringing the pursuing Cylons into each other's line of
fire.  Each
time they did this maneuver, the Cylons fell for it.  Each
time he prayed
they always would.

As Starbuck came around, he could see Boomer heading his way
and checked his
scanner, noting the two raiders tailing Boomer.  Normally,
since Cylons flew
in a pattern of three shioom.  The door closed sealing me
in!  All I could
do was watch and listen to the battle."  Her voice was
turning hysterical "I
couldn't do anything!"

Concerned Apollo shook Athena "Athena, it's OK.  It will be
alright."

Athena turned disbelieving eyes on her brother "Alright?
What are we going
to do?  We've lost, we're all going to die.  Oh Daddy!"
Athena held onto
Apollo and buried her head in his shoulder as sobs shook
her.

Athena's words unnerved Apollo as he realized that they were
echoing what he
himself had been feeling.  "No."   As he held her Apollo's
voice grew. "No,
we are not going to die." He gently squeezed her shoulders.
"Athena..."
Apollo tried to see her face.

 Reluctantly she looked up at him. "Apollo, father was all
that was holding
this fleet together we both know that."

"No,  Athena he was it's hope but, if we give up father will
have died for
nothing.  All that we have suffered will be for nothing!"
The words caught
in Apollo's through but he forced hips, Starbuck would target the ship
in the middle,
destroy it and fly through the debris.  Then he'd try to
blast one of the
two remaining ships before they could fly past him.  Since
there were only
two raiders following Boomer, he decided to just fly right
between them,
trying to destroy both of them before they could fly past
him.

The two vipers approached each other head on, then when they
reached the
predetermined distance they both rolled in unison, flashing
their undersides
past each other.

"FRAK!" came Starbucks sudden cry of alarm.  It reverberated
though the com
channel along with the sound of scrapping, straining metal.

"Starbuck!" Boomer cried out in alarm as the raider he held
in his sights
disappeared into oblivion.  Holding down the firing button
as he turned his
viper in a wide arch, Boomer crossed the path of a second
raider as it flew
past him.  A shower of sparks and flames enveloped his ship
as he flew
through the debris.

"Starbuck, are you alright?" he shmself to go on. "They
all would have
died for nothing, Athena, we can't let that happen.  We
can't give up."
Apollo's jaw tightened "My son, will not die." he promised
the still room.

"Do you really believe that?" she studied his face trying to
find a reason
to believe him.

"I have to.  I can't give up, not now, too many lives depend
on it."  His
face was set with look she had only seen on their father's
face before.
Then he looked down at her a gave her a small smile. " After
all that's what
big brothers do." His statement had the desired response as
she smiled back
at him.

Athena reached forward and again hugged her brother.  "O.K.
big brother, you
win this one."

Then she pulled back and her eyes began to well up again as
she turned and
once again looked at their father.  Apollo pulled her close
and rested his
head on hers as they both grieved together.



There was a crowd awaiting them as Apollo and Athena emerged
from the cold
room.

Apollo looked over the expectaouted.

"Yah, I think so," came Starbuck's shaky response. "Frak, I
hit something!
The scanner didn't show anything - my path should have been
clear!"

"What was it?" Boomer asked, relieved.

"I don't know!  Black!  It was black, that's all I saw
before it scraped
along my side!  I barely managed not to smash right into
it!" Starbuck cried
out.

"Where did it go?"

"How the Frak should I know!  It's not on my scanner!  It
wasn't before and
it isn't now!" Starbuck was shouting in frustration and
shock.  What the
Frak was that! And the vibrations - his whole viper had
shook like it was
electrified. His ears were still hurting from the massive
pressure that had
assaulted him.  He was shaking with reaction and adrenaline
as he angrily
brushed at the sweat that was running down the side of his
jaw.

"It must be the jamming from the Baseship. I know I only
scanned two."
Boomer answered.

"Well there were most definitely three!" Starbuck shouted as
he hit his fire
control and blewnt faces before him.  Rigel
was sitting near
the door protectively holding a small bundle to her chest
while Omega stood
behind her, his hands reassuringly rubbing her shoulders.
Starbuck and
Boomer were standing near the medic's station where they had
apparently been
talking to Cassiopeia.  All three had looked up at their
entrance and
Starbuck immediately locked eyes with Apollo, the question
in his gaze clear
to Apollo.  He nodded his head in response and Starbuck
nodded back letting
him know he was there if needed.

Near the main door Doctor Salik and Chief Engineer Shadrick
were talking.
Both were eyeing him too apprehensively for Apollo's liking.

Scattered around the room were other pilots either waiting
for him or here
to check on wounded friends he wasn't sure but they were all
looking at him
now.  There was a tension in the air and Apollo knew that
they were
expecting something from him; for him to say something, to
take charge, to
give them hope.

Apollo took one good  another raider into sparkling dust.
"That's no simple
jamming, Boomer. How many do you still show on your
scanner?"

"Two."

"That's what I'm reading too, but I know there are at least
three out
there." He paused as he again checked his scanner, "Boomer,
we've got some
kind of Dark Helix out here."

Dark Helix? The thought set the hairs on Boomer's neck on
end.  A ghost, a
phantom, the shadowy figure of a hundred haunted space
stories.  Appearing
only to lure wayward ships into mortal danger.   But, unlike
the haunted
space tales of old freighter pilots, this one apparently had
substance.
Quite a bit of substance, he realized, as he got a look at
Starbuck's
starboard side.

"Hey Bucko, is your starboard gun still functional?  It
looks like it took
half your delta wing off."

"It did and, no, it's not!"  Starbuck was adjusting his
scanner, looking for
a frequency that could lock onto this 'ghost' ship, when he
noticed the red
smudges he was leaving on the controls.  Perplexed,look around at all those faces when
there was a shout
from the door to the Lifecenter.  "Dad!" everyone turned as
Boxey forced his
way through the crowd then launched himself into his
father's arms.  He
wrapped his arms around his father's neck so fiercely that
he almost choked
Apollo as he burred his head into Apollo's shoulder.

Apollo held his son tightly as he tried to comfort the boy.
"Boxey, Boxey,
it's alright."  He tried to get a look at the boys face but
he was clutching
him too tightly.  Apollo knelt down, set Boxey on the ground
and gently
disengaged him so he could see his face.  Boxey reluctantly
eased up on the
death grip he had on his father's neck without ever actually
letting go of
Apollo's shoulders and looked up at him.  The fear in those
eyes tore at
Apollo's heart.

"I was worried.  Muffit and I couldn't find you." the words
were brave but
the tears continued to flow.

Apollo pulled the boy close again reassuringly hugging him.
"I'm so sorry
Boxey.   I didn't he
pulled back his hand
turning it over to look at his palm.  It was covered in
blood.  He felt
another drip of warm liquid run down his jaw and neck and
brushed at it with
his other hand, then pulled it back and looked at it.  It
too was now
covered in red blood.  Cautiously, he reached up and
followed the wet path
from his jaw up to his left ear. It was only then that he
realize that he
was only hearing out of his right ear.  He placed a hand to
his right ear,
pressing it closed, to listen with the left - but there was
nothing.  He
could hear no sounds from his left ear.  'I don't have time
for this now!'
he thought as he wiped his hands on his pant leg.

"Starbuck, how's your maneuverability, we can....." Boomer
statement was cut
off as one of the remaining raiders came at him, firing from
below.  He hit
his reverse thrusters, allowing the raider to fly up in
front of him, then
took aim and fired.  Suddenly, his viper jarred sideways as
a laser blast
impacted on his shielding.  mean to frighten you."  Lost in his own
grief, Apollo had
not considered that Boxey would come looking for him when he
hadn't heard
from him after the attack.  Ashamed, Apollo realized he
didn't even know how
long ago the battle had been.

"I tried to looked for you on the Bridge but it was all
closed off and the
landing bay was all torn up."

Startled, Apollo pulled back and looked directly into
Boxey's eyes. "You
know you're not support to go near the landing bay,
especially after an
attack!  Boxey you can't....."

"But, we had to find you!" Boxey interrupted with a shout as
if shear volume
could override any objections to his actions.  The angry
father in him was
no match for the tear streaked face before him and Apollo
just held Boxey
close.  "All over places were busted up.  What are we going
to do?" Even
with his head on Apollo's shoulder Boxey's words carried
around the room.

It was the one question everyone wanted an answer to.  All
eyes were on
Apollo as he stood with He began to spin, his shot going
wild, missing
the raider. "Frak, where did that blast come from?"

"I've got him." Starbuck answered.  He was focused on the
dark spot where
he'd seen the laser blast come from.  The dark shape turned,
it's black
wings spread wide, coming back around for another attempt.
"Look out,
Boomer! He's below you on your port side!  He's coming
around for another
shot!"

"I don't make 'em!"

"I can see him, Boomer. Roll toward him, let him overshoot
you."

"Where, Starbuck!"

"Left, turn left, Boomer!" As Boomer's viper rolled over and
past the flight
path of the darkened shape, Starbuck took aim, and fired.
His shot flew past
the dark shape, missing it.  "Frak!"  It'd been a long time
since Starbuck
had tried to hit anything without his scanner lock. "Keep it
busy, Boomer,
so I can get in closer.  I can't hit it from this distance."

"Keep it busy?" Boomer's exclaimed.  His viper rocked to the
side as he
barely missed another round of laser bolts. "St Boxey in his arms and looked around.
"We find out
how bad the damage is, then we repair it as best we can."

"What about the Cylons" a pilot to his left asked.

"We worry about the Galactica first!  If we lose anymore
airlocks we won't
have to worry about the Cylons."  The pilot who had voiced
his fears turned
his eyes down apparently unhappy with that answer.

Apollo turned and addressed the pilot  "Look, we can't give
up.  The Cylons
will have to wait for reinforcements.  Keep in mind they
lost most of their
riders in the attack."  Turning back to face the others he
looked
challengingly at them as he transformed from a father
comforting his
frightened son to the Flight Captain they all knew and
respected.  "They can
't attack without reinforcements and I don't plan on being
around here when
they show up!"

The look in his eyes changed from challenging to commanding
as he caught and
held everyone gaze.  "So lets get this ship fix and moving!"
he commanded.
A short cheer went uparbuck, I
don't know how long
I can keep this guy busy before he gets a direct hit.  My
shielding held out
the first time, but I don't want to put it to the test
again.  Get this guy,
already!"

"The scanner lock no use.  I'm going to have to line him up
visually.  I
need you to roll into a dive, to bring him in front of me.
And, Boomer,
you'll have to bring him in close."

"If I get too close he could just as easily shoot you as
me!" Boomer
objected.

"We've got to take that risk.  This ship isn't all that easy
to spot.  It
appears to be raider of some kind but it's been blacked out.
I'm barely
able to visually follow its outline.  If I loose track of
him, I don't know
if we'll see him again before he gets a shot off at us."

"Where's the other ship?"

"You're going to have to tell me.  I'm afraid if I take my
eyes of him even
for a micron, I'll lose sight of this "Dark Raider."

As Boomer turned, diving up toward Starbuck's viper, he
checked his scanner.
It still could not  from the pilots assembled.  The
medical and
engineering staff in the room look hopeful.  This is what
they needed,
someone to take charge and give them a chance for survival.

"Leaders report to your stations.  I want damage reports!
Starbuck check
the number and status of our squadrons.  I need to know how
many of our
pilots can still fly.  Bojay and Sheba take some warriors
and check out our
remaining vipers.  Help organize the ground crews.  Maybe
Alpha bay isn't as
bad as we thought.  Shadrick how soon can you repair the
bridge's airlock we
can't work for long in pressure suits?"

Apollo watch those assembled.  Some grinned at him while
others were nodding
in agreement, yet nobody had moved.  "Well," he said, "get a
move on we
haven't got all day!"  The crowd jumped into action and
began to disperse
now that everyone had something they could do.

Athena walked over to Apollo and put a hand on Boxey's
shoulder. "Hey, I'm
going to need some help checking the galley.  I have to mdetect the Dark Raider following him but
the scanner did
have a lock on the raider approaching Starbuck from behind.
"If I can trust
my scanner, the second ship is coming up behind you, on your
six."  Starbuck
's viper did not move but remained stationary.  "You need to
get out of it's
way, Starbuck."

"After you finish your dive, Boomer.  My viper's not
maneuverable enough
right now to turn back in time."

"Frak, Starbuck, this is going to be close!" Boomer cursed
as he raced
upward.  He could see the other ship closing in on Starbuck.

"Good!  The closer the better." Starbuck responded as his
eyes tracked this
new Dark Raider.

The Dark Raider fired again as the two ships raced toward
Starbuck's
position. Boomer couldn't turn aside or Starbuck would lose
his shot, so
instead, he put his viper into a spin hoping it would miss
him.

Boomer's viper shot up past Starbuck's motionless viper.
Once past, Boomer
pulled the nose of his viper up into as sharp a turn as he
could force oake
sure our food
supply wasn't damaged." She watched his eyes for any
reaction and was
pleased to see him interested in what she was saying.

"Muffy can sniff out mushies," he offered.

Athena smiled brightly at him "Great, why don't you and
Muffit come and help
me then?"

Boxey look from Athena to Apollo "Can I dad?" he asked his
enthusiasm for
showing off what Muffit could do overriding his earlier
fears.

"Of course you can."  Apollo smiled warmly at Athena as she
took Boxey from
him. He gently clasped Athena's arm in appreciation, "Thank
you."

Athena smiled back at him, "Anytime big brother." Looking at
Boxey she
shifted his weight in her arms as she headed out the door.
"So, what else
have you taught Muffit to sniff out?" she asked him.

As the door closed behind them Apollo could hear Boxey's
excited voice "Oh,
lots of things, there's mushies, and cream cakes and..."

"Apollo?" Apollo turned around to find Omega behind him.
His eyes burned
with fatigue and something eut
of his fighter.  All motion seemed to slow to a crawl as the
G-forces
mounted and the pressure on Boomers body increased.  His
field of vision
diminished as his peripheral vision faded out.  His sight
reducing itself to
a small round area before him, the black edges creeping in.
Then the
emergency override kicked in, switching off the onboard
gravity.  In a
flash, everything snapped back into real time.  Floating
free of the
oppressive gravity, held in place by his harness, Boomer
lined up the raider
coming up behind Starbuck's damager viper and fired.

The flash of the explosion was reflected briefly on the
inside of Starbuck's
canopy as he watched the Dark Raider shoot up before him,
hot on Boomer's
tail, and soar right into his line of fire.

"Gotcha!" Starbuck called out as he fired his one remaining
laser gun,
hitting the Dark Rader dead center.  To Starbuck's chagrin,
the Dark Raider
did not explode as he expected.  Instead, bursts of arcing
electricity
surrounded it.  Itlse, a shadow, that Apollo
couldn't identify.
As haggard as he looked he still gave Apollo a lopsided
smile.  "Since I can
't report to my station do you know if any of the computer
rooms are
 intact?"  Apollo watched his face as he spoke.  His words
were light but
his face showed more and Apollo realized it was guilt that
shadowed his
eyes.

Apollo knew that look.  He'd felt it himself after the
destruction of the
colonies. The doctors called it survivor's guilt; he just
knew it as hell.
He also knew there wasn't anything he could say to Omega
right now that
would make a difference.

"I don't know.  I guess that's where we should start our
damage check."
Apollo suggested.

"Apollo." Doctor Salik motioned Apollo over to him.  Apollo
told Omega to
wait for him, as he walked over to where the doctor was
standing all the
while dreading what additional problems the doctor might
have.  Salik put
and hand on Apollo's arm as he looked up at him inquiring.
"Are You
alright?" he asked.
 gave off a blue-white glow as the
electrical discharges
surged and flowed around and through it. Then the light
faded and the Dark
Raider drifted forward, listing on it side, dead in space.


Part 6  -


"Recon Patrol One to Galactica, come in."

"Our transmission can't make it through the jamming wave.
We're still too
far away from the Galactica," Starbuck said as he checked
his communications
link again.  The small screen continued to blink at him -
Communication
Interference.

"How are your systems?  You going to make it back okay, or
should I tow you
in instead?" Boomer asked as he looked over at Starbuck's
damaged viper.

"Huh?  What did you say?" Starbuck turned down the volume on
his long-range
communication channel.  All he was getting was static
anyway, and it made
hearing Boomer all that harder.  His head was beginning to
throb, with what
was certain to be a killer headache, as his left ear
continued to ach.  He
brushed at the dried blood there and was grateful that

Apollo checked the sarcastic remark that came to his lips.
He glanced at
the injured in the life center, at Omega talking quietly to
Rigel, then back
to Salik.  "I don't have choice," he replied "I have to be.
" Apollo stared
into Salik's eyes daring him to say otherwise.

"Alright Apollo, but I'll be here if you need me." Apollo
nodded at Salik,
"Thanks," he said as he turned and headed for the lifecenter
door.

Omega met him at the door but turned back for one last look
at Rigel.
Apollo followed his gaze and abruptly realized what Rigel
was holding.  A
baby.  He looked back over to Omega who, even with the
shadow in his eye,
ginned idiotically back at him.  Apollo thumped Omega on the
back as they
walked out of the Lifecenter. "Congratulations!  Whatever
happens, something
good came out of today."

Change of Command Part 2
by Alice Baltes-Quist

The doors opened and Omega and Apollo walked out of the
pressure hatch that
had been attached to the bridge entrance on the main le at
least the bleeding
had stopped.

"Do you need a tow?"  Boomer asked, concerned.  He could
hear the strain in
Starbuck's voice and now wondered if the outside of the
viper was all that
had been damaged. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Starbuck replied, unwilling to acknowledge
anything was
wrong.

*Be fine?*  Knowing Starbuck as well he did, Boomer knew
this statement was
incomplete. "How bad?"

"I just got a little shook up when we hit, that's all,"
Starbuck replied
casually.

"Uh huh, how shook up?" Boomer persisted.

Starbuck sighed, knowing Boomer wouldn't let it rest until
he gave him some
information. "I got some kind of shock when I connected with
that Dark
Raider.  I'm amazed it didn't blow out my systems.  I'm
pretty sure it blew
out my ear, though."

"Your ear?"

"Yah, I can't hear very good out of my left ear right now.
Probably just a
blown eardrum.  Like I said, I'm fine."

Unconvinced, Boomer ignored that comment.  "When we get back
I'll request a
med vel.
Their progress
was slowed by the pressure suits they wore as they walk out
onto the bridge.

Omega looked out across the main level of the bridge and
shuddered.  The
view port had shattered with the impact and shards of the
clear metal were
strewn about the decking.  To the left side of the view port
was the breach.
It was a rupture in the wall about two meters long and one
meter across.  As
he looked through it he could see stars on the otherside
before his view was
block by one of the EVA technicians as they worked on the
ruptured from the
outside of the ship.  He watched as the tech passed a long
thin piece of
equipment through the breach to his counterpart on the
bridge.  Omega looked
away.  As he looked across the now empty station of the
personnel he would
never see again his eyes blurred.   The twisted metal and
naked wires spoke
volumes of the damage that had been done.  He should have
been here, his
mind told him, even though he knew it would not have made a
differenctech meet us in the bay."

Starbuck just sighed audibly into the com mic.  "You know,
Boomer, you're
really beginning to sound like my mother."

Boomer grumbled, "as if."

"I promise, I'll go to the Life Center and get it check out
as soon as we
land.  However, I am certain I don't need a med tech to meet
me at my
 viper." Starbuck replied in as confidant a tone he could
manage.  The last
thing he needed was Boomer to think he was in any way
seriously hurt and
force the issue.  Granted, his head hurt, but he didn't need
the
embarrassment of having a med tech waiting for him in the
bay.  It wasn't
that serious, and more importantly, it would ruin his
reputation.

"Okay, Bucko.  If you don't, I'll just sic Cassiopeia on
you," Boomer
warned.

Starbuck knew Boomer wouldn't back down on this, so he just
sighed and
decided to make the best of it.  After all, he thought,
Cassie would be
sympathetic and sympathy was something he could use to get
her to tell him
what was going on.

Oe.  All
that would have accomplished was that he would be dead too,
but he still
felt that he had failed them by not being here.

"How in the name of Kobal...?" Omega he heard Apollo's
softly spoken words
through the com unit as they stood there looking over the
damage.

He watched as Apollo climbed the steps to the center command
station the
bulky pressure suit at odds with his slow almost graceful
movements.  The
techs had reduced the gravity to one half in this part of
the Galactica to
help with the repairs and it added an eerie feeling to the
too still bridge,
not to mention nausea to Omega.  He had never liked zero
gravity and even
half gravity was unsettling to his stomach.

The circular railing that usually surround the command
station was flattened
and torn from its mounting on the right side.  Part of the
forward bulkhead
had been blown back into the bridge as the explosion hit.
The section had
landed on the command station crushing the railing and those
that had been
thnce again Starbuck wondered what Cassie was up to.  She'd
been very
secretive of late.  Twice he had caught her talking to Sheba
only to have
them stop talking the micron they spotted him.  No amount of
coaxing on his
part had gained him any answers.

It wasn't so much the sudden end of all conversation that
bothered him -
some topics he really didn't want to hear about - it was the
guilty looks
that followed this abrupt silence.

Starbuck was worried about this disturbing new trend.  He
had grown very
attached to Cassie, more than he had to any of his past
conquests.  Only
this time, she wasn't his conquest, he was hers. Starbuck
feared she'd done
more than just make him her conquest; she'd stolen his
heart.  He'd never
believed it was possible for him to actually lose his heart
to love; he'd
never put it on the table.  Somehow this time, he'd
unknowingly gambled with
it and lost the game. Now he hope fervently she wasn't going
to take it and
run.

Oh, he'd given her several reaere.  The retrieval teams had been unable to move it.
Instead of cutting
it up to remove it they had reduced the gravity and lifted
it back into
position.  They had told Omega that it would be more use to
them in one
piece as they used it in the repairs.  Omega tried not to
think about the
damage it had caused to the equipment nor the people in its
path.

Omega, looking at the partially crushed computer station,
followed Apollo up
the stairs when suddenly Apollo stopped in his tracks.

Omega laid a hand on Apollo's shoulder as he walked past.
"It's not as bad
as it looks.  None of the hits we took managed to break the
power lines to
the main computer or flight computer main frames in the
computer rooms."  As
Omega headed toward his computer console he saw what had
stopped Apollo.
There was a dark stain on the landing near the crushed
railing.  Omega just
stared at it as visions of what must have happened came
unbidden to him.  He
closed his eyes and tried to block it out.

A hand sons to leave him: Athena,
Brie and Detra just
to name a few, but somehow he always come back to her.  The
others were more
of a check and balance. To prove to himself that he wasn't
serious about
anyone. Yet, the thought of Cassie with someone else drove
shards of raw
anguish through him.  This was a new feeling for him, and it
made him all
the more concerned over Cassie's actions of late. He knew
the games; he
written the rules.

Boomer's voice abruptly cut off his errant thoughts. "If
your systems took a
shock, how bad are they?"

"Most of my systems appear to be registering operational,"
Starbuck replied,
having already gone through a checklist of all his major
systems. "My left
engine's readings are fluctuating a bit but otherwise, I
think I'm OK. What
does it look like from out there?"

Boomer took his first, long look at the damage to Starbuck's
viper. "Well
you're certainly going to piss off your flight crew for
crumpling your front
sensor array" Boomer came back with as landed on his shoulder giving him a little shake
dispelling the
visions. "Omega, did you hear me?" Apollo asked.

"Um, " Omega swallowing several times as he turned to Apollo
and tried to
focus on the problems at hand. "I'm sorry what did you say?"

"How long before we get the breach fixed and the air seal
replaced? "Apollo
repeated.

"Hopefully we should be able to repressurize the bridge in
two to three
centars." Omega, having been returned to reality tried to
get a grip on the
situation. He walked over to the main station and flipped
several switches
to see what if anything would come up.  He was surprised to
see that most of
the station was still functional.

"That looks promising" Apollo noted as he bent down to
examine the main
cable lines of the damaged right side of the station. "The
computer techs
were hopping the power and net cables hadn't been severed. "
He pulled back
 part of a damaged section " The outer casing is crushed
but, the cable
lines look intact.  That shohe slowed down his
forward momentum,
allowing Starbuck's viper to slowly pass along side him.

The front nose section of the viper was scrapped and
creased.  Boomer could
easily follow the path the other ship had taken as it
scraped along the
front nose section of the viper, tearing a good size gash
down the hull.
Where the left gun and front section of the left delta wing
should be, there
was only a stubby piece of torn metal, sparking into the
area around it,
like a miniature light show.  The gash continued down along
the side of the
left turbine engine, slicing through the protective
covering. "You've got
some buckling and a good size tear in your outer skin."
Boomer reported as
he maneuvered his viper under Starbuck's. He looked up and
let out a low
whistle.

"That good huh?" Starbuck responded, trying to make light of
the situation.

"Well, the good new is your luck is still holding." Boomer
countered.

"The bad news?" Starbuck asked, an edge to his voice.

"I found the fruld please Tokin." Apollo said
as he stood up
and scanned the bridge.

"Shadrick is hopping to get the replacement seals from the
Solarious within
the next 30 centons." Omega continued as he look back over
to the repair
team working on the breach. "The repair techs told me they
should have the
rupture sealed off in about two centars." He grinned as he
looked over at
Apollo "Shadrick told me it normally takes a full twelve
centars to replace
this type of seal but he'd do it in two as a favor to you."

Omega could see Apollo shake his head before he turned back
to face him his
smile vague.  "As long as it doesn't leak I'll be happy."

"A leak would be welcome about now." Both men turned as
Shadrick climbed up
the bridge steps. "A leak I can handle."

"What can't you handle? " Apollo asked the edge in his voice
evident.  Even
through the pressure helmet Omega could see the worry flash
across Apollo's
face.

Shadrick stopped at the top of the stairs. "A Keel fracture.

"A what?" Omont half of you delta wing."

"Huh?"

"It's been twisted underneath and jammed up against your
underside," Boomer
explained.  "Part of it has penetrated your left engines
outer casing.  A
few more microns to the left and it would have punctured
your Tylium cells.
Looks like you're reputation as the luckiest pilot in the
fleet is secure,
Bucko."

"Yah well, I not taking any bets on that yet." He said, the
stress coming
though his voice now.  "How's my landing gear look?" He
asked.

"I can't tell. The hatch is partially blocked."

 "Will it extend?" Starbuck persisted.

"Hard to say, but it looks like your gear should be able to
push the debris
out of the way."  Boomer edged his viper over trying to get
a better look.
"Only one way to know for sure, you're just going to have to
try it."  He
said finally.

"Okay, here goes." Starbuck activated the power buss to his
landing systems
and took a deep breath before grasping the 'Gear Extend'
switch between his
thumb and finger.

"ega asked, the term was not one he associated
with a battlestar.

"A fracture to the main support structure of the Galactica"
Shadrick
clarified.

"Where?"  Omega asked, a burst of nausea that had nothing to
do with the
gravity levels threatened to overwhelm him.

"Just behind alpha section." he replied as he took a long
look around the
bridge stopping when he too noticed the dark stain.

"And" Apollo prompted when Shadrick didn't continue.

"And" he sighed as he looked back at the two of them "if
we're not careful
the whole front section will tear itself apart."



Sheba hit the floor leaver with everything she had. There was a
loud bang
and the ringing sound of metal on metal as the cross beam she was
using
vibrated from the force of her hit sending shockwaves unpleasantly
up her
arms. With a painful hiss she dropped the beam and shook her arms
to
alleviate the pain. "Frak that hurts!"

"What are you doing?" Bojay's head appeared from around the
shuttle they
were trying toNO - WAIT!  DON'T ACTIVATE IT!!  Boomer suddenly yelled out
in alarm.

Starbuck jerked his hand away from the switch. "Why?  What's
wrong?"

"You've got a leak." Boomer stated in a flat strained voice.

"Oh feldercarb, from where?"

"I'm not sure, there are a lot of droplets floating under
the broken wing
section."  Boomer could see the tightly clustered droplets
bunched up under
the debris.  "They're not dark so it's not a power systems
leak." Boomer
stated.

"It's clear?" Starbuck asked, with dread.

"Ya, bucko."  Boomer answered evenly.  "It could be coolant
leak or.."

"Tylium." Starbuck finished.  Volatile Tylium. If he tried
to lower his
landing gear it would push on the broken delta wing and
certainly cause a
spark.  Not good - most assuredly not good.

Starbuck checked his fuel, "My fluid levels seems stable
enough.  Perhaps it
is coolant," he called out.

"It's not a big enough leak to make a dent on your levels
yet.  I wouldn't
cover that bet if I were you."

"Gi free up.  It had been thrown up against the main
bay doors
separating the shuttle staging area and the launch bay.  They were
trying to
move it in order to open the doors but its landing skids were
jammed into
the door's tracks.

Awkwardly Sheba hugged her arms to her self, "Okay, so that's not
going to
work."

Coming around the shuttle Bojay raised his eyes brows at her "What
won't
work and what did you do?" He noticed the beam on the deck next to
the lever
"You hit it? With a that?" incredulous he just started at her.

"Yah, well it sounded like a good idea at the time!" She went back
over and
tried to manually move the leaver.  "If I can just loosen this it
should
release the door." she said through gritted teeth as she
unsuccessfully
pushed and then pulled on the floor lever. "Oh, fledercarb, it's
just wedged
to tight."

"Let me have a look." reluctantly Sheba moved aside as Bojay
griped the
leaver in both hands, firmly planted his feet and heaved.  Nothing
happened.

"Seving me betting advice now, Boomer?" Starbuck tried to
sound light." I'll
worry about it latter.  What do we do about our friend
floating over there?"

"We need to take it back.  That's the only way we can hope
to overcome this
technology," Boomer stated.

"Boomer, you always were one to point out the obvious. But,
with my leak
unknown, I don't think a tracking beam would be wise."

"I'm giving you gambling advice and you're thinking.  My
what a mixed up
day," Boomer teased.

Starbuck grinned and redirected his power from his landing
systems to his
magnetic tow cables.

"Okay, Magna-lock cables it is then."

__________________________

"Shuttle Delta, you are cleared for landing on Beta Deck,
shuttle bay 4."

"Acknowledged, shuttle bay 4."

Omega listened to the com traffic that filtered in through
his headset.
What he was waiting for was a signal from one of their
patrols that they had
sent out.  Behind him, he could hear muffled footsteps
approach him.  He'
been listeninge, I told you, it's stuck." Sheba pointed at the decking near
the leaver
where buckling was plainly evident. "The inner workings must be
jammed."

"So, hitting it with a cross beam was going to accomplish, what?"
Bojay
knelt down and examined the side of the leaver's base near the
buckling.

"I was hopping it would relieve some of my frustration with the
fraking
thing!" she admitted stubbornly crossing her arms and glaring
angrily at the
offending leaver.

"Did it?" He asked rising from his knee.

Sheba's hands were moving up and down her arms "No." she admitted.

"Good, so I can assume you won't be attacking anymore leavers
today?"

"I'll let you know." Arrogantly she lifted her nose up at him.  It
was a
game between them.  It stemmed from when Sheba was first assigned
to the
Pegasus.  Bojay had thought her a spoil arrogant brat and treated
her as
such.  So that's what Sheba had given him, with such exaggerated
melodramatics that she had him holding his side in laughter.
Since  to those footsteps for the past centar as
they paced around
the bridge like some caged animal.  Now, they stopped behind
him.

"Still no response from Blue or Green squadrons.  Flight
Sergeant Jolly's
last report said they were heading into the jamming field
they encountered."
Omega turned in his chair in time to see the worry flash
across Apollo's
face.  Covering his com mic with his hand Omega whispered.
"Your father
could never stand waiting for word on a missing patrol,
either."

"He had yarhens to get use to it.  I don't know how he did
it." Apollo said
in admiration.

Omega shook his head and smiled "He didn't.  He'd just paced
around the
bridge until word came, one way or another. Just like you."

Apollo looked over at Omega and smiled at the comparison.
"Thanks."

"What are you going to tell the council about the transfer
of the Crystal's
and Scarab's populace? "

"I haven't thought about it. I figured I'd worry about it
later."

"Uh, Apollo," and Omega gestured behithen
whenever the situation seem tense she would automatically reverted
to the
game as a way of breaking the tension.

"You do that." He pointed a wrench at her smiling then pointed it
back the
way he came "in the mean time I'll be over here removing the
skids.   Why
don't you check with Huron and see if he can get under there and
free that
leaver."

Sheba turned around and tried to spot the tall thin technician.
She spotted
his unruly mat of sandy hair over by the break table as he tossed
his head
back trying unsuccessfully to get his hair out of his eyes.  He
was holding
an odd black and gray piece of metal in one arm as he stuffed a
sweet pastry
in his mouth with the other.  He already had two water containers
under one
arm and was picking up a cup of something seaming hot.  Comically
he tried
to take a sip but soon realized he had the pastry in his mouth and
both his
hands were engaged.  Perplexed he stood there moving his arm up
and down.

As tired as she was Sheba knew he wnd him "I think it's
'later'." Behind
Apollo, four white-robed delegates of the Council of the
Twelve entered the
bridge.

"Frak, not now!" Apollo hissed.

"Captain Apollo, may we have a word with you," Counselor
Yogan requested in
way that was obviously a command.

Part 7

Starbuck tapped the pressure gauge of the tow cable and
watched as the
needle obediently rose out of the red, danger zone and into
the green, safe
zone.

"Starbuck?"

"Yo."

"We've got company." Boomer's excessively calm voice alerted
Starbuck.

"What?" Starbuck checked his scanner. He had set it on
forward scan, while
Boomer had his on rear scan. Quickly, he switched it back to
rear scan. He
watched with apprehension as twelve blips appeared behind
them.

"Feldercarb."

"They're going to catch up to us at this speed," Boomer
confirmed.

"They just don't want us to take their new toy home,"
Starbuck said as he
checked the power levels of the tow cable. The magnetic
locks were holding
but draining as working on even less sleep
and it now
appeared to be catching up with him.  She watched as he was
rescued by
Cassiopeia who took the water containers out from under his arm,
took the
cup out of his hand and finally removed the pastry from his mouth.
She then
neatly piling his supplies into one of the small boxes set on the
table for
that purpose.  He grinned his thanks at her as he pick up his
steaming cup
and took a gulp.  Instantly he spat it out as he stuck out his
tongue and
ineffectually fanned it.

Calmly Cassie handed him a cup of water and forced him into a
chair.  Sheba
could here her admonishing him as she approached.

"What were you thinking?  I just told you it was very hot.  What
part of
'very hot' did you not understand?" Finished with the cup of water
she had
given him he frantically looked around for something else to
quench the fire
in his sore mouth. "thy thus thirsty" he mumbled around his
tongue, which
didn't seem to want to go back into his mouth. "tith hurtthe power from his engines.

"Guess nobody ever showed them how to share their toys,"
Boomer countered,
as he check his own power levels. "We can't outrun them
towing this thing,"
Boomer reluctantly admitted "Well have to jettison the
cables."

"Frak that! We have to get this thing back. The technology
is too valuable."

"I agree, but you're not exactly up to another fire fight,"
Boomer
admonished.

Starbuck was suddenly distracted by a light flashing
feverishly at him, it's
red color demanding attention. "I don't think it's going to
matter, Boomer.
We've just been cut off."

"What?!" Boomer checked his forward scanner just as
additional blips began
to inch across the screen toward them. "Frak it! Are we out
of jamming range
yet?"

"No. My sensors still show the jamming field at 2400 x 3600.
No one beyond
two hectars is going to understand anything we transmit,"
Starbuck angrily
answered.

"Frak. How far away is the group behind us?" Boomer asked as
he watched the
forward gh."

"Stop talking a minute so I can take care of that." Cassie was
trying to get
him to look up at her. "Hold still!" She commanded as she grabbed
his errant
head with both hands.  Once she got his head stopped she began to
put a
cooling spray on his reddened tongue.  Sheba giggled from behind
Cassie, as
Huron sagged into the chair audibly sighing with relief.

"I've got tired fools all over this bay," Cassie said by way of
greeting as
she stood up "and now you're giggling?" She put her spray away and
looked
astonishingly at Sheba.

Sheba smiled at her "just tired I guess."

Nodding her head in agreement Cassiopeia asked, "So, what can I do
for you?"

"Well, actually I came over for Huron's help." Sheba replied

All of a sudden Cassiopeia grabbed at the cup that Huron had
retrieved and
took it from his hand before they had a repeat of his performance.
"And
 you" she addressed Huron as she placed the cup out of his reach
"should
take a rest period. "

"I don't have time for throup change course to intercept them.

"Six hectars. They'll be on us in approximately five
centons. The group in
front of us will catch us in about three."

"We don't have a choice.  We're going to have to leave your
new friend
behind," he concluded, frustrated.

"Frak it!" Starbuck pounded the side of his cockpit in
impotent anger. "OK,
turn to point 46.1. Lets make a run for it."

"We'll never out run them to the fleet," Boomer cautioned,
as he started
transferring his power systems.

"We don't need to. We just need to get into communication
range," Starbuck
replied as he also redirected his power from the magnetic
cables back to his
engines. "If we can't keep this ship, then we have to at
least pass on the
transmission we intercepted."

"Disengaging tow cable!" Starbuck watched as Boomer's tow
cable floated free
from his viper.

"Activating recon beacon on the tow cable. " Starbuck then
pulled the
release lever. "Tow cable away."

"You're being rather optimistic," Boomer at" he waved her off as he snatched up
his pastry
and stuffing it whole into his mouth started to leave.

"Oh, wait Huron." Sheba called out to him but he seemed to ignore
her.
Giving Cassiopeia helpless shrug she hastily chased after him.
She caught
up to him at one of the few functioning lifts in the bay. "The
floor lever
to the shuttle staging doors is jammed.  I wanted to know if you
could get
under the decking and check it out?"

"Sorry, not now, I've got to get this to Wilker's lab" he said as
he
brandished his odd piece of metal in front of her.

Sheba again took noticed the odd metal fragment.  She noticed this
time that
it wasn't two colors but rather two types of metal.  There was a
large black
almost rectangular section and on it were a number of metallic
gray circuits
like objects. "What is it?"

"I have no idea," he said getting into the lift.

"What do you mean you have no idea?" Sheba called out as the lift
started
up.  Impulsively she jumped up onto the lift.

"marveled, as they
both engaged
their turbos.

"'Optimistic' is my new middle name, Boomer!" Starbuck
announced.

"I always thought it was 'Dumb Luck'!" came a voice over the
com channel.

"Jolly?!"

"You didn't think the captain would let you two have all the
fun, did you?"
came the reply as Jolly's viper rocketed into view before
them, followed
shortly by the rest of Blue and Green squadrons. The vipers
didn't slow but
continued on past Starbuck and Boomer's position. "You don't
mind if we play
with your friends, do you?"

"No, no! Have all the fun you want!" Starbuck shouted in
relief. "Come on,
Boomer, we've got some tow cables to catch!"

Part 8

"Councilors, we don't have time for you to take a vote on
this. When we are
out of immediate danger, I will be more than happy to give
you and the rest
of the council a full report," Apollo replied in an attempt
to forestall yet
another request for a full council hearing.

Apollo was certain he was in hostile territory as he saAnd Cassiopeia thinks I'm the one who needs a rest period?
You're crazy
lady" he looked astonishingly at her.

Ignoring his comments Sheba pointed at the fragment. "What do you
mean You
don't know what it is?  I've seen you identify scorch fragments
with out a
second look." clearly Sheba was intrigued.

"Just what I said.  Burton said they found it in one of the impact
sites.
But this, " and looked back at the fragment and ran his free hand
over it as
if this tactual touch could provide answers "isn't ours and it
isn't Cylon
or at least not any Cylon technology we've encountered before"
The lift
stopped and the doors opened but as he started to get off he
turned back to
Sheba a worried look on his face. "Look, I guess Cassiopeia was
right I am
tired, I'm not supposed to talk to anyone about this."  He looked
pleadingly
at her "Don't mention this to anyone, please."

"But, this could be..."Sheba started but Huron held up his hand to
silence
her.

"This could be nothing.   Look, I t
facing the four
councilors in the relatively small command briefing room.
They had been here
for 20 centons already, and Apollo doubted they had talked
about anything of
any real importance, beyond the Galactica's damages. The
rest was politics!
He knew he wasn't very good at the game, his temper usually
getting the
better of him. Now, he strived for calm. All his energies
shouted at him to
be near a com channel, to monitor the situation of his
missing patrols, but
he also realized he couldn't risk alienating the councilors
and the Council.
At least not yet.

"You will give us a full report, now, *Captain*. We have
waited long
 enough," Bracus contradicted in an angry huff.

"What more to do you need to know? I've already gone over
the damage to the
Galactica and the status of her crew.."

"We know that, Captain." Bracus cut him off. "What we want
to know is when
will you move the fleet out of this area? The people are
frantic to get away
from here. We all know the Cylons couldcan't afford to get Engineer
Barton on my
case again." He turned his upheld hand sidewise and offered a
handclasp to
her "you do this for me and I'll owe you one."

Reluctantly, Sheba clasped his arm, "Okay".  He was an all right
kid and she
knew Barton had been hounding him hard lately, but as he turned to
leave she
called out "I want to know what they find out about that."

Half way down the corridor he turned to her with a look confusion
"about
what?" Then grinning at the expression on her face he turned and
continued
down the corridor.

"What was that all about?" Athena asked as she approached the
lift.

"Nothing I guess."  Sheba replied and crossed her arms annoyed.
Athena got
into the lift and gave her an inquiring look.  Sheba uncrossed her
arms and
simply said "Men."

Athena nodded her head in womanly understanding and they traveled
the lift
in silence.



Shadrick placed his pressure suit helmet down on the console of
the small
anti chamber off of the main bridge.   come back at any
time to finish us
off. With the Galactica damaged, we are defenseless."

"Bracus, with the Galactica damaged, we can't possibly leave
this sector!"
Apollo shouted, his anger getting the better of him. They'd
gone over this
argument a dozen times, at least, and he was very close to
losing what
precious little patience he had with the councilor.

Apollo could see the storm signs brewing amongst the other
councilors.
"Look, I know you are only concerned about the welfare of
the fleet." Well,
that wasn't the truth, but, Apollo thought, it couldn't hurt
to pander to
their egos. "It's my main concern, too. Our engineers are
working as fast as
they can to make the structural repairs necessary for the
fleet to resume
her journey. But, until then, the Galactica cannot be
moved."

"Granted," Yogan said, forestalling Bracus in yet another
round of needling
Apollo about leaving the area. Apollo looked over at Yogan
in surprise. He
was up to something, that was for sure, but It was one of only two side
computer
rooms that had retained their air seals and had been taken over by
the
repair teams as they worked to fix the damaged to the main bridge.

As Shadrick sat down he brought up a graphic of the Galactica on
the screen
before him.  A port view of the Galactica was displayed with a
cutaway
enlargement of the landing bay's damaged forward section.  More
comfortable
with the voice interface of his own computer in engineering,
Shadrick
awkwardly typed into the keypad of the computer station before
him. The
graphic on the screen rotated up and around, in the three
dimensional space
of the computer program, settling on a view of the Galactica from
above.

Several thick lines were now overlaid over the Galactica's image.
"This is
the Galactica's keel, her main support framework, where all of her
decking
and support struts are anchored.

Apollo looked at the image on the screen.  The Galactica's outline
surrounded the smaller details showing her decks and pwhat? Not for
the first time,
Apollo wished he'd inherited at least some of his father's
skill at handling
the politicians.

"We're getting nowhere, and to be honest, the more we pester
the captain the
longer it will be until we move this fleet." Yogan said to
Bracus. "You've
been straightforward with us, Captain.  Now I'll be strait
with you." That
would be a first, Apollo thought, but held his tongue.

"You haven't been very forthcoming on keeping us informed in
this
 emergency." Yogan held up his hand before Apollo could
respond. "I know you
have been busy, but you must understand that the council
needs to know these
things, in order to relay what information is necessary to
our people. To
keep them calm," he added almost as an afterthought. Apollo
felt 'Pacified'
would have been a better word for what Yogan meant.

"You must realize, Apollo, that we must work at keeping the
trust of the
people, and no information during a crisis breeds distrust.
We, of the
council, must work assages.
Superimposed
over this was the structure Shadrick had just brought up.  Apollo
watched as
Shadrick enter some more data on the keypad and 4 blips on the
graphic began
to blinked red.  "Here is our problem."

"Looks more like problems." Omega countered.

"True." Shadrick agreed. "The keel fracture is at the junction
between Alpha
and Beta sections and is our worst problem.  Our main maneuvering
thrusters
straddle it.  If we try to make a directional change the opposing
forces
generated by the thrusters could literally pull her apart here. "
Shadrick
pointed to the junction connecting the front Alpha section, to the
main Beta
section, of the Galactica.

"What are these other problems?" Apollo asked pointing at the
three
remaining blips on the screen.

"Those, along with the Keel fracture are our most serious repair
problems
right now." Shadrick stated.  "This one at the middle pylon
connecting Beta
section to the port landing bay." and he pointed to the middle
connecting
at preventing that at all costs," Yogan
stated. He then
smiled at Apollo and added, "You must understand this, too,
if you plan to
run for the regrettably vacant Caprican seat on the
council."

Apollo had always been very careful never to underestimating
his opponent in
battle. Now, he realized he had overestimated them in this
case. Listening
to Yogan, he realized that they didn't care about the
ramification of this
crisis to the fleet, as much as they cared about their
political standing
with the people of the fleet. And more importantly, what his
political
agenda was. "I have no intention of running for a political
seat on the
council, councilors," Apollo quietly explained. "You are
mistaking me for my
father."

"But, your father.."

"Was a Politician as much as he was the Commander of this
fleet. He was a
member of the original Council of the Twelve as a politician
first and a
military commander second. He once told me he actually
enjoyed locking horns
with the other council
section near where it connected to the landing bay.  "is the cause
of
several air seal leaks.  When the Cylon raider impacted the blast
twisted
the structure just enough to break her air seal all along the
connection to
the bay.  The structure itself needs to be shifted back to it
original
position.

Now Shadrick rotated the image of the Galactica again until the
view was
from below. "This has also affected the landing bay connector" and
he
pointed at the long structure that ran under the Galactica
directly
connecting her two landing bays.  " The air seals have started to
fail
starting from the port bay and traveling back toward the starboard
bay as
the pressures change.  The corridor passages leading from the bay
connector
to the Galactica have been sealed off and the same to the two
bay's
connection passages.  The air seals that are still intact are
starting to
fail as the stress point moves."

"These two." and the image rotated again returning to the top
view.  "Alpha
landingors." Apollo paused as a flash of
memory momentarily
brought that conversation back to him. "Well, at least he
did before the
Destruction. The Interplanetary Military Advisor, was the
one who worried
about any decisions the council made that would affect the
safety of the
Colonies." Apollo saw the light dawn in Yogan's eyes as he
realized where
Apollo was going with this.

"And a fine job he did, too!" Prate spat out, unsettled by
the direction of
the conversation.

Apollo nodded his head in agreement with her. "Yes, we'll
never really know
if he was a pawn for Baltar and the Cylons, or just an old
fool who was just
too tired of war." Apollo could still feel the unpleasant
shock when he'd
first heard the Council had opened communications with the
Cylons. They had
stopped all negotiations with the Gorns; who where
requesting an alliance
with the Colonies. The Cylons had made it one of their
conditions for the
peace talks.

Apollo's maternal grandfather had worked long and hard at
 bay's forward shuttle staging area and Beta landing Bay's
aft Viper
launch tubes were also damaged by Cylon suicide hits.  The bays
structure
appears stable around the damaged areas and we should be able to
make
repairs but, until we can, we'll need to move the vipers and
shuttles staged
in those areas."

"OK what do you need to stabilize your first problem, the keel
fracture?"
Apollo asked as he pointed to the blip that represented the worst
problem.

"Structure plates to be honest."  Shadrick closed his eyes and rub
the spot
on either side of his nose between his eyes" and before you ask,
no we don't
have any.  What structural metal we had on the Galactica has long
since been
scavenged to keep the other ships in our fleet going."  With a
heavy sigh he
opened his eyes and looked up at the two men staring at him.  His
news was
not good and he'd giving himself a terrible headache trying to
find some
answers to his problems.  He now hoped they could come up with
other
possibilities
getting the
volatile wing warriors to the negotiations table. They had
been close to an
agreement when the Cylons had asked for peace. Yes, if the
Gorn Alliance had
gone through, it would have changed the power structure in
the galaxy. The
Cylons knew that, and started their "peace" talks; making
sure the Gorn
Alliance was the first thing they destroyed.

Aknon, the Military Advisor, had been a fool to let the
council start the
negotiations before the Gorn Alliance was finished - or he'd
been a traitor.

"But, since the destruction," Apollo continued, "my father
also had to look
at everything from a military viewpoint, and that's a hard
place to be. The
two objectives seldom match up, and tying to manage both
factions was an
enormous strain on him." Apollo looked at each of the
councilors in turn.
"One that I do not intend to endure." He watched them
carefully before he
played his final card.

"We are still at war, councilors." He went on, not giving
them time to
remark. "Still  that might lead to the solutions that eluded him.

"Every battlestar carries her own replacement parts and patches in
her lower
decks.  You're telling me there all empty?"  Apollo couldn't
believe what he
heard.  He remembered having to catalog every spare part in those
storage
areas not long before the destruction.  He couldn't remember
exactly what
they'd done to deserve the punishment but he was fairly sure it
was
Starbuck's fault.  It had taken them days to finish that
assignment.

"We've even started to cannibalize some of her lower storage
areas.  We've
removed just about all of the struts separating the storage rooms
there.
Instead of several storage rooms in Beta section we now have one
very large
storage area."

Apollo frowned and turned away from the console. "Any ideas on
what we'll
use now?"

"Even if we cannibalize the rest of the storage areas it wouldn't
do us any
good.   It's the wrong type of metal and there's not enough of it
even if we
were to try." Shadrick under military law." Bracus began to stutter
as he finally
realize what Apollo was saying.  Yogan narrowed his eyes and
stared at
Apollo with an icy look, but didn't interrupt. "I'm a
military leader not a
civilian leader. I plan to leave the domestic decisions to
you; that's what
you are here for. But," and Apollo stood up, "the military
decisions are
mine, and my aids, not the Council's."

"Very well, *Captain*," Yogan said into the shocked silence
that had
followed Apollo's statement. "But, be assured this is not
the end of this
discussion. The council will require a full accounting when
we are safely
out of this sector."

Apollo held back the quick retort that came to his lips, *If
we get out of
this sector,* and with a nod of agreement, he marched out of
the briefing
room..


Part 9

"How'd it go?" Omega whispered as he watched the councilors
leave the
briefing room and head for the lift.

"To be honest, I don't know." Apollo sighed. "Right now, I
don't think I
care," Astated wearily.

"What about the other ships?" ask Omega.

Shadrick shook his head at Omega. "We've been using the
Galactica's supply
trying to hold them together.  There isn't much out there to
take."

"What about the Scarab or Crystal?" Omega persisted.

"You can't take anything away from either of them." Shadrick
looked over at
Omega surprised. "Heck they have half the Galactica spare parts as
it is!"

"That's what I mean, why don't we take them back?" Omega
continued.

"Take them back?" Apollo asked confused, he couldn't see where
Omega was
going with this.

"Son, if we do that those ships will not be space worthy, they're
barley
being held together as it is." Shadrick was taken aback by such a
suggestion.

"Exactly!" said Omega, at Apollo's and Shadrick's confused looks
he
continued.  "Look both those ships have been falling apart since
the
beginning.  They're the slowest ships in our fleet, at least 4
levels slower
than the next ships. They're more of a liability than tpollo said as he picked up his headset.

"You will later." Omega predicted.

"Yes, I probably will," Apollo agreed as he looked out of
the main view
port, refusing to look at the departing Councilors. When he
heard the lift
doors close he finally turned around. "Did you get a hold of
Shadrick yet?"

"He's supervising the spot patching on the fracture.  He's
asked us not to
try any maneuvering until they're done. Then we should be
able to do some
minimal maneuvering."

"Oh, no problem.  I just hope he told the Cylons. How long
is this going to
take?" Apollo asked, still piqued from his council
encounter.

"About another four centars," Omega calmly replied, not at
all bothered by
Apollo's mood.

"We may not have that long. Any word on Starbuck and
Boomer's patrol?"

"Not yet.  I've been monitoring, - wait" Omega put his hand
to his earpiece
and turned up the volume. "Yes, Blue Squadron is back in
communication
range. Jolly's reporting they found Starbuck and Boomer."
Omega actihere
worth."

"But, what would you do with the people?" asked Shadrick.

"Well, the Galactica's repair storage areas are empty now why not
put them
there?" Omega suggested.

"You're crazy son, you can't put people down there." Shadrick was
truly
astonished at such a thought.

"Why not" said Apollo cutting off Shadrick "You're right Omega, we
could use
the metal and parts as well as permitting the fleet to move
faster."

"You're forgetting that the Galactica's lower storage areas are
not set up
with thermal registers.  The tempter down there is not conductive
to keeping
a group of civilians from freezing." Shadrick pointed out.

"Can't you set up a heating system down there?" asked Omega.

"Of course I can but it will take time." Shadrick stated. "Time
that would
be better spent on repairs".

"What about something temporary until we have the time to set up
something
more permanent?" Apollo suggested as he lean back against the
console.

"I don't know, perhaps we could set up vated
the speaker control sending the com traffic to the command
station's
speakers.

"....uck's viper is a bit worse for the wear.  He'll need
help landing his
viper..."

"No, I won't! I'm perfectly able to land. The damage is only
skin deep."

"You've got a Tylium leak, for Kobol's sake!"

"No, I don't! I have an *unknown* clear, liquid leak. It's
probably just
coolant. No problem."

Apollo turned on the mic on his head set. "Starbuck, what
did you do to your
viper this time?"

"Nothing serious, Apollo, you know me. I just like to add to
the
 excitement."

"He's had his left delta wing torn off and is sporting a
possible Tylium
leak from his under carriage."

"*Coolant!* I've checked my fuel levels; there is no fuel
leak. It's
coolant, already."

"Starbuck, let's not take any chances. Omega, activate the
Landing..."
Apollo started to say but was quickly cut off by Starbuck.

"Apollo! I've never needed to use the Landing Arm since the
academy, and I
sure don't need it some portable heaters."
Shadrick
paused as he did some mental calculation then turned to the
computer console
to verify his facts.  "It might be doable.  How many people are we
talking
about?

"I don't know, Omega?" Apollo looked over at Omega.

Turning in his chair Omega activated the computer station before
him and
punched up the data on the two ships.  "At the last censes the
Scarab
reported 94 and the Crystal listed 132."

"226, huh?"  Shadrick mumbled as he pulled up further data on the
station
before him.  "According to the supply list we might just have
enough
portable heating devises to pull it off but, those devises won't
last all
that long with constant usage."

"They won't have to" Apollo responded.  "They'll just need to hold
out long
enough for your teams to set up a permanent system."

"Well let's see.  If we can salvage enough structure mental to
shore up the
keel fracture and the landing bay connector then we should be able
to repair
the launch tubes providing tnow. Boomer's just being his normal
paranoid self. My
ship is fine, I promise. I'm taking her in. Trust me on this
one, will you?"


Apollo sighed.  How many times had he heard this banter
before, when
Starbuck returned with a damaged viper? Only then, he knew,
if the damage
was serious enough, the bridge personnel wouldn't let
Starbuck bring his
viper in by himself. Apollo had been able to let Starbuck
argue the issue on
his own, without becoming a target in the lieutenant's angry
sights. But
now, he couldn't relent. "Sorry Starbuck...."

"I can land! It's safe!" Starbuck persisted.

"Lieutenant! If you won't voluntarily take assistance, then
consider it an
order. I'm not risking our newly repaired landing bay just
because you're
willing to gamble on this."

"Yes, sir!" came the stony response.

"Starbuck..." Apollo sighed.

"Your're ruining my perfect recorded, you know." Starbuck
grumbled, but
Apollo could hear the reluctant smile in his voice.

"Perfect, record? As if!" Ahe heaters hold out." Shadrick looked
over at
Apollo "I admit it could work."  He then looked up at the ceiling
as he
reprioritized his repairs in his head.  "You know, I could salvage
and use
those ship's heating systems.  That would save quite allot of time
and
effort.  I could also use their main drives to fix the Solestia's
engines,
not to mention a dozen other repairs that the fleet needs."
Shadrick looked
back at them with a sparkly in his eyes as he now saw solutions to
several
of his ongoing problems.

"Then that's our plan!" Apollo said with finality as he pushed
himself away
from the console.

Shadrick held up a hand forestalling Apollo. "I grant you it's as
good a
plan as any considering what we have to work with but Apollo, we
should try
to consider all alternatives.  The counsel will not easily give up
two fleet
ships, even these two, without coming up with several suggesting
of their
own on the matter.

"To frack with the counsel."  Apollo swore dismissing the counspollo chuckled, as he watch
Starbuck's viper
approach the Landing Arm. The viper slowed to a stop, as the
large
mechanical arm firmly grasped the viper around the
midsection in its
scissor-like claw. Then slowly the arm retracted back down
the rigging set
into the ceiling of the landing bay. It would then hold the
damaged viper up
off the deck until a support tripod could be set into place.

Apollo knew Starbuck hated the Landing Arm in an almost
phobic kind of way.
He'd had to use one once, back at the academy, and ended up
almost crushed
to death. The controllers were just cadets, themselves, and
had exerted too
much pressure on Starbuck's viper, crushing the ship in the
large metal
claw. Starbuck had managed to avoid any serious injury, but
it had taken the
deck crew almost a centar to pull his crushed viper into the
bay, and then
cut him out of it.

Apollo watched as Starbuck's viper was gently set down on a
foamed tripod
and exhaled in relief.

X-UIDL: e;U"!D9+!!%Z2!!1UN"!
el.
"We don'
t have time for them to take up a committee on this.  That Cylon
attack
force won't stay away for long.  We have to be out of this sector
before
their reinforcements can arrive.  We just can't wait!"  Apollo
turned and
looked at the repair list that had been posted on the far wall by
the repair
techs.  "We have to get the Galactica and the fleet out of this
sector as
soon as possible." His mind made up he turned back to Shadrick.
"Get your
crews ready.  Omega get me the captains of the Scarab and Crystal
on line,
there's no time to wait."

"O.K. Apollo, you're calling the shots for now." Shadrick concede
the
argument and stood up.  "I'll get my crews ready and let you know,
as soon
as I can, how long it will take us to get started."

"Good." Apollo clouted the chief engineering on the shoulder
"Thanks
Shadrick".

"Don't thank me yet, this plan still has to work." with that
Shadrick picked
up his helmet and left the small room.

Omega swivel around in his chair and 
Part 10


Starbuck sighed deeply as his viper was gently set on the
foamed, padded
landing cradle. He punched open the canopy and hoisted
himself out.  As his
feet hit the deck the bay begin to spin and he staggered
back up against his
ship.  "Whoa," he murmured as he held onto the side of his
ship for a moment
trying to regain his equilibrium.

A deck hand walked pass not even noticing him, to join the
growing group of
spectators huddled just past his damaged ship.  Starbuck
inched his way
along the front of his viper until he could see what had
captured their
attention.

The huge landing arm was slowly approaching them with the
Dark Raider
captured in its claw. Now illuminated by the bay lights and
away from the
black background of space, Starbuck got his first good look
at it.

If possible, it appeared even more menacing as it was
carried into the bay.
Starbuck realized the Dark Raider wasn't all black after
all.  What he had
thought was damage from the power surge, was infaced Apollo, "What about the
counsel?"
he asked.

"Don't worry about them." Apollo said as he pulled out the chair
and sat
down at the computer station. "I'll deal with them later when
there's time".

"If they give you time." Omega stated as he started to open a
communication
link with the Crystal.

"I'll take it whether they give it to me or not."  Apollo stated.
"It's
time they figured out I'm not my father.  I don't do politics."

Change of Command - Part 3

It doesn't read as anything special" junior tech Petran
stated as he passed
a hand held scanner over the fragment that now lay on the
examine table of
the large high powered scope.
.
"I know," replied Huron "but I'm telling you this is like
nothing the Cylons
have used before."

"So they're using a different manufacturing process, I don't
see what all
the fuss is about" the junior tech stated as he shrugged his
shoulders and
set the scanner down.

"Are you so blind to what's in front of you Petran!" Huron
snapped ir fact, strips
of gray metal
that criss-crossed the whole ship in a camouflage random
style. The lights
around the bay reflected oddly off the flat black and gray
surface almost as
if the black skin of the raider was absorbing them.

The landing arm came to a stop above a hastily modified
landing cradle.
Beyond it, Starbuck noted the two teams of warriors awaiting
it - guns
drawn. Behind them, he could see Apollo exiting the lift
followed by
Shadrick.  Apollo walked up behind Boomer and patted his
shoulder in
approval.  Boomer turned and said something to Apollo that
made him turn to
stare in Starbuck's direction, searching for him. Starbuck
knew Apollo
probably couldn't see much of him behind the deck hands and
the front nose
of his viper, but he must have realized where he was because
he flashed a
thumbs up at him.

A loud blast of air from the landing arm distracted
Starbuck. He turned to
watch as it released its grasp on its captive, then smoothly
rise up and out
of the way.
ritated
at the techs manner.  Petran was a sore spot for Huron.  He
had been given
the post of junior assistant tech to Wilker's labs before
the position had
even been posted.  A position Huron would have given his two
eyeteeth for.
A position he had not even been given a chance at.  It
wasn't fair and Huron
resented Petran his position.  It also hadn't helped Huron's
feeling any to
realize how much more he knew then Petran did.


"Okay that's enough!" Dr Wilker's normally tenor voice
dropped several
actives as he looked up from the main viewer of the scope
and chastised the
two combatants. "Huron 'I' know this is a unique sample and
Petran you will
learn that just because something isn't made up of a new
unknown type of
metal doesn't mean it can't be new and different.
Considering what we are
looking for we'd be fools not to investigate any usual find
and this is
definitely unusual.  Walker peered again through the eye
piece of the scope
he had been looking though before he was in
Starbuck stayed where he was, his vertigo forgotten, as he
tensely waited
and watched as the first team of armed warriors took
positions around the
captured ship.  The second team spread out around it to
provide cover fire,
if needed.

One of the warriors, leaning against the raider, rose up and
peered into the
darkened cockpit.  His sudden duck and nod of his head would
have been
enough to tell everyone that there were indeed active Cylons
on board, but,
if they had any doubts, the laser fire that burst through
the cockpit's
window would have put an end to them.

Immediately, the second team of warriors opened fire,
shooting at the moving
target they saw through the hold in the window.  Return fire
proved that at
least one Cylon still remained functional.

"Be careful! You don't want to damage the ship!!" Dr wilker
screamed from
the other side of the bay, where he waited along with Dr
Salik and the rest
of the technical teams awaiting their chance to get a close
look at this neterrupted.

"Amazing, this sample has been fused with hundreds of
circuits."  He changed
the focal length of his lens and the image he was looking
at, and was also
projected on the wall monitor, changed.  "All the external
circuitry that
you can see is all interconnected throughout the metal
fragment, it's as if
the fragment is a kind of giant circuit board.

"What do you think it does?" Huron asked

"I have no idea.  This is only a small fragment of an
obviously larger
combination of circuitry."  The doctor sat back and look up
from the scope.
"Yes, Huron I think you many have found a bit of new Cylon
technology but
what it did we may never know unless we can find a larger
section of it."

"I doubt we'll find anymore considering the damage it did
but I'll let the
crews know what to look for"

Wilker motioned to his senior assistant who had been
watching the wall
monitor intently. "Jamison lets hook this up to a power
source and see what,
if anything, these circuits will do."

w
technology.  The warriors ignored him. Starbuck knew from
the color of their
laser flashes that they were firing an electrical charge,
meant to stun or
immobilize a Cylon, not vaporize the valuable ship.

While the Cylons were distracted by the frontal fire the
first team had
opened up the bottom hatch and now tossed in an electro
static grenade.  As
soon as the charge's flash subsided, two warriors leaped
into the ship.
Laser shots were heard, then nothing.  For a heartbeat
everyone held their
collective breaths. Then one of the two warriors appeared at
the hatch
signaling the all clear.

Starbuck let out an audible sigh of relief, drawing the
attention of the
deck hand next to him.

"Oh my Lord!"  The deck hand exclaimed, before he began to
shout for a
medtech.

Amidst requests and all out demands for him to "Please, just
sit down!"
Starbuck continued around his viper, intent on getting a
closer look at the
Dark Raider.  He waived off the deck hands, telling them
austerely, "I don't
need a medtech, I'm fine!"

Unfortunately, removing his hand from the side of his ship
had been a big
mistake.  His vertigo seized him and took him down to the
deck in a flash.

"Starbuck!" Both Apollo and Boomer shouted as they raced
across the bay
toward him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he protested as hands pushed him back
down, refusing
to let him up.

"Starbuck don't move," Apollo cautioned.

"He said he'd gotten some kind of a shock, but assured me it
was nothing too
serious.  I knew I should have requested a medtech meet him
in the bay."
Boomer explained to his worried and irate Captain.

A breathing mask was forced on Starbuck's face, and he
violently ripped it
off. "Let me up!! I'm fine, I tell you!  I was just dizzy,"
he shouted at
the crowed around him.

"Let me be the judge of that, lieutenant," came Salik's no-
nonsense
baritone.  Boomer got out of the way as the burly doctor
came forward,
medical scanner in hand.

"He came around his ship and collapsed to
Turning around Wilker noticed Petran, still standing near
the fragment,
glaring sidelong at Huron who for his part was doing his
best to pretend
Petran didn't exist.  Inwardly he sighed.  He could see the
animosity
growing between the two techs.  Wilker signed again.  Petran
would make a
good repair tech but he didn't have the creative aptitude
needed for the
more unconventional projects that Wilker's labs ruteinly
worked on.  Huron
on the other hand, had a masivly creative mind and would
have been an asset
to Wilker's team if he'd been given permission to apprentice
the bright
tech.  But, he lost the chance.  Petran had been forced on
Wilker in a deal
he made with the council.  Wilker was granted permission to
conduct
experiments on an active captured Cylon centurion in return
for apprenticing
counselor Yogan's son.  The problem was Petran just didn't
have what it took
for the position and Huron did and Petran knew it.  Wilker's
deal was
becoming a hard price to pay.  "Petran why don't you finish
the repair on
the oscillator Salik brought in. "

"Why can't I work on this with you and Jamison?  I am
capable!"

"Petran, I will not get into this discussion with you again.
When I took
you on as an junior assistant I told you that I would chose
the assignments
for you to work on, not you.  Now, Salik needs that
oscillator and life
center 's equipment is just as important as this.  More so
really,
especially if this provides to be useless to us."

Petran reluctantly headed for the door but paused and looked
back at Wilker
"I wonder if repairing broken medical equipment was what my
father had in
mind when he assigned me here?"  Then before Wilker could
respond he turned
and left.

"I wonder if his father knew what a pain in the astrum his
son was when he
"assigned" him here, far away from himself."  Jamison stated
in his calm
unconcerned way.

Wilker who was still standing shocked at the implied threat
from 'his'
assistant turned toward Jamison.  As what his s the deck," Apollo
was explaining
to the doctor as Salik passed his sensor over Starbuck.

"Lie Still!" Apollo ordered, as Starbuck tried to sit up,
and placed the
breather back onto Starbuck's face.

Frustrated, Starbuck gave an exasperated sigh and laid back.
The throbbing
in his head seemed to be in rhythm with his angered pulse.
Soon Salik had
his sensor over Starbuck's face.  Gently, he turned
Starbuck's head to the
side, exposing the injured ear.  Then Salik sat back, put
his scanner away,
and shot something into Starbuck's neck.

"Doctor?" Apollo asked when Salik removed the breather from
Starbuck's face.

"Well, the Lieutenant's right.  I suspect he *is* quite a
bit dizzy.  Seems
he's blown out his ear somehow," Salk said as he put his
instruments away,"
but, otherwise he's seems fine."

"But..?" and Apollo motioned to the blood that covered the
upper left side
of Starbuck and the streaks of blood on his upper thighs.

Salk shook his head as he helped Starbuck up into a enior
assistant said sunk in
Wilker let out his anger and sighed.  "Yes, I think he did.
I wonder what I
ever did to that particular counselor to earn his wrath?"

"What are you two talking about?" Huron asked confused and
angered at Petran
manner and their lack of response to it.

Chuckling to himself now Wilker waved his hand dismissing
Petran "nothing,
nothing. While your hear Huron why don't you help Jamison
and me with your
discovery."

Jamison carefully hooked up two electrodes to opposite ends
of the fragment
then stood back.  "Ready?" he asked.  Wilker made some final
adjustments on
his scope then nodded his head at Jamison to activate the
electrodes.  At
first there was no response but as Jamison slowly turned up
the power they
all began to feel a pressure behind their ears and soon a
rattling sound
came from the fragments.  Wilker peered closer at the piece
through the
scope.  He quickly realized that was impossible for the
piece was moving,
vibrating with increasing vesitting
position. "All
from his ear apparently."

"See, I told you I was fine." Starbuck grumbled at them
sourly.

"Yah, but you could have warned us about the blood," Boomer
reproached.

"Blood?" Starbuck looked down at himself.  "Oh," was all he
said as he
looked at the red brown stains all over his uniform.

"Starbuck..." Apollo heaved a sigh as he shook his head.
"Boomer why don't
you help Salik get Starbuck here, to the life center."
Apollo said as he
stood up then turned to look at the Dark Raider.  "While I
take a look at
what you've brought home."


"Sir, the computer's finished decoding the message Recon
Patrol One
intercepted." Omega turned to face the ensign that stood
just behind him and,
taking the page that was handed him, scanned it quickly.

"Is it bad?" Athena asked.

Only the slight widening of his eyes betrayed his surprise
that she had come up
behind him unnoticed. "Could be worse," he said as he passed
it on to her.

Smiling her thanks, Athena took the locity as the power was turned
up.

"Hold it here Jamison and hand me a scanner."  The pressure
behind his ears
was becoming very uncomfortable as Wilker passed the hand
held scanner
across the fragment.  The scanner's power levels fluctuated
and Wilker
absently reminded himself to chastise Petran for not
retuning it to its
recharger.  As he scanned the fragment he noted that the
readings did not
appear to have changed from his previous scans.

"Turn it up a bit more Jamison."  When the power went up
Wilker dropped the
scanner he held and grabbed at his head as the pressure
behind his ears
violently turned into a sharp stabbing pain.  The fragment
skittered across
the table as if alive and flew off the edge pulling lose
from the electrodes
and hitting the floor with a loud clatter.


What was that? Petran cried out as he ran back into the
room.  All three of the occupants were holding a hand to
their heads.  Wilker was on his knees on the floor,  Jamison
was standing unsteadily neoffered paper.  Then
after reading it, she
looked back up at him, her face taut. "It could?" She asked
unsteadily.

"Well, they could already be here," he said pragmatically as
he took the printed
out back from her.

"True," she granted as she followed him down the dais steps.
"So we've got about
two days before the second ship rendezvous with the one that
attacked us?" he
nodded his agreement as he continued down the main station
steps, then crossed
in front of the helm station. "How long did Shadrick say the
repairs would
take?" she persisted as she followed him. It was all she
could do not to slide
down into a chair and wrap her arms around herself. Her
anxiety had doubled in
those few moments she had looked at the decoded
transmission, and her over
anxious nerves now seemed to be trying to turned her inside
out.  Her intestines
had settled for wrapping themselves into knots.

He stopped just outside the bridge office and turned back
toward her. "Longer
than two days," he said ar the main monitor and Huron was
pushing himself away from the wall. Hey, are you all
alright?   Petran went over to Wilker and helped him up and
into a chair.

Thank you Petran.   Wilker was surprised at the concern he
saw on the face before him.  I think we were lucky you used
short cords on those electrodes Jamison.

Very lucky I d say. Jamison gratefully sank into a chair. A
few more centons of that and I think I would have passed
out.

I m sure I would have. Huron murmured as he shakily walked
over to the fragment that now lay motionless on the floor.
He grabbed at the table and noted that his equilibrium
seemed to have deserted him.

What happened? asked Petran, his dislike of Huron
momentarily gone as he pulled out a third chair and
mentioned to Huron to sit.

Nodding his thanks Huron sat.  Sound waves.

The clattering noise? Jamison asked unconvinced

No, it wasn t making any noise we could hear.  But it was
making nose.   Wilker started.

Ultrasonic. Huron interrupted.
quietly as he opened the door.

Athena watched him enter the room, the door closing behind
him, then finally
allowed herself to sink into a nearby chair.

___________________________________

The main lights were out in the computer room, but Starbuck
could still see the
dim light coming from the computer station in the back. He
could just make out
the dark hair over the back of the adjoining station as he
threaded his way
through the room. As he walked he took in the mess it was in
now. Piles of
printouts were strewn across the floor near the main station
to his right. Even
more printouts were piled all across a nearby table. Someone
had stuck together
pages of some diagram and tacked them to the wall.  Then, in
what to him looked
like a haphazard fashion, they had attached even more pages
over the main
diagram.

As Starbuck came around the last set of computer stations,
he could see that
Apollo was intently starring at something on the screen
before him. All about
him, data dis
Yes, the clattering was it vibrating on the table.   Wilker
bent over to pick up his dropped scanner then though better
of it as a wave of dizziness washed over him.  Jamison did
the main scanner get a reading before it pulled itself free
of the electrodes?

Um, Jamison swiveled in his chair and punched up the
recorded images.  Yes, the main scanner was recording,
though it s a bad scan.

Bad scan? asked Wilker confused as the room continued to
spin around him.

Yes, it s full of interference Jamison replied as he tried
to clear up the scan.

Interference?  Sound interference!  That s how they did it.
Huron look back at the fragment that now lay eerily quiet on
the floor.

Part 4


Whirrrrrr.    Whirrrrrr.

"Stop it."

 *SNAP*

"Uuhrrrup. "

"Stop it you frakin daggit!"

  *SNAP*

"Boxey!  We don't use language like that here."

"Yes, auntie Athena."

Athena put down the toys she was picking up and walked over
to sit in the
chair next to Boxey.  He didn't look up butcs were scattered around the station, and
Apollo was concentrating
so hard on the text before him that not only did he not
notice Starbuck's
arrival, he was even muttering out loud to himself as he
read.

The scene was one from their past, and Starbuck smiled at
the memory. How many
times had he awoken at night to hear Apollo muttering, only
to find him at their
shared computer station, intensely studying one of his
textbooks before an exam?

"...after the Sythian disaster in 2986, various laws and
interstellar
regulations were soon developed concerning the use of the
light-speed capable
engines within a planetary system. Colonial regulation 1401,
specifically
states; ' No vessel shall under any circumstances ignite a
Sythatic light-speed
drive with in a parsec of a planetary system...' "

"Studying for an exam?" Starbuck interrupted.

"What?" Startled, Apollo looked up, momentarily confused,
then his eyes widened
as he recognized the reference. "No. No exams this time," he
replie continued to
stare at the pile
of broken color drawing sticks that were piled into a small
mound on the
table before him deliberately ignoring Muffet. "What's
wrong?" she asked
"Don't you want to play with Muffy?"

"No."  Boxey picked up another stick and snapped it in two.
*SNAP*

Athena moved the few remaining sticks away from Boxey's
destructive grasp.
"Why not?"

"I just don't!" with a rush of anger Boxey jumped up from
his chair and
marched across the room over to the vidscreen and turned it
on.

Athena frowned and followed him dismayed at his mood.
"Boxey, do you want to
talk about it?" she asked gently.  She'd been busy all
afternoon with her
hands full, watching and supervision the youth center's
kids, that she
hadn't noticed until now how quiet the normally rambunctious
Boxey had been.

"No." He crossed his arms across his chest as he flung
himself down to sit
on the couch starring stubbornly at the vidscreen giving a
clear indication
that he was upset and didn't wand as he sat
back in his chair and leaned as far back as he could,
stretching his arms above
his head. They both heard the sound of Apollo's back
cracking and Starbuck
laughed at the surprised look on Apollo's face.

"Yep, just what I thought. You're getting old.  Me, on the
other hand, will
never age," Starbuck said as he sat on the edge of the
computer station. "What
are you reading anyway? Sure sounds like a textbook."

"Sythanitc engines: A technical and historic look at light
speed." Apollo
replied, still leaning back in his chair, his hands
interlaced behind his head.

"Oh, lovely, some 'light' reading. " Starbuck grinned as he
picked up the data
disc cover, "Why?"

Apollo yawned then sat back up. "Every bit of information
helps. Besides, after
talking to one of the sythainc engineers, I figured I needed
more information on
the subject if I was ever going to understand what he was
trying to explain to
me."

"Yah, but technical manuals?" Starbuck picked up one on
shuttles ant to talk about it. Not a
situation Athena
thought should be left alone.

Moving over to the couch she sat quietly next to her nephew
and watched him
for a few centons.  Athena knew Boxey had been having a hard
time with his
grandfather's death.  He had unexpectedly thrown quite a
tantrum the night
they'd told him about Adama's death and poor Apollo had been
completely
unprepared for it.  Boxey had been through so much, and
they'd been so lucky
that he'd managed to coped so well with it all, that when he
didn't they
were at a loss at how to handle it.  Then, today when Athena
had arrived at
the Youth Center, and Boxey appeared to be doing just fine,
that she'd let
herself think he was over the worst of it.  She shook her
head in reproach.
How could she expect a small child to be over it when she,
an adult, was
not? "I miss your grandfather too," she finally whispered.

His eyes suspiciously sparkled with unshed tears but he
still refused to
look at anything but the vidscreen.

"Dd looked at
it skeptically.

"It's the best source of information on the details of how
something works. If
you wanted to know about, say, a certain regulation, you'd
look the regulation
itself up wouldn't you?"

"Not if I could avoid it!" Starbuck held up his hands as if
to ward off
something unpleasant.  "Those regulations go on for pages,
heck volumes. No, I'd
just pull out my handy version of the officers best friend,
'Bluff Definitions.
'"

Apollo rolled his eyes at Starbuck. "If you don't read the
regulation then you
won't know why it was instituted. The way I look at it, it
can only help to know
why a regulation exists instead of just that it exist,"
Apollo explained. "Take
this one here." Reaching forward he tapped the computer
screen before him.
"Regulation 1401."

"No light speed in a planetary system." Starbuck answered
without pause.

"Good. So you were paying attention to some of your classes
back at the Academy?
Or do you only know the BD abbreviation?" Apollo grion't you miss him too?" Athena asked gently trying to get
pass the pain
she could now see behind those all too bright eyes.

"No." Boxey crocked out the one word response as a barely
contained sob.

Athena was taken aback by his response.  "Why Boxey?" she
asked as she
leaned over to wrap an arm around his shoulders and pull him
to close but he
angrily pushed it off and moved farther down the couch the
angry scowl on
his small face would have been comical if the situation
wasn't so serious.
Athena sat there unsure what to do but afraid to push him at
this point.

Just then Sheba entered the youth center and spotted Athena.
"Athena? I
didn't know you were Youth Protector today" she said as she
looked around
the room "I was looking for Cassiopeia."

"She said she had some tests to run in lifecenter so she
asked me to help
out for a few hours today."  Athena got up and walked over
to where Sheba
stood by the door.  "Rigel's in the video room with most of
the kids."

"Oh, I was hoppnned at
Starbuck. "Do you
know why?"

"The Sythian Disaster," Starbuck replied, grinning back at
Apollo, enjoying the
challenge. This was like when they use to study for an exam.
Apollo would fire
questions at Starbuck until he was sure Starbuck understood
the subject inside
and out. Apollo had been a tough, if thorough, tutor.

"Yes, and what was the Sythian Disaster?" Apollo persisted
as he leaned back in
his chair and crossed his arms. The sparkle in his eyes
betraying his amusement.

"The Sythians ignited a light speed engine near their home
planet, destroying
it." Starbuck fired back, crossing his arms smugly.

"True, " Apollo said, but he had obviously not yet received
the answer he wanted
from Starbuck, so he continued. "So, how did that destroy
the planet?"

"How?" Starbuck faltered . He unfolded his arms as he racked
his brain for more
information on the subject. "Does it matter?" he finally
said.  "Just knowing it
could destroy a planet is good enough to keep people froing to catch Cassiopeia and have a word with
her."  Sheba
looked around at the mess of toys and papers strewn across
the floor. There
was no unruly herd of kids currently playing in the room but
she could hear
the loud jabbering of kids talking over the sound of a video
in the next
room. "I didn't think this was something you'd want to
volunteer for."

"Oh, why not?" Athena asked as she walked over to the table
" I love kids."
she stated as she began to pick up the broken color sticks
then looked back
over at Boxey, a worried frown on her face.  Straightening
up she turned her
attention back to Sheba.  "As a matter of fact I was one of
the first
teachers when Kenton set up the learning center."

"Really?  I didn't know that.  So why aren't you still
teaching?" Sheba
asked curiously.

"Well, there were others more qualified for the job than I
and in the end it
was a bit much with my bridge duties.  Besides, I needed the
extra time so I
could get as much in-viper flying time as I com
doing it," he
reasoned, frustrated. He'd forgotten how annoying this game
could be, especially
when he'd run out of answers.

Apollo shook his head, realizing he was pushing Starbuck. "I
guess, but unless
we know what it did and why, how do we know we won't
accidentally cause some
other disaster simply because we didn't know all the facts?"

"I don't know," Starbuck admitted. " I guess that's why you
get to make the
decisions. You're good with all the extra details and
stuff." He flashed Apollo
a grin.

"I guess, but you're right.  It is dry reading," Apollo said
as he picked up a
data disc, then tossed it back down, rejecting it. "I keep
hoping to find out
something, anything, that might make a difference in the
long run," he said as
he rubbed at his temples.

Starbuck watched as Apollo searched through the mess of
printouts to his right,
uncovering a small pile of medical packets that looked
remarkably like the one
he'd find in an emergency med kit, and shook his head. Some
uld." Sheba
nodded in
understanding.  Adama had tried to keep his only daughter
safely on the
bridge.  Subtly but not overtly stalling her attempts to
remain an active
pilot, stating that they needed bridge officers as much as
they need pilots.
Perversely Athena wondered what her father would have
thought of how ironic
that situation had turned out.

Looking past Athena, Sheba spotted Boxey and smiled. "Hi
Boxey, how are you
doing?" she asked but Boxey studiously ignored her.  Sheba
looked
inquiringly at Athena who motioned her back over to the
door. "He's really
upset today and won't talk to me about it."

"Oh," Sheba looked back over at Boxey her concern evident as
she took in the
crossed arms and angry face. "How did he take...Adama's
death?" Sheba asked,
and Athena didn't know if was emotion or sympathy that
caused her to
hesitate.

"About as well as the rest of us" Athena sighed then looked
over at Sheba
and let how worried she truly was show through.  "Worse
actually," shehad already been
opened and apparently used. "Salik won't like you stealing
from his emergency
kits."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt me," Apollo replied as he
popped the purloined
pills into his mouth and tried to wash them down with, what
Starbuck figured
from the grimace Apollo made, very cold coffee.

Acutely aware now of his own tension-tight muscles, Starbuck
rubbed at the back
of his neck and thought about how long the past two cycles
had been. It felt
like they had been the longest since the Destruction. He
watched as Apollo again
rubbed at his temples and couldn't help but notice the
strain that was showing
on his friend. It showed in the rumpled clothing that
Starbuck figured Apollo
hadn't changed since the attack, in the bloodshot eyes that
probably hadn't
closed for more than a half dozen centons, at best. And,
Starbuck was certain,
the headache Apollo had was not merely brought on by stress,
but severe fatigue.

"You know, some sleep would probably cure that headache
confessed.  "He refused believe me when I told him.  He kept
yelling at me
that I was wrong, that the bridge was the safest place on
the Galactica and
his dad would come and prove Him right and Me wrong." Athena
looked
anxiously back over at Boxey.  "It broke my heart to see the
look of
betrayal Boxey gave Apollo when he showed up and had to tell
him it was
true.  Apollo's had a hard time with him ever since."

"Really?" Sheba looked troubled. "I didn't know."

"You didn't?  But, I thought...."  Athena began but Sheba
cut her off with a
shake of her head.  Now that was news to Athena.  The last
time she had
taken noticed of her brother and Sheba they were clearly an
item.  She
wondered what had happened and when?

"No, not for a while."  Sheba looked away obviously not
wanting to discuss
the matter.  "Do you mind if I try and talk to him?" Sheba
asked gesturing
to Boxey.

"No, please." Athena stepped aside and watched Sheba walked
over to where
Boxey sat, arms no longer crossed, "
Starbuck suggested.
Apollo looked up at him and sighed.

"I don't have time," he said.  "I've got to finish going
through these repair
requests from the department heads. Shadrick needs a
prioritized list as soon as
possible, so he can arrange his repairs and see which ones
he'll need to add to
the main repairs he's currently doing."
"So, why were you going through the technical manual then?"
Starbuck asked as he
took note of the report folders that had been partially
hidden under the
printouts.

"To try to understand what it was I was reading," Apollo
said, exasperated. The
momentary lightness their banter had affected seemed to
evaporate as Apollo's
eyes turned troubled. Running his hand through his hair,
Apollo looked lost as
he looked at the pile of reports, then down at the scattered
discs around him.
"I just feel so inadequate."

"You? Would you rather have *me* in charge?" Starbuck shot
back.

Apollo gave a short laugh. "No."

"I didn't thinks so, " Starbuck replied  but still obviously upset,
as he
circumspectly watched Sheba approach.  Athena decided to
stay where she was,
not wanting to make Boxey feel like they were ganging up on
him but still
close enough if needed.

Sheba stopped and stood beside Boxey waiting for him to take
notice of her.
When he refused to do so she knelt down before him. "Hi
Boxey, it's good to
see you.  I've missed you."

"No you haven't" Boxey challenged back, starring straight
ahead, even though
he could no longer see most of the vidscreen."

"I haven't?  Of course I have, why wouldn't I" Sheba
countered.  She looked
worried about this cold and almost hostile greeting.

"You would have come to see me if you did" he answered as
his anger seemed
to drain out of him.  "But you didn't," his softly whispered
bewildered and
hurt  "You just stopped coming." Athena could barely hear
him now and she
wondered how much this was hurting Sheba as her own tears
threatened.  But,
Boxey wasn't done with his mood swings for the grievously. He
waited until Apollo shot
him a contrite look then grinned back at him. "All you need
is to remember you'
re not reviewing pilot reviews and Viper repair reports. You
have others around
you who can do this and", Starbuck paused as he caught
Apollo's eye, "are
trained to do this."

"I know, Starbuck. Its just Omega's swamped with extra work
as it is. I couldn't
just pile this on him, too. I wanted him to have a chance to
actually *see* his
new daughter for a few centars."

"Yes you can!" Starbuck corrected forcefully. "Anything he
can't cover, he'll
farm out to those below him, and they will in turn give
theirs to the ones below
them, and so goes the chain of command." Starbuck made a
tisking noise as he
dramatically shook his head. "Now, I *know* you need some
sleep if you, the
inventor of the 'pass the workload buck',  has forgotten how
the system works."

"Not completely," Apollo amended. " Just my control freak
gene kicking in, I
guess." Apollo chuckled back at hiday and just
as suddenly as
his anger had left it returned in full force.  Athena
cringed; the look he
turned on Sheba was filled with resentment "I guess, I was
just a silly
little kid to think you cared about me."

Sheba was obviously taken aback by this.  Athena knew how
much Sheba cared
for Boxey - loved him in fact.  She had once described him
to Athena as a
sometimes-annoying yet lovable little boy that she couldn't
get out of her
system.  It must have been very painful for her since well,
whatever had
happened between Apollo and her.  It was quite apparent it
had hurt Boxey
too.

"Oh Boxey, of course I care about you.  I'll always care for
you no matter
what." Sheba took his small hands in hers trying to get him
to look back at
her.  Athena could see the tears brimming in Sheba's eyes.

"But, you stopped coming by.  I figured you didn't care
about us anymore."
he said his anger once again replaced by uncertainty.

"I'm so sorry Boxey, it's all so complicated." Sheba
squeem. "Starbuck, what would I
do without you to
keep me focused on the right perspective."

"I really don't know," he replied smugly. "I keep telling
Boomer how invaluable
I am." He grinned at Apollo. "So what did happen?"

"To what?" Apollo asked confused.

"The Sythian Disaster," Starbuck reminded him. "What did
happen?"

"Oh. Well, apparently when they ignited the engine, its
carbonic fusion assembly
caused a chain reaction that ignited the planet's
ionosphere. They said it was a
firestorm that engulfed the entire planet's upper
atmosphere. It's called the
"Fireball" effect.

"So, it burned the planet?" Starbuck asked as he reached
into his jacket's inner
pocket and pulled out a fumerello.

"Well no, actually, the fireball didn't do that much damage
to the planet
itself. It was the loss of the ionosphere that doomed the
planet. With the
planet's natural filters burned off, it was vulnerable to
its sun's more deadly
rays.

"Solar and cosmic radiations?" Starbuck asked, looking zed his hands as
he looked doubtfully down at her  "But, you're right, that's
not an excuse.
I didn't mean to hurt you and of course I care.  Its' not
like I can stop
caring for you like I would turn off a switch."

"But you stopped caring for my dad."

Sheba looked helplessly over at Athena, who was by no means
any help at all,
as she raised her eyebrows also awaiting Sheba's response.

Sheba looked back at Boxey. "It's complicated with adults
Boxey." She gave
his hands a gentle shake "But, I DO care for you and I have
no intention of
stopping.  I've missed you.  How about I talk with your dad
about us
spending some time together. OK?"

"Then you still care about me?" he looked back at her
uncertainly.

"Yes, I do." Sheba said forcefully.

"Then why don't you come by anymore?" Boxey asked.

Sheba sighed and spoke very softly, "You'll have to ask your
dad that one."




Two sleek vipers flew silently through the darkness of space
rapidly
approaching a planetary system that over
at Apollo as he bent
his head to light his fumerello. He cupped his hand around
the small flame from
his pocket element. It was silly, he knew, because he was in
no danger of a gust
of wind blowing through the computer room and snuffing it
out, but he'd never
quite gotten out of the habit.

Apollo scowled at him and fanned his hand before his face to
redirect the
noxious fumes away from him. "Yah, the flora and fauna were
at the mercy of the
sun's unfiltered rays."

"Hum, interesting, but, I don't see how knowing about the
Fireball is any help,
not unless you're planning on frying any passing planets."
Starbuck stopped and
took a long drag on his Fumerello, then deliberately blew it
out in Apollo's
direction as a demonstration of his own type of fireball.

Apollo vainly waved at the invading smoke. "Starbuck!  Stop
it," he protested.
Starbuck just grinned back, as Apollo glared at him.   "No,
I'm not," Apollo
protested, "but I have found some interesting information
that coulstretch out before them.
The light from
the system's sun was so dim at this distance that the ships
blood red
markings appeared gray.

"Hey Boomer you awake over there?"  Across the darkness of
space Starbuck
could just make out the illuminated outline of Boomers face
as he turned his
head to glance over in his direction.

"Yah, I was just thinking." came the subdued response.

"Hum, careful you might get into the habit." Starbuck
replied solemnly.

"Huh, oh thanks!" Injured, Boomer grumbled out his thanks.

"Anytime." Starbuck cheerfully shot back.

"Doesn't anything bother you when you're out here?" Boomer
asked wondering
anew at Starbucks never-ending optimism.

"Lots of things but, I just don't given em a chance to ruin
my naturally
charming disposition." Boomer could just imagine Starbuck
tossing his head
back, brushing his hair out of his eyes and giving one of
his devilish
smiles as he spoke.

He snorted. "Ah huh.  Seriously, it's a bit scary when you
think about our
d help."

"Really?" Starbuck asked, doubtful that anything useful
could come from reading
a technical manual. "You mean besides how to fry a planet in
1 easy step?"

Ignoring Starbuck's sarcasm, Apollo selected a new disc and
inserted it into the
disc reader, then handed the cover to Starbuck.

Starbuck raised an eyebrow cynically, "'Space travel. A
history of
interplanetary ships'," he read aloud, unimpressed.

He watched as Apollo searched through the papers and
printouts on the desk. "As
you know, we no longer have the ability to produce Sythianc
engines," Apollo
began.

"Not without a planet and a couple hundred Sythainc
engineers - both of which we
're short of, thanks to the Cylons," Starbuck agreed,
disgruntled.

Apollo nodded in agreement. "Yes, but we are having limited
success with the
smaller turbo engines like the vipers."

Starbuck tossed the disc cover back onto the desk,
discouraged. "If they ever
figure out how to cast the main turbine in zero gravity."

Havinodds of survival out here."

"I don't do *seriously*" Starbuck interjected "and I
definitely don't put it
and *odds* in the same sentence." he admonished.

"Yah right, well...."

"No, really Boomer." and now Boomer could hear the
earnestness in Starbuck's
voice " I've given up on doing the odds for this fleet.
The odds have been
against us since day one of this nightmare and if I had
believed in those
odds I would've given up sectars ago!  But, this fleet
doesn't *do* odds.
What this fleet does *do* is miracles!  And yes, at times it
seems like it
would take a miracle for us to survive.  But then again
Boomer, that's what
we do best."

"You know you have a very unique perspective on things
Starbuck." Boomer
replied his mood improved despite himself.

"That's what they pay me for!" quipped Starbuck.

*Beep* *Beep*

 Boomer could hear the alarm sounding in Starbuck's viper a
micron before
his own sounded.

"Got something." Starbuck was all business now.

"Yah, I got it too." g found the report he was looking for, Apollo handed it
to Starbuck. "They
have."

Astonished, Starbuck took the report. "Really?" he asked,
then opened the cover
and began flipping through the pages. "When did they figure
that out?"

"I don't know but I found that on my father's desk, along
with a request to test
the prototype."

"Now that's promising. We could really use some new vipers."
He said as he
handed the report back to Apollo.

"I know, but," and Apollo pointed back to the computer
screen he'd called up.
"What I'd like to also produce are Methlium engines."

"Methlium?" Starbuck asked, staring at Apollo as if he'd
just suggested using
Cylon raiders. "You mean 'Shit Ships'."

Apollo shook his head at Starbuck's words, correcting him.
"Methlium engines."

"What good would producing Shit Ships..." at Apollo's stern
look, Starbuck
corrected himself, "Methlium engines, do us? They can't be
used for the fleet
ships and they don't produce enough power for the vipers."

"TBoomer watched his scanner try to lock
on the signal it
had detected.  It couldn't identify it.  He switched the
view selector to
directional mode and watched as the screen shifted to a view
showing the
solar system before them, one sun and 7 planets.  Then, as
his systems
tracked the source of the signal, the view changed again to
show the third
planet with its 5 satellites.

"It looks like it's just beyond the second moon of the third
planet."
Starbuck said. "You wait here while I go in behind the
planet and take a
closer look."

"Be careful we don't want to be detected ourselves." Boomer
cautioned.

"Careful is my middle name." Starbuck said as his viper sped
away from
Boomer's and headed toward the planet.

____________________________


Part 4c

Athena put three fruit juices down on the table,  "I think
Cassiopeia told
me they were Kella flavor today."

"I haven't had Kella fruit in so long I think I've forgotten what
it tastes
like," Sheba exclaimed. "How about you, Brue. Due to their high fuel consumption, we can't use them
for the fleet
ships, nor are they suitable for vipers, but why not use
them for the shuttles?"
Apollo asked.

"Shuttles? Apollo, you've been buried in these manuals too
long." Starbuck
began.

Apollo held up his hand. "Now, hold on, Starbuck.  Hear me
out," he said.  "The
shuttles we have are on constant use throughout the fleet.
It is the only way
for the civilians to get from one ship to another, and
unless we plan to isolate
them on their various ships, we'll need to use the shuttles
constantly for an
indefinite period of time. The problem is they are consuming
an incredible
amount of our limited tylium supply."

Starbuck opened his mouth ready to protest, but this time
Apollo held up both
hands to forestall him. "Yes, one shuttle doesn't actually
use that much fuel,
as it only uses its engines to take off and land. But we're
not talking one
shuttle. We're talking forty-five shuttles on a constant
circlet of the fleet.
oxey, do you like Kella
fruit?"

Boxey shrugged his shoulders noncommittally as he punched his
drinking straw
through the thin foil cover of the fruit juice container.

"What is your favorite flavor then?" Athena asked as she watched
Sheba try
unsuccessfully to punch her straw though the top of her fruit
container.

"Frak, I can never do these things."

"We aren't supposed to use that kind of language here," Boxey
replied with a
sidelong glace at Athena.

Athena had to stifle a laugh with a cough at Boxey's obvious
attempt at
doing an impression of herself.  She caught the mischief in that
glance and
wondered anew at the rapid change in moods kids could have.
"You're right!
What do you think we should do about it Boxey?" she asked him as
her eyes
implored Sheba to go along. "Shall we have Sheba stand in the
corner?" she
asked, but at Boxey's shrug, she tried harder. "Or maybe make her
write an
apology on the wall board 10 times?"

"Yah, maybe," he said as he looked over at Sheb
That's anywhere from twenty five to a hundred and twenty
stops depending on the
shuttle's route. We can only store so much tylium in the
fleet, and the shuttles
are using it up at alarming rates. Heck, we spend half our
time searching for
tylium-rich asteroids and planetoids just to keep the fleet
moving. I'd rather
save the tylium that we use in the shuttles for the vipers."

"I thought the council had voted to ground most of the
shuttles?" Starbuck
interjected.

"Yes, they've voted to cut the shuttles back, but the last I
heard, they were
still bickering over the flight route of the reduced shuttle
service." Apollo
tilted back in his chair and stretched his arms above his
head. "I assume that
each one of them is arguing over which of the ships in their
jurisdiction will
be affected by the change." Apollo sat back up and tried to
stifle a yawn." I
don't know how they're going figure that one out?"

"They?" Starbuck pointed his fumerello at Apollo. "You're
apart of that now,
too, a then back at
Athena. They
both saw the mischievous spark that ignited in his eyes. "Maybe we
should...."And he dashed from the couch and grabbed up a small
canister from
the floor.

"Oh no!" Sheba got up holding her arms out before her and began
backing up.
"No, that's not a good idea...." she began as Boxey let loose and
sprayed
her with that childhood favorite and adult nightmare, Crazy
String. She felt
it should have more correctly been called Staining String and
groaned loudly
as she allowed herself to be pelted with the rope-like rubbery
*colored*
strings.  Boxey giggled maniacally as he closed in for the kill,
spraying
the sticking stuff on Sheba's hair and face. Athena was no help as
she
laughed encouragingly from the safety of the couch.

"What's going on here?"

They all froze guiltily and started at the doorway where Apollo
and
Cassiopeia stood quite stunned at the sight before them.

"Boxey, how many times have I told you kids not to spray that
stuff on
people's haiyou know," he said.

"No, I'm not," Apollo retorted, leaning back in his chair
again, his arms
crossed.

"No?" Starbuck asked, perplexed. He pointed his fumerello at
Apollo then back at
himself. "Ah, you want to explain how that works to me?"

"Not really," Apollo waved his hand in an attempt to wave
pass the subject, but
at Starbuck's chagrin look, Apollo sat up and sighed.
"Look, Starbuck. The
short answer is - I'm no politician, and I have no plans on
becoming one. I plan
to leave the domestic disputes to the council. That's what
they're here for. Let
them earn their stations."

"But you father.." Starbuck faltered.

"Was a Politician. As much as he was the Commander, he was
still a Politician."
Apollo looked over at Starbuck, needing him to understand.
"It used to be, when
the Original Council of the Twelve was in session, that he
was a Councilor first
and the Commander of a warship second. After the destruction
he had to be a
Commander first and a Politician second. The roler!" Cassiopeia admonished as she regained her senses.

Apollo just stood inside the doorway and looked on in amazement at
all the
strings clinging to Sheba and tried not to laugh.

Cassiopeia quickly crossed the room and held out her hand to
Boxey.

"It's Sheba's punishment...." Boxey began as he reluctantly handed
over the
offending weapon.

"We were just having some fun.." Athena interrupted.

"No harm was done..." Sheba protested as she tugged at the stingy
mess in
her hair.

Boxey walked back to the couch, kicking at an errant toy on his
way.

Apollo's smile faded as he watched his son sulk to the couch and
plop
himself down in front of the videscreen. "Boxey?" he called out
after him,
only to have his son studiously ignore him. Apollo sighed heavily
and looked
over at Athena. "How was he today?"

"Quiet.  I was so busy with the other kids I barely even noticed
him today.
Then just a while ago I caught him swearing at Muffet. When I
asked him
about it he got mad at me. Lus of
Military Leader and
Council President were never meant to be shared by one
person, and in my
opinion, should never be again. The strain of holding both
vital positions was
too hard on him, and I feel it would have eventually
undermined his authority.
No one person should hold so much authority over the fleet."
Apollo looked away,
"Not even my father," he said quietly.

Starbuck stared at Apollo, taken aback. It was as if he was
seeing something in
him he'd never noticed before. It wasn't as if Starbuck had
never heard Apollo's
view of politics before, but Starbuck realized something had
changed in Apollo,
and he was only just noticing the changes. "I always assumed
you would want to
step into his role with the council too." Starbuck said,
unsure how he felt
about this change in his perceptions. "Apollo, if you let
the council have free
range, without you there to stop them . . ." Starbuck stood
up and faced Apollo,
troubled about the situation. "Can you imagine the plain
idiotickily, Sheba came along and together
we managed
to improve his mood.  As you can see, it was not without some cost
on Sheba'
s part.

"Too bad it didn't last very long" Sheba pointed out.

"Yah", Apollo motioned to her yards of newly acquired strings
"Thanks for
your sacrifice. It looked like he was enjoying it."

"He was." Sheba stopped tugging at the coating of strings and
looked up at
Apollo "I was too. I've really missed him." Sheba searched
Apollo's face for
a moment then turned back toward Boxey. "He thinks I stopped
caring for him
simply because I haven't been around. He's wrong." Sheba looked
back at
Apollo, who was starring at her, his expression unreadable. "I'd
like to
spend some time with him occasionally, so he doesn't forget that."
Sheba
paused then asked " Is that alright with you?"

Apollo didn't say anything at first. He just stared at Sheba with
a
unreadable expression. "Sure," was all he finally said.

Athena watched the interchange between the two and didn't kc, stupid
mistakes they'd make regarding the Galactica and the fleet?
I know I don't want
to even consider it as a joke," he turned away, agitated.

"I never said I'd let them make any decision regarding the
Galactica." Apollo
said softly.

Starbuck turned back to him. "But if you're not going to be
on the council, how
would you prevent it."

Apollo stood up, facing Starbuck, his eyes serious, "The
Galactica and the fleet
's safety are no longer the Council's concerns. The Council
will continue to
oversee the civilian population and their problems, but,"
and Apollo put his
hand on Starbuck's shoulder, "they will never make any
military decisions that
will endanger this fleet again."

Starbuck shook his head, unconvinced. "Nice thought, but
just how do you plan to
convince the council to agree to this?" he asked.

Apollo dropped his hand and grinned at Starbuck, his
expression in no way
lightened. "Who said I was going to ask them?"

Starbuck faltered, stunned.

"Look," Apollo now if
she dared
breath, least she break the moment. Sheba had clearly indicated
that their
relationship was estranged; yet the atmosphere around the two
fairly
shimmered with desire. Athena was dieing to know what was going
on.

Then the moment was lost, and Apollo turned away.

Sheba walked over to Cassiopeia as Apollo walked over to stand
next to
Boxey.

"Boxey?" He sat ridged, his eyes fixed on the screen before him,
stubbornly
refusing to acknowledge his father. Apprehensive, Apollo sat down
next to
Boxey. His voice filled with emotion as he softly whispered
"Boxey, please
look at me."

"No." came the stubborn reply.

"Please?" Apollo was trying to keep his emotions under control. He
didn't
think he could go through another scene like last night with Boxey
shouting
that he hated him.

"I don't wanta" Once again he crossed his arms across his chest,
determined
to be angry.

"Why not?" Apollo coaxed. Apollo knew Boxey was angry with him for
breaking
his faith by tellingcontinued. "My father interacted with them as
a politician.  That
's what he was good at, far better than I'd ever want or
could be. I don't plan
on being that nice. I'm a warrior, and currently in command
of the Galactica.
They are not. We are currently in a state of war and running
under Military Law.
I have no intention of changing that status as long as we
are out here trying to
survive the Cylons," he explained, his eyes begging Starbuck
to support him in
this.

"Apollo I..." Starbuck hesitated, then watched Apollo as he
began to understand
the changes he could see in him. "And you thought you were
inadequate for the
job?" He said in admiration.  Taking a step back Starbuck
placed his feet firmly
together and smartly came to attention and saluted Apollo.

Sarcastically, Apollo grinned at Starbuck.  But as Starbuck
remained stiffly at
attention, holding the salute, the grin began to fade and
Starbuck could tell
Apollo realized this was no joke. Solemnly, Apollo stood up
strait a him his grandfather was gone.  Apollo could
still
remember that look Boxey had given him. It was as if he'd
extinguished
something inside him. Apollo had always been amazed and thankful
for Boxey's
resilience to all that had happened; the destruction exploding
around him,
the lost of his dagget and then the terrible loss of his mother.
Yet, he had
gone through it all and still retained that spark of innocent hope
that
things would still be alright in the end. It was that spark that
Apollo
feared he had extinguished, along with his son's trust in him.

"Because."

"Are you mad at me?"

"I guess," came the uncertain answer.

"Oh," was all Apollo could say for a few moments. He desperately
looked
around the room as if looking for something that could help him
solve his
problem. His mind searched for a way to get past Boxey's anger.
His gaze
passed over Sheba as she talked to Cassiopeia on the other side of
the room.
He smiled slowly. If Sheba had seen it she'd have been better
prend smartly
saluted back at him.

Lowering his arm, Starbuck realized that this was probably
the only real salute
he's ever given Apollo. A fact he could tell Apollo was also
well aware of as
they stood there staring at each other, realizing that their
friendship had
somehow changed and only time would tell to what extent.

Breaking the tableau, Apollo awkwardly gestured to
Starbuck's head. "So how's
the head?" he asked, in an obvious attempt to dispel the
uneasy feelings that
had come between them.

"Ear," Starbuck corrected.

"Huh?"

"I didn't hurt my head, I hurt my ear." He explained
quietly, still a bit
unsettled.

"Well, I see it hasn't stopped your smug disposition,"
Apollo attempted to joked
back at him.

Starbuck grumbled under his breath, not up for the argument
he had so eagerly
anticipated earlier.

Leaning forward, Apollo asked, "What was that?"

"It was a coolant leak," he answered, "I checked."

"I know." Apollo admitted, "I got the report from Barton."

"Ipared.

"Sheba, could you come over here," he called out to her.

Sheba looked over and saw him bend down, then stand up and gesture
for her
to join him by the couch. As she approached she noticed Boxey
looking
worriedly from one adult to the other.  Once she was there, Apollo
turned
back toward Boxey.

"You know, Boxey, it's not right to spray this stuff in others
hair," Apollo
said in his most official "Captain" voice. Boxey looked guiltily
up at
Apollo then over to Sheba.  His anger was gone in a moment of
panic as he
sensed a disciplinary storm coming.

Ignoring the panicked look on his son's face, Apollo continued.
"If you're
going to shoot someone, the proper place is between the eyes," and
before
Sheba could react, Apollo aimed the can he'd retrieved from the
floor at her
head and set words into action as he shot her, right between the
eyes, with
strings.

Ignoring her started protests, Apollo then turned his weapon on
Boxey.
Boxey's jaw dropped and he looked up at his f told you I knew what I was doing," Starbuck complained,
his earlier ire
abating. When he had gotten the report on his viper he had
come up to dispute
Apollo's actions. Apollo should have trusted his ability to
assess the situation
correctly.

"It doesn't change a thing, Starbuck," Apollo said gently,
"we still couldn't
take the risk."

"Ya, I know, it's just..." and Starbuck raised his arm
trying to express his
earlier feelings.

"Unseemly to have to be carried?" Apollo answered for him.

"Ya, I guess, " he said dropping his arms, then pointed at
Apollo, "darn bad for
my reputation you know."

"I know," Apollo said, understanding what Starbuck couldn't
find the words for.
"You'll just have to bask in the glory of your find
instead," he teased.

"If they can figure it out."

"Give them time, they will," Apollo said, with more
certainly than Starbuck
would give that team of scientists.

"Speaking of time . . . " Starbuck turned serious. "How much
do we have?"

Apollo sighed,ather, stunned.
Surely his dad
didn't just do that? As Apollo turned the can toward him, Boxey
let out a
squeal as he ducked the first shot and propelled himself off the
couch,
giggling as he ran across the room. He grabbed up his confiscated
can from
the shelf where Cassiopeia had place it and turned to return fire,
only to
find Apollo was already on him. They faced off and splatter each
other with
yards and yards of colored sticky stings, howling in shear joy.
Laughing,
both stood there admiring each other's new coating of strings,
when Apollo
grinned at Boxey and purposefully looked back over his shoulder at
Sheba.

Sheba's eyes went wide as she feebly placed her hands before her
to ward off
the attack, but it was too late as two cans of strings pelted her,
plastering her uniform with a new coating of strings. Once Boxey's
can was
empty, he launched himself at his dad, tumbling him into Sheba,
and they all
went crashing to the ground in a heap of giggling, laughing
strings.

Bo "Not enough."

Starbuck sat back down on the desk. He could tell he wasn't
going to like this
answer.

"The second base ship should rendezvous with them in two
days. Omega's estimated
four days at the most before that second base ship will be
in range to hit us."

Starbuck jumped up off the desk, his unease of a moment ago
easily turning into
an impotent rage. "A lot of good getting that frakkin
message here does if we
can't use the information!" he bitterly complained as he
paced the small area
behind the desk.

"Well, I've been thinking about that," Apollo admitted
softly.

Apollo's tone brought him to an abrupt stop, and he could
felt his grin
returning as he turned to face Apollo, "Oh? What's your
plan?"

X-UIDL: _X]"!;-X"!-L?!!`Yn"!

Apollo walked into the Life Center and hesitated as he
looked around. There were
fewer occupied life pods than the last time he was here, and
he feared that was
not a good sign.

He'd been on his way to his quarters when he decided to
detxey climbed up on Apollo's back, giggling with delight as he
proclaimed
himself king of the daggit pile with woops of laughter.  Apollo
laughingly
looked down at Sheba, who lay beneath him shaking helpless with
her own
laughter. She looked up at him, and her smile froze on her face as
his gaze
turned from humorous to something else. She just stared at him
like a forest
antelope caught in hovercrafts lights. For a moment, she thought
he was
going to kiss her but then Boxey tumbled off Apollo, accidentally
kicking
him in the side, breaking the spell.

Apollo quickly rolled off of Sheba and got to his feet, stripping
off the
strings as he went.  Hastily, he turned back to offer her a hand
up, but she
was already on her knees and didn't take the offered hand as she
rose to her
feet.

Athena, who was now standing next to Cassie, noticed the exchange.
As Sheba
turned away and began removing the strings from her hair, Athena
watch
Apollo.  His gaze fairly devoured Sheba but as soon as sheour through the Life
Center. He knew the nagging worry that had been at the back
of his thoughts for
the past several centars wouldn't let him rest, so he
finally decided to check
in with Dr Salik regarding the condition of those still
recovering. Now, as he
looked around at the number of empty life pods, he felt
suddenly nauseous. It
was as if his insides had abruptly turned to lead. He
already knew the number of
empty pods did not equal the number of personal released
that the doctor had
reported.

Apollo scanned the room looking for the doctor, then noticed
what at first glace
looked like an empty life pod set near the monitoring
station. Yet this pod
basked under the light of a few heat lamps as its monitors
beeped softly on low
volume.

Curiosity gave way to understanding as Apollo walked over to
take a look. Under
the lamps a small bundle blissfully slept.

Apollo looked at the sleeping child. The little figure
stretched and gave a
mighty yawn before relaxing completely, con turned
back he
looked away.

"What's with that?" she quietly murmured.

"I wish I knew" Cassiopeia responded.

Athena looked over at Cassiopeia to inquire about what she might
know about
the situation when the alert sounded.

Apollo and Sheba reacted immediately as they both bolted for the
door, but
the sudden scream from Boxey stopped them in their tracks.

"NO! Don't go!" Boxey lunged forward. Apollo barely managed to
catch him as
he leaped up and clasped his arms around Apollo's neck, holding on
for all
he was worth. "Don't go. Don't go. Please, Dad, don't go!" he was
crying
out.

Apollo was shaken by the sudden emotional outburst. Never had
Boxey acted
like this before. Apollo was at a loss on how to deal with this
new
disturbing aspect of his son. "Boxey, I have to. I don't have a
choice. You
know that." He said trying to sooth his son, yet gently pry his
arms from
around his neck. Once freed, Apollo held Boxey's hands in his and
looked
into his son's terrified eyes. "Btinuing her
blissful sleep.

Despite himself, Apollo smiled. This was what they were
really fighting for,
more than just the sleeping child before him, but the sense
of security to sleep
so blissfully. He noticed her name on the medical chart
attached to the life
pod. Atriums. Yet, above the chart, attached to the side of
the pod, was a small
handwritten card in which someone had christened her with a
second name. Hope.

"Our little Hope." Apollo turned as Rigel walked up next to
him and lovingly
looked down upon her new daughter.

"Hope?" Apollo asked.

"Yes, Hope." Rigel looked up around her at the pods
surrounding them. "The techs
said that after a day of so much death, her little cries of
life gave them
hope." Turning back she looked down at her daughter again.
"So they christened
her Hope."

Apollo nodded at Rigel "Yes, your timing was very good that
day."

"Not my timing. Hope's." Rigel said, then looked away
hugging herself as she
shivered from an unseen chill. "If she oxey, I'm a Warrior," he started,
then
stopped and tried another approach. "I'm not leaving the
Galactica. I'll
just be on the bridge..."

"I know, I don't want you to go there." Boxey's whispered his fear
still
very evident.

Apollo understood, and he hated himself for what he had to do, but
he didn't
have the time they needed to discuss this. "I know you don't, but
I have to
go." Apollo lifted up Boxey, handed him over to Cassiopeia and
turned and
left. He tried not to listen to Boxey call out after him as the
door closed
behind him.


___________________


"What is it?" Apollo asked Omega as he came up behind him.

"We're getting a partially jammed transmission from one of our
patrols, "
Omega answered, his voice calm as ever.  Apollo wondered if
anything would
jar that calm while Omega was on duty.

"Let's hear it"

".......Patrol 1 to Gal..tica.......detected........third
moon.......lon......"

Apollo instantly recognized the voice - Starbuck! There was no
emotion inhadn't chosen that
time to come into the
universe, Omega would have been on the bridge when the
attack came." She
whispered, and then shaking off the fear of what could have
been, reached down
and picked up the sleeping baby. Holding her close, she
looked Apollo in the
eye.

"She's my Hope too. She saved him and me. I just wish..."
Rigel looked away
uncertainly.

"Yes," Apollo whispered, then he sighed heavily and started
to turn away.

"There was nothing anybody could do," she told him, as much
to reassure herself
as him. "I know Omega's obsessed with guilt for not being at
his post. I've told
him it wouldn't have done any good if he'd been there, but,"
she sighed, "it
doesn't help."

"I know," Apollo put a hand on her shoulder. "You couldn't
have done anything
either." Rigel looked up at him, tears in her eyes, and
nodded. "I know," she
whispered.  Then, collecting herself, she continued. "Salik
said I could go back
on restricted duty next shift. I'll be at my post at 0800."

the static filled transmission, but Apollo had been Starbuck's
wingman long
enough to hear the concern in his voice, and a concerned Starbuck
was a
Starbuck in trouble.

"That's it. The rest is just static." Omega said as he stopped the
playback
and turned around to look at Apollo. "Possibly the transmission is
just
being affected by the nebula Patrol 3 discovered and not actually
jammed.
It was giving off tremendous radiation bursts."

Apollo gave Omega a knowing look "You don't believe that anymore
than I do,"
he said. "Launch Blue and Green squadrons to check it out." Apollo
had to
fight down the suffocating anxiety as he ordered others out to do
what he
desperately wanted to do himself - help Starbuck. "What sector
were they
patrolling?"

Omega walked over to the large star chart behind the bridge's main
station.
He pointed to a system in the upper right of the chart. "They're
checking
out a planetary system in quadrant Gamma delta 4, by Beta 3, delta
2."

"It sounds like 
Apollo smiled at her, seeing how her enforced convalescence
had weighed on her
at this time of need. "If you're sure you're up to it."
Apollo said.

"Yes, oh yes, I am.  I think I'll go crazy if I have to stay
in here one more
centar!"  She said with feeling.  "Beside, after the
cicerium, I felt fine.  I
tried to get Salik to let me back sooner but, he insisted I
wait."

"You should always follow your doctors orders," Apollo
reproved, and then smiled
at the look Rigel gave him.

"Oh yes, this from the man Salik threaten to keep sedated so
he wouldn't leave
Life Center the last time he was injured?" She protested,
then laughed at him.
"Oh," she winced "I better not do that again!"

"Rigel..." Apollo began concerned.

"Now, don't you start with me, Apollo!" She admonish, then
frowned as she looked
around her. "I've already had to fight Salik over this," she
continued, as she
walked around the small pod, searching. "Apollo, do you see
any wraps?"

"Wraps?" Apollo looked around hithey may have found our missing basestar," Apollo
said as he
looked over the chart, noting the distance of the system to the
fleet. Most
definitely close enough to be the basestar that had launch the
attack on
them.  Far enough away to avoid detection and attack but close
enough to
keep and eye on them. "What's the status of our maneuvering
thrusters?"

Still off line while under repair." Omega replied.

"Get me Shadrick. We're a sitting target if we can't maneuver!"


_______________

PART 5


Starbuck rolled his viper to the right just as a laser bolt
shot past his
fighter a mere micrometron from his cockpit. "I don't know
if they got my
message or not, Boomer.  That baseship is sending up quit a
lot of jamming."

"You call this careful?  You need to change you middle
name."  Boomer cried
out as he turned his viper in a reverse roll from
Starbuck's.  "How many
raiders do you count on our tail?"

Starbuck checked his rear scanner.  The green light from the
scanner flashed
m.  "Uh, no actually, I..."

"Here, I'll have to go get some" and in one quick movement
she deftly handed the
baby over to Apollo.

Shear reflex allowed him to grab and hold the child. "Rigel,
I..." he started to
protest at her retreating back.

"I'll be right back," Rigel called over her shoulder,
abandoning the Captain
with the small child.

"But, I'm not..." Apollo sputtered at Rigel's retreating
back. Sighing in
frustration, Apollo started to put the infant back down but
hesitated as he
looked at the little bundle he held. He was caught by the
brilliant color of her
eyes, so blue, like a summer day on Caprica. The baby, now
awake, reached out,
clutching at his hand. For a moment he lost himself in that
gaze. All his
troubles were forgotten and his heart-heavy fears lighten in
that singular
moment where hope still existed.

"Hope," he whispered. Yes, she was appropriately named.

At the sound of approaching steps he looked up.

"Looks like you've fallen under my little Hope'across his face as he spotted five targets trailing them.
"Five"

"Five?  That's unusual, they usually travel in packs of
three. You sure?

"Hey, check your own scanner if you don't believe me!" came
Starbuck's
irritated response.  He was having trouble shaking the ones
following him.
"Boomer, these guys just won't give up!"

"Hang on Bucko, I've almost completed my loop.  How many
party crashers do
you have?"  Boomer double-checked his rear scanner before
adding. "I've got
two on my tail."

"I've got three," Starbuck responded.  They'd done this
maneuver millions of
times; head strait for each other and then at the last
micron do a snap
roll, bringing the pursuing Cylons into each other's line of
fire.  Each
time they did this maneuver, the Cylons fell for it.  Each
time he prayed
they always would.

As Starbuck came around, he could see Boomer heading his way
and checked his
scanner, noting the two raiders tailing Boomer.  Normally,
since Cylons flew
in a pattern of three ships, Starbuck would target the ship
in the middle,
destroy it and fly through the debris.  Then he'd try to
blast one of the
two remaining ships before they could fly past him.  Since
there were only
two raiders following Boomer, he decided to just fly right
between them,
trying to destroy both of them before they could fly past
him.

The two vipers approached each other head on, then when they
reached the
predetermined distance they both rolled in unison, flashing
their undersides
past each other.

"FRAK!" came Starbucks sudden cry of alarm.  It reverberated
though the com
channel along with the sound of scrapping, straining metal.

"Starbuck!" Boomer cried out in alarm as the raider he held
in his sights
disappeared into oblivion.  Holding down the firing button
as he turned his
viper in a wide arch, Boomer crossed the path of a second
raider as it flew
past him.  A shower of sparks and flames enveloped his ship
as he flew
through the debris.

"Starbuck, are you alright?" he shs charm too,"
Rigel said as she
walked up to them.

"I guess I did," He said as he handed her the infant, then
leaned down and
gently kissed the baby's head. "Thank you, Hope, for
restoring my hope."

Apollo walked away with a lighter heart and a renewed sense
of hope.


Apollo poured the dark steaming liquid into the pure white
cup, and contemplated
the destruction of all that was pure and innocent. 'Was
there no innocence
left?' he wondered. The destruction had robbed them of so
much.  Purity and
innocence were a hard commodity to find in the fleet.  But,
he had found them in
his son.  Now, he worried that he'd lost that too.

When he'd arrived back at his quarters, Athena was waiting
for him. Since she
had volunteered to watch Boxey, her presence was no
surprise, but the fact that
Boxey was absent was. She had stood before him, defiance
written in her posture
and the determined expression she wore. What ever she had to
tell him, he knew
he was not going to like it.

He hadnouted.

"Yah, I think so," came Starbuck's shaky response. "Frak, I
hit something!
The scanner didn't show anything - my path should have been
clear!"

"What was it?" Boomer asked, relieved.

"I don't know!  Black!  It was black, that's all I saw
before it scraped
along my side!  I barely managed not to smash right into
it!" Starbuck cried
out.

"Where did it go?"

"How the Frak should I know!  It's not on my scanner!  It
wasn't before and
it isn't now!" Starbuck was shouting in frustration and
shock.  What the
Frak was that! And the vibrations - his whole viper had
shook like it was
electrified. His ears were still hurting from the massive
pressure that had
assaulted him.  He was shaking with reaction and adrenaline
as he angrily
brushed at the sweat that was running down the side of his
jaw.

"It must be the jamming from the Baseship. I know I only
scanned two."
Boomer answered.

"Well there were most definitely three!" Starbuck shouted as
he hit his fire
control and blew't.

Without consulting him Athena had taken Boxey to see Dr.
Larous, the
battlestar's only remaining physiatrist. She had expected an
explosion of anger
from him, but had only received his silence resentment.

"Where is he now?" he had calmly demanded, his voice level.

"He's at my place." she cautiously answered.

"Alone?" This time his alarm did register through his voice.

"No, of course not. Bojay's with him." she replied,
surprised that he would
think her so irresponsible.

"Why, Athena?" he asked bewildered.

"He was upset,.." she started.

"I know he was upset," Apollo angrily interrupted.

"Dr. Larous suggested he needed some normalcy around him,
and with you barely
here.."she faltered, not sure how to say what it was she
needed to say. The
arguments she had rehearsed for the past centar, while
waiting for Apollo, had
all abandoned her, and she was now at a loss for the right
words. She had only
intended to take one more problem from Apollo's shoulders,
yet she now fe another raider into sparkling dust.
"That's no simple
jamming, Boomer. How many do you still show on your
scanner?"

"Two."

"That's what I'm reading too, but I know there are at least
three out
there." He paused as he again checked his scanner, "Boomer,
we've got some
kind of Dark Helix out here."

Dark Helix? The thought set the hairs on Boomer's neck on
end.  A ghost, a
phantom, the shadowy figure of a hundred haunted space
stories.  Appearing
only to lure wayward ships into mortal danger.   But, unlike
the haunted
space tales of old freighter pilots, this one apparently had
substance.
Quite a bit of substance, he realized, as he got a look at
Starbuck's
starboard side.

"Hey Bucko, is your starboard gun still functional?  It
looks like it took
half your delta wing off."

"It did and, no, it's not!"  Starbuck was adjusting his
scanner, looking for
a frequency that could lock onto this 'ghost' ship, when he
noticed the red
smudges he was leaving on the controls.  Perplexed,ared he
was taking it as an unintentional criticism.

Apollo could only sputtered at her comment. So many angry
statements fought to
be first out his mouth, that he stumbled on them and
couldn't say a single one.
What did Athena think he'd been doing all this time?
Shirking his responsibility
to his son? They were still under a state of alert. The
Cylons could return at
any moment. They had to get the fleet moving. He didn't have
the time right now
to talk to Boxey. But, he would. As soon as he could, he
would sit down and have
that much needed talk with his son. She knew that. She had
to know that.
"Athena, I've been busy...."

"I know, I know. I didn't mean to sound like you were doing
anything wrong." she
hastily try to reassure him.

"Well then why?" he asked.

"Apollo, it's just for the night. He just needs a little
security.."

"And you don't think I can give him that?" he asked,
wounded.

"No, of course not, but..," she took his hands in hers, "you-
are-busy. I'm only
t he
pulled back his hand
turning it over to look at his palm.  It was covered in
blood.  He felt
another drip of warm liquid run down his jaw and neck and
brushed at it with
his other hand, then pulled it back and looked at it.  It
too was now
covered in red blood.  Cautiously, he reached up and
followed the wet path
from his jaw up to his left ear. It was only then that he
realize that he
was only hearing out of his right ear.  He placed a hand to
his right ear,
pressing it closed, to listen with the left - but there was
nothing.  He
could hear no sounds from his left ear.  'I don't have time
for this now!'
he thought as he wiped his hands on his pant leg.

"Starbuck, how's your maneuverability, we can....." Boomer
statement was cut
off as one of the remaining raiders came at him, firing from
below.  He hit
his reverse thrusters, allowing the raider to fly up in
front of him, then
took aim and fired.  Suddenly, his viper jarred sideways as
a laser blast
impacted on his shielding. rying to help you and Boxey. He needs constant reassurance
right now and you
need to be able to do whatever you need to do, with out
worrying about him."

Apollo sighed and rubbed his temple. "I don't know.."

"I do," she stated, trying to assure him this was alright.

"Can I at least go and say good night to him?"

"He's already asleep.." Athena said her, eyes apologizing.

"Shit," he said as he wearily sat down on his front couch.

"You haven't done anything wrong," she said reassuringly as
she sat down next to
him.

Apollo sighed and leaned his head against the back of the
couch, "I'm not so
sure about that."

"I am," she watched him, then added, "Dr. Larous doesn't
think so either."
Apollo threw a couch pillow at her for that.

"You know how I feel about him," he said aggrieved.

"I know." She agreed.

"But you took him there anyway."

"Yes."

Apollo closed his eyes and took a calming breath. Then he
looked back over at
Athena, "Okay."

Athena smiled at him, then rea He began to spin, his shot going
wild, missing
the raider. "Frak, where did that blast come from?"

"I've got him." Starbuck answered.  He was focused on the
dark spot where
he'd seen the laser blast come from.  The dark shape turned,
it's black
wings spread wide, coming back around for another attempt.
"Look out,
Boomer! He's below you on your port side!  He's coming
around for another
shot!"

"I don't make 'em!"

"I can see him, Boomer. Roll toward him, let him overshoot
you."

"Where, Starbuck!"

"Left, turn left, Boomer!" As Boomer's viper rolled over and
past the flight
path of the darkened shape, Starbuck took aim, and fired.
His shot flew past
the dark shape, missing it.  "Frak!"  It'd been a long time
since Starbuck
had tried to hit anything without his scanner lock. "Keep it
busy, Boomer,
so I can get in closer.  I can't hit it from this distance."

"Keep it busy?" Boomer's exclaimed.  His viper rocked to the
side as he
barely missed another round of laser bolts. "Stch over and hugged him." Get
some sleep, Apollo,
then maybe you can find some time to come by in the morning
and have breakfast
with us." She got up and looked back at him.

"I'll try," he said in answer to both her suggestions.

So Athena had left, and Apollo had been left too upset to
sleep. The stack of
reports on his desk had sat accusingly in a neat pile, so he
decided to lose
himself in work, again.

Only this time, it wasn't working. The image of Boxey,
crying for him to stay
with him, kept replaying itself over and over in his mind.
Frustrated, he'd got
up to make some coffee, hoping the stimulants in the drink
could turn off his
unnerving memory and help him concentrate on the reports.

Now, lost in thought, he idly watched the steam rise from
the dark liquid in the
cup. Dark. Death. In his mind, he could see the image of the
Dark Rader as it
sat in the cordoned off hanger on Beta deck. A dark sinister
machine. As of yet,
the scientist hadn't reported much that would help arbuck, I
don't know how long
I can keep this guy busy before he gets a direct hit.  My
shielding held out
the first time, but I don't want to put it to the test
again.  Get this guy,
already!"

"The scanner lock no use.  I'm going to have to line him up
visually.  I
need you to roll into a dive, to bring him in front of me.
And, Boomer,
you'll have to bring him in close."

"If I get too close he could just as easily shoot you as
me!" Boomer
objected.

"We've got to take that risk.  This ship isn't all that easy
to spot.  It
appears to be raider of some kind but it's been blacked out.
I'm barely
able to visually follow its outline.  If I loose track of
him, I don't know
if we'll see him again before he gets a shot off at us."

"Where's the other ship?"

"You're going to have to tell me.  I'm afraid if I take my
eyes of him even
for a micron, I'll lose sight of this "Dark Raider."

As Boomer turned, diving up toward Starbuck's viper, he
checked his scanner.
It still could not them
detect these silent
death machines. The only bit of information that they had
managed to gain, had
come from a dangerous experiment that had left Dr. Wilker
and two techs in need
of Dr. Salik's help. Sound. Somehow, the Cylons were using
sound to distort how
their scanners perceived the radars. They had to find a way
through this
technology, or they didn't stand a chance.

He couldn't stop his mind from imagining a base ship,
outfitted with this
technology and it's radars undetectable, as they cut their
way through the
fleet.  He shook his head, trying to dispel the image of the
imagined massacre.
They wouldn't stand a chance.  He took a sip of his coffee
and the fiery
temperature of the liquid imediatly scalded his tongue,
effectively erasing the
nightmare images from his mind.

Apollo, disturbed, walked back to his desk. Setting his cup
down, he picked up
the newest repair report. He had just begun to read it when
the door buzzer
sounded. Apollo sighed, and looked up at the detect the Dark Raider following him but
the scanner did
have a lock on the raider approaching Starbuck from behind.
"If I can trust
my scanner, the second ship is coming up behind you, on your
six."  Starbuck
's viper did not move but remained stationary.  "You need to
get out of it's
way, Starbuck."

"After you finish your dive, Boomer.  My viper's not
maneuverable enough
right now to turn back in time."

"Frak, Starbuck, this is going to be close!" Boomer cursed
as he raced
upward.  He could see the other ship closing in on Starbuck.

"Good!  The closer the better." Starbuck responded as his
eyes tracked this
new Dark Raider.

The Dark Raider fired again as the two ships raced toward
Starbuck's
position. Boomer couldn't turn aside or Starbuck would lose
his shot, so
instead, he put his viper into a spin hoping it would miss
him.

Boomer's viper shot up past Starbuck's motionless viper.
Once past, Boomer
pulled the nose of his viper up into as sharp a turn as he
could force odoor, unwilling
to see who was
there with more problems. He ran a hand through his hair,
picked up his cup and
wearily got up.

Sheba pressed the buzzer again and waited. Nervously, she
twirled the ends of
her hair around one finger, then realizing what she was
doing, abruptly put her
hands behind her back.

The door slide open and Sheba looked up. Apollo seemed a bit
surprised to see
her. "Apollo..I.." She hesitated, unsure of what to say now
that she was here
and he was standing there, just staring at her.

Sheba noted how exhausted he looked. He was still wearing
the same uniform she
had last seen him in and carried a steaming cup of coffee in
one hand, while he
ran the other through his already tousled hair. Dark circles
under his eyes only
confirmed her theory that he hadn't slept.

Eyes that now watch her, open and candid.

She stared at him as she realized his defensives were down.
His barriers, those
invisible walls that he put between himself and others, were
down.

Hut
of his fighter.  All motion seemed to slow to a crawl as the
G-forces
mounted and the pressure on Boomers body increased.  His
field of vision
diminished as his peripheral vision faded out.  His sight
reducing itself to
a small round area before him, the black edges creeping in.
Then the
emergency override kicked in, switching off the onboard
gravity.  In a
flash, everything snapped back into real time.  Floating
free of the
oppressive gravity, held in place by his harness, Boomer
lined up the raider
coming up behind Starbuck's damager viper and fired.

The flash of the explosion was reflected briefly on the
inside of Starbuck's
canopy as he watched the Dark Raider shoot up before him,
hot on Boomer's
tail, and soar right into his line of fire.

"Gotcha!" Starbuck called out as he fired his one remaining
laser gun,
hitting the Dark Rader dead center.  To Starbuck's chagrin,
the Dark Raider
did not explode as he expected.  Instead, bursts of arcing
electricity
surrounded it.  Iter heart pounded so hard in her chest she thought it would
jump up into her
throat and strangle her. She tentatively smiled at him as
her own defenses
faltered, allowing the love she'd tried to ignore, shine out
through her eyes.

His face seemed to clear of worry and a warm smile crept
across his face.

Apollo watched bemused as Sheba paused, unnaturally
flustered. When she looked
up at him, his breath caught in his throat as he saw the
love staring out at him
through her eyes. He felt an answering ache in his heart,
and it was all he
could do not to gather her up in his arms. Then his smile
faded as he recognized
his feelings. No, he would not love again; he couldn't take
any more pain.
Firmly, he stamped down the errant feeling.

Sheba watched, bewildered, as Apollo's eyes narrowed and the
barriers, which had
been at bay, came crashing down. His face stiffened and
seeming turned to stone.

"What can I do for you, lieutenant?" He asked stiffly.

Sheba simply stared at him, unsur gave off a blue-white glow as the
electrical discharges
surged and flowed around and through it. Then the light
faded and the Dark
Raider drifted forward, listing on it side, dead in space.


Part 6  -


"Recon Patrol One to Galactica, come in."

"Our transmission can't make it through the jamming wave.
We're still too
far away from the Galactica," Starbuck said as he checked
his communications
link again.  The small screen continued to blink at him -
Communication
Interference.

"How are your systems?  You going to make it back okay, or
should I tow you
in instead?" Boomer asked as he looked over at Starbuck's
damaged viper.

"Huh?  What did you say?" Starbuck turned down the volume on
his long-range
communication channel.  All he was getting was static
anyway, and it made
hearing Boomer all that harder.  His head was beginning to
throb, with what
was certain to be a killer headache, as his left ear
continued to ach.  He
brushed at the dried blood there and was grateful thate of what she had done. One
moment Apollo had
been smiling warmly at her and then suddenly he was cold and
official.
'Lieutenant?'

"I was wondering if we could talk," she determinedly asked.
It had taken her a
long time to get up the courage to come here tonight. Apollo
had been glad to
see her. She would hold onto that. She wasn't going to be
intimidated.

Apollo smiled indifferently as he fought the urge to hold
her close and let all
the pain and anguish fade away. But he couldn't; he'd just
be trading one pain
for another.

His smile was cold as he regarded her, "Can it wait until
tomorrow? It's late
and I'm really tired."

Sheba was not prepared for this reception from him. She felt
unsure of herself,
and she uncertainly looked down, trying to gather her
courage. Somewhere, deep
inside, her stubborn pride balked at these feelings.
Challengingly she looked up
into his eyes. "No," she stated, "no, it can't."

With a reluctant sigh, Apollo moved to let her pass within.

As S at
least the bleeding
had stopped.

"Do you need a tow?"  Boomer asked, concerned.  He could
hear the strain in
Starbuck's voice and now wondered if the outside of the
viper was all that
had been damaged. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," Starbuck replied, unwilling to acknowledge
anything was
wrong.

*Be fine?*  Knowing Starbuck as well he did, Boomer knew
this statement was
incomplete. "How bad?"

"I just got a little shook up when we hit, that's all,"
Starbuck replied
casually.

"Uh huh, how shook up?" Boomer persisted.

Starbuck sighed, knowing Boomer wouldn't let it rest until
he gave him some
information. "I got some kind of shock when I connected with
that Dark
Raider.  I'm amazed it didn't blow out my systems.  I'm
pretty sure it blew
out my ear, though."

"Your ear?"

"Yah, I can't hear very good out of my left ear right now.
Probably just a
blown eardrum.  Like I said, I'm fine."

Unconvinced, Boomer ignored that comment.  "When we get back
I'll request a
med heba passed him, Apollo's senses were assaulted by the
scent of her. His
blood seemed to boil under his skin. He turned from her and
violently hit the
door sensor, closing the door. He hadn't slept much in the
past several days and
he was losing his control over himself and his emotions. He
gulped his hot
coffee, hoping it would help him regain some of his control
before he turned
back to face her.

Sheba walked to the middle of the room and took in the state
of his quarters.
His desk was piled with reports and computer printouts. Data
disks, that had
evidently at one time had been piled in a stack on the
floor, had fallen over
and now were strewn across the floor in an oddly neat line.

In the low light of Apollo's quarters Sheba's oversensitive
nerves made her
edgy. Warily, like some caged animal she turned back around
to face him. Apollo
's eyes sparkled in the low light near the door and she
found herself frozen to
the spot as if captured in the hauntingly dark gaze of a
predatotech meet us in the bay."

Starbuck just sighed audibly into the com mic.  "You know,
Boomer, you're
really beginning to sound like my mother."

Boomer grumbled, "as if."

"I promise, I'll go to the Life Center and get it check out
as soon as we
land.  However, I am certain I don't need a med tech to meet
me at my
 viper." Starbuck replied in as confidant a tone he could
manage.  The last
thing he needed was Boomer to think he was in any way
seriously hurt and
force the issue.  Granted, his head hurt, but he didn't need
the
embarrassment of having a med tech waiting for him in the
bay.  It wasn't
that serious, and more importantly, it would ruin his
reputation.

"Okay, Bucko.  If you don't, I'll just sic Cassiopeia on
you," Boomer
warned.

Starbuck knew Boomer wouldn't back down on this, so he just
sighed and
decided to make the best of it.  After all, he thought,
Cassie would be
sympathetic and sympathy was something he could use to get
her to tell him
what was going on.

Or.

For a moment, Apollo lost himself in her eyes, so bright in
the dim light, they
drew him in. He took a step forward before he realized what
he was doing.

Sheba held her breath as he took the step toward her, then
Apollo shook his head
dispelling the moment.

"O.K., what is so important that it can't wait until
tomorrow?" His voice was
harsh even to his own ears. He needed to get her out of here
before he lost all
control.

Sheba flinched at his tone but did not give an inch. "WE
can't."

Apollo took a step back, as if struck. "Not now Sheba. I'm
really not up for
this right now." Angrily, he strode past her to his desk, as
if this small
barrier could protect him from the impending conversation.

"Yes, now!" Sheba cried out as she followed him. "Apollo,
you can't just ignore
this."

"I can try," he gave a halfhearted laugh.

"I'm not going to leave until you talk to me!" Sheba stopped
in front of the
desk.

Apollo closed his eyes. He was so weary. He didn't have the
rence again Starbuck wondered what Cassie was up to.  She'd
been very
secretive of late.  Twice he had caught her talking to Sheba
only to have
them stop talking the micron they spotted him.  No amount of
coaxing on his
part had gained him any answers.

It wasn't so much the sudden end of all conversation that
bothered him -
some topics he really didn't want to hear about - it was the
guilty looks
that followed this abrupt silence.

Starbuck was worried about this disturbing new trend.  He
had grown very
attached to Cassie, more than he had to any of his past
conquests.  Only
this time, she wasn't his conquest, he was hers. Starbuck
feared she'd done
more than just make him her conquest; she'd stolen his
heart.  He'd never
believed it was possible for him to actually lose his heart
to love; he'd
never put it on the table.  Somehow this time, he'd
unknowingly gambled with
it and lost the game. Now he hope fervently she wasn't going
to take it and
run.

Oh, he'd given her several reaserve for this
argument. Afraid to look at her, he kept his eyes closed and
whispered, "Please
leave Sheba."

His words hit her as if it were a physical blow. Tears
sprung up in her eyes,
but her fiery nature would not let her give up so easily.
Before he could turn
from her again, Sheba rounded the desk to stand in front of
him. His eyes
remained closed, as if he was afraid to look at her. She
placed her hands on
either side of his head, drawing him down to her. "I love
you whether you like
it or not." Quickly, she kissed his lips, afraid he'd pull
away at any moment.

His eyes flew open as her lips touch his and Sheba saw what
his closed eyes were
trying to conceal.  Desire smoldered there.  Desire and
something else,
something that was trying desperately to hide. He stared at
her with a look she
feared she'd never see again. It flooded her senses and
wrapped her in a warm
blanket. She was spellbound by that look, a look of love,
that shown so vividly
from his eyes.

Unable to resist, he ever so slowly lowered his head. His
mind told him to stop
and back away, but his arms wrapped around her waist,
pulling her against him as
he allowed his lips to lay claim to hers. It was as if an
electric charge had
past between them, sparking a wave of desire that flooded
their senses. Sheba
wrapped her arms around his neck to support herself as she
felt her knees
weaken.

Desperately, like the drowning man he was, Apollo used all
of the strength of
will he had left to pull himself free of her lips. "No, " he
gasped.  Apollo
tossed his head back in an attempt to increase the distance
between them, yet
his grip on her only tightened.

He was lost in the river of emotions that flooded through
him. Frantically, he
held onto her as if she were a rock in that river. Afraid to
let go, lest he be
swept away to drown in these unwanted emotions. "I can't,"
he breathed.

Sheba looked up at him, his struggle clearly visible.
Somewhere in the back of
her mind, where the rationalsons to leave him: Athena,
Brie and Detra just
to name a few, but somehow he always come back to her.  The
others were more
of a check and balance. To prove to himself that he wasn't
serious about
anyone. Yet, the thought of Cassie with someone else drove
shards of raw
anguish through him.  This was a new feeling for him, and it
made him all
the more concerned over Cassie's actions of late. He knew
the games; he
written the rules.

Boomer's voice abruptly cut off his errant thoughts. "If
your systems took a
shock, how bad are they?"

"Most of my systems appear to be registering operational,"
Starbuck replied,
having already gone through a checklist of all his major
systems. "My left
engine's readings are fluctuating a bit but otherwise, I
think I'm OK. What
does it look like from out there?"

Boomer took his first, long look at the damage to Starbuck's
viper. "Well
you're certainly going to piss off your flight crew for
crumpling your front
sensor array" Boomer came back with as he slowed down his
forward momentum,
allowing Starbuck's viper to slowly pass along side him.

The front nose section of the viper was scrapped and
creased.  Boomer could
easily follow the path the other ship had taken as it
scraped along the
front nose section of the viper, tearing a good size gash
down the hull.
Where the left gun and front section of the left delta wing
should be, there
was only a stubby piece of torn metal, sparking into the
area around it,
like a miniature light show.  The gash continued down along
the side of the
left turbine engine, slicing through the protective
covering. "You've got
some buckling and a good size tear in your outer skin."
Boomer reported as
he maneuvered his viper under Starbuck's. He looked up and
let out a low
whistle.

"That good huh?" Starbuck responded, trying to make light of
the situation.

"Well, the good new is your luck is still holding." Boomer
countered.

"The bad news?" Starbuck asked, an edge to his voice.

"I found the fr part of herself had been
hastily tossed, she told
herself she should do as he asked and let him go. Yet, the
warrior in her would
not so easily surrender such an advantage, and she was not
about to lose hers.
Sheba pulled Apollo's head back down to her. Just a breath
away from her lips,
he managed to resist.

"Every good warrior knows when he has lost the battle,
Apollo," Sheba whispered.
"Love me."

With her words, she saw his stubborn pride flare behind his
eyes. He pulled his
head away, his smoldering eyes burning furiously back at
her.

Briefly, Sheba wondered if she'd over played her hand, but
she had been right,
he had lost his battle. As Apollo's anger flared, it ignited
a chain reaction
that turned the desire he'd been fighting into a firestorm
that swept him along.
He place his hands behind her head and claimed her lips
again, allowing the full
heat of his passion to flood her senses too.  His battle
lost, he surrendered
himself to her fully.


Exhausted, Sheba lay wiont half of you delta wing."

"Huh?"

"It's been twisted underneath and jammed up against your
underside," Boomer
explained.  "Part of it has penetrated your left engines
outer casing.  A
few more microns to the left and it would have punctured
your Tylium cells.
Looks like you're reputation as the luckiest pilot in the
fleet is secure,
Bucko."

"Yah well, I not taking any bets on that yet." He said, the
stress coming
though his voice now.  "How's my landing gear look?" He
asked.

"I can't tell. The hatch is partially blocked."

 "Will it extend?" Starbuck persisted.

"Hard to say, but it looks like your gear should be able to
push the debris
out of the way."  Boomer edged his viper over trying to get
a better look.
"Only one way to know for sure, you're just going to have to
try it."  He
said finally.

"Okay, here goes." Starbuck activated the power buss to his
landing systems
and took a deep breath before grasping the 'Gear Extend'
switch between his
thumb and finger.

"th her head resting upon Apollo's
chest, her body pressed
against his. She could stay like this forever. She didn't
want anything to break
this sweet moment, but she knew they needed to talk.  She
lovingly drew her hand
across his chest as she waited for him to speak first.  With
her head pressed
against him, she could hear his heart beating and feel the
rise and fall of each
breath.  She listen as his breathing slowed and became more
relaxed and regular.
Finally, she could hold her tongue no longer. "Apollo?"

He didn't answer. She lifted her head up to see his
expression, only to find him
sound asleep. With a cross between an exasperated sigh and a
laugh she sat up
and looked down at him, wondering if she should be upset or
pleased. Then she
smiled and lay down once again in the crook of his arm, her
head on his chest
listening to the steady sound of his heart. He had hardly
slept at all. Well, at
least she had gotten him to rest.

She knew he was fighting this. His emotions were sNO - WAIT!  DON'T ACTIVATE IT!!  Boomer suddenly yelled out
in alarm.

Starbuck jerked his hand away from the switch. "Why?  What's
wrong?"

"You've got a leak." Boomer stated in a flat strained voice.

"Oh feldercarb, from where?"

"I'm not sure, there are a lot of droplets floating under
the broken wing
section."  Boomer could see the tightly clustered droplets
bunched up under
the debris.  "They're not dark so it's not a power systems
leak." Boomer
stated.

"It's clear?" Starbuck asked, with dread.

"Ya, bucko."  Boomer answered evenly.  "It could be coolant
leak or.."

"Tylium." Starbuck finished.  Volatile Tylium. If he tried
to lower his
landing gear it would push on the broken delta wing and
certainly cause a
spark.  Not good - most assuredly not good.

Starbuck checked his fuel, "My fluid levels seems stable
enough.  Perhaps it
is coolant," he called out.

"It's not a big enough leak to make a dent on your levels
yet.  I wouldn't
cover that bet if I were you."

"Gio
unpredictable, she was
afraid to push him and yet even more afraid not to. She
feared he would once
again be able to hide behind that wall where he sealed his
innermost feelings
Over the past yahern she had seen the cracks and had worked
her way through
them. Now that she had found a way in, would he acknowledge
their love or
continue to fight against it?

She was angry with him for wasting time. Time they could
spend together. Hadn' t
the past few days shown how unpredictable their time
together was? She didn't
want to waste a moment of it. With a heavy sigh she closed
her eyes, and for the
now, enjoyed this singularly precious moment. Well, she had
gotten more than she
had planned on this night. He could no longer deny he had
feelings for her. With
that secret smile she drifted off to sleep.


Starbuck hit the door sensor with the tip of his unlit
fumerillo, "I don't know,
Boomer, I'm just saying that things are never going to be
the same again."
Starbuck followed Boomer into ving me betting advice now, Boomer?" Starbuck tried to
sound light." I'll
worry about it latter.  What do we do about our friend
floating over there?"

"We need to take it back.  That's the only way we can hope
to overcome this
technology," Boomer stated.

"Boomer, you always were one to point out the obvious. But,
with my leak
unknown, I don't think a tracking beam would be wise."

"I'm giving you gambling advice and you're thinking.  My
what a mixed up
day," Boomer teased.

Starbuck grinned and redirected his power from his landing
systems to his
magnetic tow cables.

"Okay, Magna-lock cables it is then."

__________________________

"Shuttle Delta, you are cleared for landing on Beta Deck,
shuttle bay 4."

"Acknowledged, shuttle bay 4."

Omega listened to the com traffic that filtered in through
his headset.
What he was waiting for was a signal from one of their
patrols that they had
sent out.  Behind him, he could hear muffled footsteps
approach him.  He'
been listeningthe officers club, signaling
to the barman to
catch his attention as he walked over towards the bar.

"Hell, Starbuck, things haven't been the same since the
Destruction, " Boomer
called out over his shoulder as he continued over to the
center table where they
usually sat and flopped down heavily. " And don't forget you
owe me an Caprican
brandy!"

Starbuck, who had just pick up two grogs, set one down and
reordered the second
drink. "Caprican brandy," then checking to see if Boomer was
looking, he leaned
closer to the barman. "Uh, make that a small." More loudly
he continued
addressing Boomer, "You know what I mean, Boomer. Sure, we
don't have all that
much that's stable in our flash-pan existence, but what I do
have left I'd like
to keep." Intent on his discussion with Boomer, Starbuck
grabbed the second
drink and quickly stepped away from the bar,  whereas he
immediately collided
with a tall, and now wet, warrior.

"Frak!" Starbuck mumbled and looked mournfully at his
expensive to those footsteps for the past centar as
they paced around
the bridge like some caged animal.  Now, they stopped behind
him.

"Still no response from Blue or Green squadrons.  Flight
Sergeant Jolly's
last report said they were heading into the jamming field
they encountered."
Omega turned in his chair in time to see the worry flash
across Apollo's
face.  Covering his com mic with his hand Omega whispered.
"Your father
could never stand waiting for word on a missing patrol,
either."

"He had yarhens to get use to it.  I don't know how he did
it." Apollo said
in admiration.

Omega shook his head and smiled "He didn't.  He'd just paced
around the
bridge until word came, one way or another. Just like you."

Apollo looked over at Omega and smiled at the comparison.
"Thanks."

"What are you going to tell the council about the transfer
of the Crystal's
and Scarab's populace? "

"I haven't thought about it. I figured I'd worry about it
later."

"Uh, Apollo," and Omega gestured behi purchase for
Boomer as it ran in caramel colored drips down the brown
face before him. Then
Starbuck smiled, bringing his infamous charisma to full
force as he tried to
charm his way into the good graces and out of possible
danger with the warrior
before him. "Well, hello, Alikatz, can I buy you a drink?"

"No thanks, apparently, I've just had one!" Alikatz's light
Scorpion accent was
filled with amused sarcasm.

"Uh, sorry about that. Look, I'm sure there's a way I can
make it up to you."
Starbuck's charm-filled voice left the possibilities wide
open.  She gave him a
seductive look up and down, considering.

But, deep inside, Starbuck knew he wasn't giving it his all.
Normally, he'd set
his charisma on stun when the opposite sex looked at him
that way; and Alikatz
was not a bad looker at that, with her long dark brown hair,
golden honey skin
and alluring dark eyes; and yet, his heart wasn't in it. Oh,
his hormones were
most definitely interested, but something seemed wrong about
nd him "I think it's
'later'." Behind
Apollo, four white-robed delegates of the Council of the
Twelve entered the
bridge.

"Frak, not now!" Apollo hissed.

"Captain Apollo, may we have a word with you," Counselor
Yogan requested in
way that was obviously a command.

Part 7

Starbuck tapped the pressure gauge of the tow cable and
watched as the
needle obediently rose out of the red, danger zone and into
the green, safe
zone.

"Starbuck?"

"Yo."

"We've got company." Boomer's excessively calm voice alerted
Starbuck.

"What?" Starbuck checked his scanner. He had set it on
forward scan, while
Boomer had his on rear scan. Quickly, he switched it back to
rear scan. He
watched with apprehension as twelve blips appeared behind
them.

"Feldercarb."

"They're going to catch up to us at this speed," Boomer
confirmed.

"They just don't want us to take their new toy home,"
Starbuck said as he
checked the power levels of the tow cable. The magnetic
locks were holding
but draining actually doing
anything about it.

"Humm, could be interesting."  She flashed him a smile that
was openly inviting,
and Starbuck couldn't help but cringe at the predatory
sparkle in her eyes. When
it was apparent Starbuck wasn't going to offer more nor
accept an offer at this
time, she walked past him, brushing her right hand across
his chest as she
gently pushed him out of her way. "I'll be seeing you around
then, lieutenant."

Starbuck's unsettled gaze followed her. Why did he suddenly
feel like he'd done
something wrong? As soon as he asked himself the question,
an image appeared in
his mind. Wavy blond curls that frame a delicate heart-shape
face. Twin pools of
lighted laughter sparkled at him, fill with an emotion that
he had evaded
noticing. Now, as the image flash before him, he knew why
his usually
flirtatious manner had seemed wrong.

He really didn't want Alikatz or anyone else for that
matter. He just wanted to
lose himself in Cassie's eyes. When had that look come into
the power from his engines.

"Guess nobody ever showed them how to share their toys,"
Boomer countered,
as he check his own power levels. "We can't outrun them
towing this thing,"
Boomer reluctantly admitted "Well have to jettison the
cables."

"Frak that! We have to get this thing back. The technology
is too valuable."

"I agree, but you're not exactly up to another fire fight,"
Boomer
admonished.

Starbuck was suddenly distracted by a light flashing
feverishly at him, it's
red color demanding attention. "I don't think it's going to
matter, Boomer.
We've just been cut off."

"What?!" Boomer checked his forward scanner just as
additional blips began
to inch across the screen toward them. "Frak it! Are we out
of jamming range
yet?"

"No. My sensors still show the jamming field at 2400 x 3600.
No one beyond
two hectars is going to understand anything we transmit,"
Starbuck angrily
answered.

"Frak. How far away is the group behind us?" Boomer asked as
he watched the
forward g
her eyes? He knew
that look. Had even had it aimed at him before, but this
time it was different.
This time he felt the difference.

This thought alone so surprised the playboy in him that he
nearly dropped his
remaining drink. He knew he cared for Cassie, but did he
love her? 'Me -
Starbuck - the fleets playboy, actually in love? With one
woman?'

But even as he discounted the thought, he could feel the
warmth the thought had
left deep inside him. He was going to have to think long and
hard about this
revelation and what it meant.

"Excuse me lieutenant." Startled out of his revere Starbuck
jumped and nearly
spilled his remaining drink.

"All right, Lieutenant, I think one drink is quite enough to
waste," said the
amused voice of yet another female warrior. Starbuck flushed
with irritation and
embarrassment. "I think maybe you better sit down and have
the barman bring you
the drinks, since I certainly don't want to have to change
my uniform too."

Starbuck just gave his usual roup change course to intercept them.

"Six hectars. They'll be on us in approximately five
centons. The group in
front of us will catch us in about three."

"We don't have a choice.  We're going to have to leave your
new friend
behind," he concluded, frustrated.

"Frak it!" Starbuck pounded the side of his cockpit in
impotent anger. "OK,
turn to point 46.1. Lets make a run for it."

"We'll never out run them to the fleet," Boomer cautioned,
as he started
transferring his power systems.

"We don't need to. We just need to get into communication
range," Starbuck
replied as he also redirected his power from the magnetic
cables back to his
engines. "If we can't keep this ship, then we have to at
least pass on the
transmission we intercepted."

"Disengaging tow cable!" Starbuck watched as Boomer's tow
cable floated free
from his viper.

"Activating recon beacon on the tow cable. " Starbuck then
pulled the
release lever. "Tow cable away."

"You're being rather optimistic," Boomer roguish smile and allowed her
to steer him in the
direction of the table where Boomer, and now Jolly, were
seated, shaking their
heads in unison at him.

"Come sit down, Starbuck, before you run the whole OC over!"
Jolly call to him.
Laughter broke out all around him as Starbuck gave in and
with exaggerated care
walked over and sat next to Boomer.

"Now, I know you always say you like to sweep the ladies off
their feet,
Starbuck, but I never realized you were being literal,"
Boomer joked.

Starbuck ignored the laughter as he watched yet another
offer, smiled sweetly
over a shoulder, walk away unanswered by him.

"Starbuck, one at a time," Boomer leaned over and
admonished.

Starbuck hastily set aside his thoughts for later when he
could give them his
full attention and focused on Boomer "Why?" he automatically
answered.

Boomer shook his head sadly. "I forgot who I was speaking
to."

The barman arrived then with their drinks, breaking the
moment. Starbuck picked
up his glass marveled, as they
both engaged
their turbos.

"'Optimistic' is my new middle name, Boomer!" Starbuck
announced.

"I always thought it was 'Dumb Luck'!" came a voice over the
com channel.

"Jolly?!"

"You didn't think the captain would let you two have all the
fun, did you?"
came the reply as Jolly's viper rocketed into view before
them, followed
shortly by the rest of Blue and Green squadrons. The vipers
didn't slow but
continued on past Starbuck and Boomer's position. "You don't
mind if we play
with your friends, do you?"

"No, no! Have all the fun you want!" Starbuck shouted in
relief. "Come on,
Boomer, we've got some tow cables to catch!"

Part 8

"Councilors, we don't have time for you to take a vote on
this. When we are
out of immediate danger, I will be more than happy to give
you and the rest
of the council a full report," Apollo replied in an attempt
to forestall yet
another request for a full council hearing.

Apollo was certain he was in hostile territory as he saand returned back to what they were originally
discussing. "Boomer,
I just feel like things are changing so fast.  I don't know,
it just feels so
out of control."

"Don't you think Apollo's plan will work?" Boomer asked,
concerned.

"It's not that. I'm just..."Starbuck waved his hand in a
frustrated gesture,
unsure of his own thoughts and feelings right now.

"Feeling left out?" Boomer asked as he thoughtfully watched
Starbuck.

"I don't know, yah, maybe. Maybe that's it, I just feel like
I've lost
something."

Boomer nodded, "we've all lost great deal in such a short
time."

"I know, Boomer, but this feels different. This time I'm
afraid Apollo and I
have lost something of our friendship too."

"Don't worry, Starbuck," Jolly spoke up, "You two have gone
through tougher
spots.  You'll get through this intact too.

"I hope so," Starbuck replied as he gloomily looked into the
dark amber liquid
before him.


Reluctantly, Apollo dragged himself from the pleasant
nothingness oft
facing the four
councilors in the relatively small command briefing room.
They had been here
for 20 centons already, and Apollo doubted they had talked
about anything of
any real importance, beyond the Galactica's damages. The
rest was politics!
He knew he wasn't very good at the game, his temper usually
getting the
better of him. Now, he strived for calm. All his energies
shouted at him to
be near a com channel, to monitor the situation of his
missing patrols, but
he also realized he couldn't risk alienating the councilors
and the Council.
At least not yet.

"You will give us a full report, now, *Captain*. We have
waited long
 enough," Bracus contradicted in an angry huff.

"What more to do you need to know? I've already gone over
the damage to the
Galactica and the status of her crew.."

"We know that, Captain." Bracus cut him off. "What we want
to know is when
will you move the fleet out of this area? The people are
frantic to get away
from here. We all know the Cylons could sleep. His
right arm was shouting at him to shift it, but it was pinned
in an awkward
position, and he couldn't move it. It had begun to ache, and
the painful
tingling had driven him from the depths of sleep.

Like someone drugged, he slowly forced his eyes open.
Momentarily, sleep
confused, he wondered why he could not move. There was a
weight on him. He
stared dumbly at the brown hair that covered his chest and
the sleeping form
that lay curled at his side. He inhaled deeply to erase the
cobwebs from his
mind. Like mist retreating from the sun, awareness returned
and his memories
flooded back to him.

He closed his eyes as a jumble of emotions warred within
him. Foremost, was a
sweet ache that tugged at his heart.  He had been fighting
this emotion for so
long now; it was sweet agony. An addictive thing that he
knew he should not
sample, but like an addict, he could not resist it.

He opened his eyes and watched the slight rise and fall of
Sheba's breathing
while his mind fille come back at any
time to finish us
off. With the Galactica damaged, we are defenseless."

"Bracus, with the Galactica damaged, we can't possibly leave
this sector!"
Apollo shouted, his anger getting the better of him. They'd
gone over this
argument a dozen times, at least, and he was very close to
losing what
precious little patience he had with the councilor.

Apollo could see the storm signs brewing amongst the other
councilors.
"Look, I know you are only concerned about the welfare of
the fleet." Well,
that wasn't the truth, but, Apollo thought, it couldn't hurt
to pander to
their egos. "It's my main concern, too. Our engineers are
working as fast as
they can to make the structural repairs necessary for the
fleet to resume
her journey. But, until then, the Galactica cannot be
moved."

"Granted," Yogan said, forestalling Bracus in yet another
round of needling
Apollo about leaving the area. Apollo looked over at Yogan
in surprise. He
was up to something, that was for sure, but d with the memories of the previous
night, and he
dangerously allowed this forbidden emotion to fill his
heart. A warm sweet pain
spread out across his chest. His soul ached to embrace it.
So strong and
overpowering was this emotion, that once released, he felt
like a steel band was
constricting his chest, preventing him from taking another
breath. With a gasp
that was more of a sob, Apollo fought against this
overpowering emotion.

The strength of it shocked him. Never had it been so
forceful. He could not
remember it being so powerful, even when it was Serina he
held in his arms - and
that scared and shamed him. How could he feel so much more
for Sheba then he had
with his own wife? He felt he had somehow betrayed Serina
with his emotions. It
mattered not to him that he had no control over these
emotions. He closed his
eyes and struggled to regain control.

Why was he fighting this? Why couldn't he just give in to
this emotion? It was
tearing at his soul to be let loose.

Yet hiwhat? Not for
the first time,
Apollo wished he'd inherited at least some of his father's
skill at handling
the politicians.

"We're getting nowhere, and to be honest, the more we pester
the captain the
longer it will be until we move this fleet." Yogan said to
Bracus. "You've
been straightforward with us, Captain.  Now I'll be strait
with you." That
would be a first, Apollo thought, but held his tongue.

"You haven't been very forthcoming on keeping us informed in
this
 emergency." Yogan held up his hand before Apollo could
respond. "I know you
have been busy, but you must understand that the council
needs to know these
things, in order to relay what information is necessary to
our people. To
keep them calm," he added almost as an afterthought. Apollo
felt 'Pacified'
would have been a better word for what Yogan meant.

"You must realize, Apollo, that we must work at keeping the
trust of the
people, and no information during a crisis breeds distrust.
We, of the
council, must work s soul already bore the scars that love could inflict,
and he was
terrified it would consume him again.  Only this time he
knew he'd never
survive.

With tears flowing down the sides of his head, Apollo
quietly lay there, his arm
's pain forgotten in the storm of emotional pain, and
wondered how had he
allowed this to happen.

It had been difficult to work through the lethargy caused by
recent events. One
moment he was void of emotions and then in the next, a wave
of unbelievable
anguish would wash over him, suffocating him. At such times,
he felt he would
break down. Yet, he had to go on. So many people now relied
on him as he had
relied on his father. He knew his mind had not yet accepted
that his father was
gone. He would catch himself wanting to discuss problems
with him, to talk about
this or that, only to suddenly realize that he would never
be able to discuss
anything with him again. The loss of his father had left him
feeling vulnerable
and so very alone. He had managed to at preventing that at all costs," Yogan
stated. He then
smiled at Apollo and added, "You must understand this, too,
if you plan to
run for the regrettably vacant Caprican seat on the
council."

Apollo had always been very careful never to underestimating
his opponent in
battle. Now, he realized he had overestimated them in this
case. Listening
to Yogan, he realized that they didn't care about the
ramification of this
crisis to the fleet, as much as they cared about their
political standing
with the people of the fleet. And more importantly, what his
political
agenda was. "I have no intention of running for a political
seat on the
council, councilors," Apollo quietly explained. "You are
mistaking me for my
father."

"But, your father.."

"Was a Politician as much as he was the Commander of this
fleet. He was a
member of the original Council of the Twelve as a politician
first and a
military commander second. He once told me he actually
enjoyed locking horns
with the other councilshield himself behind
his walls. But, as
time and fatigue grew, his armor had begun to crack, failing
him when he needed
it most.

He had suffered so much loss in the past two yarhens that at
times, he wondered
how he had ever survived it. In the beginning, he had
grieved for the loss of
the Colonies, and as everyone who had survived that tragedy,
had grieved for the
loss of his family members. His mother he missed as only a
son could. She had
known his moods better than he had himself. She had always
been able to bring
sense to his world and to put everything into balance. She
had kept his
priorities straight.

Then there was his little brother, Zac. His death had
haunted his dreams,
filling them with guilt and remorse. He should have never
taken him on that
patrol, but Zac had been so eager to prove to his big
brother that he could do
it. That he was capable. Well he had proven that with his
life.

When the fleet started to gather, he had been helpless to
help those left
behinors." Apollo paused as a flash of
memory momentarily
brought that conversation back to him. "Well, at least he
did before the
Destruction. The Interplanetary Military Advisor, was the
one who worried
about any decisions the council made that would affect the
safety of the
Colonies." Apollo saw the light dawn in Yogan's eyes as he
realized where
Apollo was going with this.

"And a fine job he did, too!" Prate spat out, unsettled by
the direction of
the conversation.

Apollo nodded his head in agreement with her. "Yes, we'll
never really know
if he was a pawn for Baltar and the Cylons, or just an old
fool who was just
too tired of war." Apollo could still feel the unpleasant
shock when he'd
first heard the Council had opened communications with the
Cylons. They had
stopped all negotiations with the Gorns; who where
requesting an alliance
with the Colonies. The Cylons had made it one of their
conditions for the
peace talks.

Apollo's maternal grandfather had worked long and hard at
d, felt useless to those that now needed help in the
expanding fleet, and
immensely guilty that he had survived at all. As their
journey started, he
thought he would breakdown from the weight of all the grief
and
self-recriminations, but then he was approached with a
problem he could fix.
Something he could finally do right. Someone he could help.

When Serena had first asked for his help with her son, he
was uncertain why he
had followed her through the crammed, makeshift living
quarters of the Rising
Star. But, he could not refuse the pleading in her eyes, nor
the fact that she
had saved his life back on Caprica.

It was on the ravaged Caprica that he remembered his first
meeting with the boy.
There had been so much destruction that he could not even
recognize his family's
home, nor the site where it had been. He remembered the 700
yahren-old Bantic
tree that been the centerpiece of the front garden. When he
looked over what was
once his home, there wasn't even a hint that it had e
getting the
volatile wing warriors to the negotiations table. They had
been close to an
agreement when the Cylons had asked for peace. Yes, if the
Gorn Alliance had
gone through, it would have changed the power structure in
the galaxy. The
Cylons knew that, and started their "peace" talks; making
sure the Gorn
Alliance was the first thing they destroyed.

Aknon, the Military Advisor, had been a fool to let the
council start the
negotiations before the Gorn Alliance was finished - or he'd
been a traitor.

"But, since the destruction," Apollo continued, "my father
also had to look
at everything from a military viewpoint, and that's a hard
place to be. The
two objectives seldom match up, and tying to manage both
factions was an
enormous strain on him." Apollo looked at each of the
councilors in turn.
"One that I do not intend to endure." He watched them
carefully before he
played his final card.

"We are still at war, councilors." He went on, not giving
them time to
remark. "Still xisted.

Unlike his father, he could not bring himself to look
through the ruins of their
lives. When he saw the mob approaching, he had wanted to
leave, but he could not
pry his father from his memories. He, and the whole fleet,
had failed those who
where approaching. They had lost the war and their worlds.
What could he say to
them?

He was unprepared for their angry actions, and for a moment,
thought they would
end his guilty torment by ending his life. But they did not.
Serena had stopped
them. Then there, in the middle of all that destruction, was
the unrepentant
innocence of a child. The small boy who 's only thought was
his delight at
seeing a viper up close. With childish enthusiasm he, had
asked for a ride. How
many times had Zac asked that same question?

It was that same boy, who had reminded him so strongly of
his little brother,
that later lay motionless and uncaring on the Rising Star.
The child's innocent
wonder had been all but forced from him since their first
encunder military law." Bracus began to stutter
as he finally
realize what Apollo was saying.  Yogan narrowed his eyes and
stared at
Apollo with an icy look, but didn't interrupt. "I'm a
military leader not a
civilian leader. I plan to leave the domestic decisions to
you; that's what
you are here for. But," and Apollo stood up, "the military
decisions are
mine, and my aids, not the Council's."

"Very well, *Captain*," Yogan said into the shocked silence
that had
followed Apollo's statement. "But, be assured this is not
the end of this
discussion. The council will require a full accounting when
we are safely
out of this sector."

Apollo held back the quick retort that came to his lips, *If
we get out of
this sector,* and with a nod of agreement, he marched out of
the briefing
room..


Part 9

"How'd it go?" Omega whispered as he watched the councilors
leave the
briefing room and head for the lift.

"To be honest, I don't know." Apollo sighed. "Right now, I
don't think I
care," Aounter.

As his first attempt to brighten up the boy failed, and he
had looked up and saw
the desperate fear in the boy's mother's eyes, he had
raillied himself then and
there. He'd pushed out the pain and numbness that had kept
him from feeling too
much and accepted the challenge of this young soul.

The boy had focuses his grief and confusion upon the one
thing that mattered to
him most, his missing daggit. When Apollo had later realized
they had not saved
a single animal from their home worlds, he had talked Dr.
Walker into making a
small robotic daggit for the boy. His delight in seeing the
boy smile and laugh
was mirrored in Serena's eyes. Eyes that seemed to touch his
very soul. He had
not realized until that moment that his feeling for Serina
had grown so strong.

She had re-balanced his life with her love and shown him the
way to forgive
himself for losing his little brother. She had truly saved
his life, and he had
started to live again.

Then his world shattered once agapollo said as he picked up his headset.

"You will later." Omega predicted.

"Yes, I probably will," Apollo agreed as he looked out of
the main view
port, refusing to look at the departing Councilors. When he
heard the lift
doors close he finally turned around. "Did you get a hold of
Shadrick yet?"

"He's supervising the spot patching on the fracture.  He's
asked us not to
try any maneuvering until they're done. Then we should be
able to do some
minimal maneuvering."

"Oh, no problem.  I just hope he told the Cylons. How long
is this going to
take?" Apollo asked, still piqued from his council
encounter.

"About another four centars," Omega calmly replied, not at
all bothered by
Apollo's mood.

"We may not have that long. Any word on Starbuck and
Boomer's patrol?"

"Not yet.  I've been monitoring, - wait" Omega put his hand
to his earpiece
and turned up the volume. "Yes, Blue Squadron is back in
communication
range. Jolly's reporting they found Starbuck and Boomer."
Omega actiin, dragging him back down.

The despair caused by the loss of Serina was unbearable. He
couldn't function.
All he wanted to do was just lie down and die, to end this
new onslaught of pain
and to stop this maddening cycle of death. But he could not.
He found himself
alone with that same small child who now looked to him to
ease his pain.

So, he managed to rally himself again, to live and to love
the precious soul he
now cared for. Boxey had become his reason to go on. He
reason to live.

Eventually, his heart began to heal and he began to live,
yet again. His world
was once again coming back together.

Then Sheba had come into his life. He had taken little
notice of her at first.
He enjoyed her company, as she, of all people, knew what it
was like to be in
the shadow of a formidable father. A leader of men. Without
realizing it, he
began to search out her company. There were few whom he
would allow himself to
let his guard down in front of, but it had seemed so natural
to do so ivated
the speaker control sending the com traffic to the command
station's
speakers.

"....uck's viper is a bit worse for the wear.  He'll need
help landing his
viper..."

"No, I won't! I'm perfectly able to land. The damage is only
skin deep."

"You've got a Tylium leak, for Kobol's sake!"

"No, I don't! I have an *unknown* clear, liquid leak. It's
probably just
coolant. No problem."

Apollo turned on the mic on his head set. "Starbuck, what
did you do to your
viper this time?"

"Nothing serious, Apollo, you know me. I just like to add to
the
 excitement."

"He's had his left delta wing torn off and is sporting a
possible Tylium
leak from his under carriage."

"*Coolant!* I've checked my fuel levels; there is no fuel
leak. It's
coolant, already."

"Starbuck, let's not take any chances. Omega, activate the
Landing..."
Apollo started to say but was quickly cut off by Starbuck.

"Apollo! I've never needed to use the Landing Arm since the
academy, and I
sure don't need it n front
of her. He told himself she was just good friend. But his
feelings for her
silently and unknowingly grew deeper. Without his
acknowledgment and before he
had had a chance to lock it up, she had crept into his
heart.

He had not recognized the feelings of jealousy that had
flowed through him when
Iblis had threatened their relationship, and then Sheba's
life and soul. He had
even allowed himself to ignore Starbucks comments, but then
she had made him
look at their relationship. She had forced the issue on him
and he fought it.
But even as he tried to deny that there was a closeness, he
had realized his
true feelings. He began to recognize how his pulse quickened
when she was near,
how her smile made him feel, and what he would do to see
that smile. And for the
first time he allowed himself to feel the feelings that had
forced their way
into his heart.

And he was terrified.

How had it happened? He had sworn to himself to never love
again, to never put
himself in such a venow. Boomer's just being his normal
paranoid self. My
ship is fine, I promise. I'm taking her in. Trust me on this
one, will you?"


Apollo sighed.  How many times had he heard this banter
before, when
Starbuck returned with a damaged viper? Only then, he knew,
if the damage
was serious enough, the bridge personnel wouldn't let
Starbuck bring his
viper in by himself. Apollo had been able to let Starbuck
argue the issue on
his own, without becoming a target in the lieutenant's angry
sights. But
now, he couldn't relent. "Sorry Starbuck...."

"I can land! It's safe!" Starbuck persisted.

"Lieutenant! If you won't voluntarily take assistance, then
consider it an
order. I'm not risking our newly repaired landing bay just
because you're
willing to gamble on this."

"Yes, sir!" came the stony response.

"Starbuck..." Apollo sighed.

"Your're ruining my perfect recorded, you know." Starbuck
grumbled, but
Apollo could hear the reluctant smile in his voice.

"Perfect, record? As if!" Anerable position again. He couldn't
afford to love. Not now,
not ever.

Unnerved by his thoughts, Apollo gently extracted himself
from Sheba's sleeping
form. He sat on the edge of the bed looking down at her. For
a moment, all his
troubles were forgotten as his eyes slowly caressed every
inch of her sleeping
form. He sat there unaware of time, unaware of anything else
in a bubble of
calm, but the turmoil of his recent thoughts had set up a
ripple, and eventual
the bubble broke.

With his thoughts in chaos, he clenched his jaw and grimly,
once again, began to
try and rebuild the walls around his heart. Determined to
regain control, he
gathered up his discarded clothes and dressed as quietly as
he could. The last
thing he needed now was for Sheba to awaken.

Once dressed, he collected the damage reports he had tried
to read the night
before and started to leave. From the bed he heard a
movement. Like a guilty
child, he froze. Sheba's hand reached out, searching and
finding a pillow,pollo chuckled, as he watch
Starbuck's viper
approach the Landing Arm. The viper slowed to a stop, as the
large
mechanical arm firmly grasped the viper around the
midsection in its
scissor-like claw. Then slowly the arm retracted back down
the rigging set
into the ceiling of the landing bay. It would then hold the
damaged viper up
off the deck until a support tripod could be set into place.

Apollo knew Starbuck hated the Landing Arm in an almost
phobic kind of way.
He'd had to use one once, back at the academy, and ended up
almost crushed
to death. The controllers were just cadets, themselves, and
had exerted too
much pressure on Starbuck's viper, crushing the ship in the
large metal
claw. Starbuck had managed to avoid any serious injury, but
it had taken the
deck crew almost a centar to pull his crushed viper into the
bay, and then
cut him out of it.

Apollo watched as Starbuck's viper was gently set down on a
foamed tripod
and exhaled in relief.

X-UIDL: e;U"!D9+!!%Z2!!1UN"!

pulled it close. She sighed and seemed to fall back into a
deeper sleep. Apollo
released the breath he hadn't realize he was holding.
Tearing his eyes from her
sleeping form, he turned and left his quarters. As the door
silently closed
behind him, he knew his newly erected walls had already
begun to crumble.


Sheba shifted in her sleep. The light blanket covering her
waist had wrapped
itself around her legs. Unconsciously, she pushed at it to
free her immobilized
legs, and it fell free to the floor. She shivered as the
warmth from the blanket
began to evaporate. Unwilling to wake, she reached out to
Apollo, intent on
snuggling closer to him for warmth, but her searching hand
found only emptiness.
Confused, Sheba cracked open her eyes. The space next to her
was empty.

As if the klaxon had gone off Sheba bolted upright in the
bed as her
sleep-fogged mind tried to think. Her eyes scanned the empty
room. With
trepidation she hastened from the bed and almost ran into
the bathing fac
Part 10


Starbuck sighed deeply as his viper was gently set on the
foamed, padded
landing cradle. He punched open the canopy and hoisted
himself out.  As his
feet hit the deck the bay begin to spin and he staggered
back up against his
ship.  "Whoa," he murmured as he held onto the side of his
ship for a moment
trying to regain his equilibrium.

A deck hand walked pass not even noticing him, to join the
growing group of
spectators huddled just past his damaged ship.  Starbuck
inched his way
along the front of his viper until he could see what had
captured their
attention.

The huge landing arm was slowly approaching them with the
Dark Raider
captured in its claw. Now illuminated by the bay lights and
away from the
black background of space, Starbuck got his first good look
at it.

If possible, it appeared even more menacing as it was
carried into the bay.
Starbuck realized the Dark Raider wasn't all black after
all.  What he had
thought was damage from the power surge, was inility,
but he was not there either. He was gone. He had left
without waking her,
without talking to her. He had left - again.

Sheba sat heavily down on the end of the bed. She felt
crushed. She had finally
been shown her heart's desire, and before she could even
look at it, it had been
snatched away from her. Tears began to cloud her vision.
Why?  Why wouldn't he
let her in?  If he truly, had he would not have left like
this.  He would not
have snuck out, afraid to face her. She reached down, picked
up the blanket, and
wrapped herself in it as if she could hide behind it. Did he
regret last night?
Was he ashamed of what they had shared?  Maybe she should
have stopped him,
insisted on discussing their relationship; that had been
what she had come for.
His reaction had been unexpected and unplanned, and she had
been as unable to
fight the flood of desire as he had been.

A tear fell and landed on the hand that was holding the
blanket to her. She
stared at it and watched as it slowly  fact, strips
of gray metal
that criss-crossed the whole ship in a camouflage random
style. The lights
around the bay reflected oddly off the flat black and gray
surface almost as
if the black skin of the raider was absorbing them.

The landing arm came to a stop above a hastily modified
landing cradle.
Beyond it, Starbuck noted the two teams of warriors awaiting
it - guns
drawn. Behind them, he could see Apollo exiting the lift
followed by
Shadrick.  Apollo walked up behind Boomer and patted his
shoulder in
approval.  Boomer turned and said something to Apollo that
made him turn to
stare in Starbuck's direction, searching for him. Starbuck
knew Apollo
probably couldn't see much of him behind the deck hands and
the front nose
of his viper, but he must have realized where he was because
he flashed a
thumbs up at him.

A loud blast of air from the landing arm distracted
Starbuck. He turned to
watch as it released its grasp on its captive, then smoothly
rise up and out
of the way.
flowed down across the
back of her hand,
to finally drop off and hit the floor. This was wrong. Why
was she sitting here
like some twit-headed Virgo? She was not going to cry. The
daughter of the
Legendary Commander Cain would not sit in a darkened room
crying.

Her pride flared up from the smoldering coals of her soul
and erupted into a
virtual firestorm. She was not going to let him do this do
her. Who did he think
he was dealing with?  How dare he treat her like this! Sheba
threw the blanket
from herself as hard as she could. She would not hide. Fire
burned in her eyes
as she meticulously gathered up her clothing, fastening each
bit with absolute
decisiveness, each movement growing fiercer as her anger
flowed through her.

At last she stood in front of the mirror as she adjusted her
jacket. She was
Sheba, daughter of Cain, and she was done pleading. She had
begged for every
scrape of affection from him. No more. Either he would
acknowledge their
relationship or she would let him
Starbuck stayed where he was, his vertigo forgotten, as he
tensely waited
and watched as the first team of armed warriors took
positions around the
captured ship.  The second team spread out around it to
provide cover fire,
if needed.

One of the warriors, leaning against the raider, rose up and
peered into the
darkened cockpit.  His sudden duck and nod of his head would
have been
enough to tell everyone that there were indeed active Cylons
on board, but,
if they had any doubts, the laser fire that burst through
the cockpit's
window would have put an end to them.

Immediately, the second team of warriors opened fire,
shooting at the moving
target they saw through the hold in the window.  Return fire
proved that at
least one Cylon still remained functional.

"Be careful! You don't want to damage the ship!!" Dr wilker
screamed from
the other side of the bay, where he waited along with Dr
Salik and the rest
of the technical teams awaiting their chance to get a close
look at this ne go. She would not beg him
to love her.

The pain her thoughts caused robbed her of her breath as she
ignored the tears
that threatened. If he could not do this of his own volition
then she would not
stay around where she was not wanted.

Hurt and pride-stung, she straighten her shoulders, as she
strengthened her
resolve. Quickly, before she could think about it, she left
his quarters.


Part 16

Apollo sat at the table in the corner of the officer's club,
intent on being as
inconspicuous as possible.  Before him, spread across the
table, were various
reports but they could have been the next sections mess hall
menus for all the
attention he gave them. Every time he looked at the reports,
his mind wandered
back to the sight of Sheba in his bed; the smell of her
hair, the taste of her
lips, feel of her soft yielding body moving beneath his....

The sound of raucous laughter jarred him from his reverie.
With a heavy sigh
Apollo ran a hand through his hair.  He needed to go over
tw
technology.  The warriors ignored him. Starbuck knew from
the color of their
laser flashes that they were firing an electrical charge,
meant to stun or
immobilize a Cylon, not vaporize the valuable ship.

While the Cylons were distracted by the frontal fire the
first team had
opened up the bottom hatch and now tossed in an electro
static grenade.  As
soon as the charge's flash subsided, two warriors leaped
into the ship.
Laser shots were heard, then nothing.  For a heartbeat
everyone held their
collective breaths. Then one of the two warriors appeared at
the hatch
signaling the all clear.

Starbuck let out an audible sigh of relief, drawing the
attention of the
deck hand next to him.

"Oh my Lord!"  The deck hand exclaimed, before he began to
shout for a
medtech.

Amidst requests and all out demands for him to "Please, just
sit down!"
Starbuck continued around his viper, intent on getting a
closer look at the
Dark Raider.  He waived off the deck hands, telling them
austerely,he damage reports but
his mind had other plans. All he wanted to do was run back
to his quarters and
be with Sheba.  What was he doing here?

He distractedly watched the winner of the last hand at the
main card table being
goaded into buy the next round.  Good-natured joking and
laughter filled the
club. How he wished he could just forget all his troubles
and join them, as he
once would have.  Yet, there was so much to do, too much to
worry about and
Sheba.  What was he going to do about Sheba?  Her very name
sent a shiver,
filled of equal parts of delight and terror, through him.
What was he going to
do?

"Is this a private sulk or can anyone join in?" Apollo
jumped, knocking his
coffee over, spilling it across the reports.  The dark
liquid made quick work of
staining all the pages and Apollo wiped frantically at the
spilled coffee, as he
glared up at Starbuck.

Unsuccessfully smothering a grin, Starbuck sat down in the
chair across from
Apollo. "Sorry about that."

Giving up i "I don't
need a medtech, I'm fine!"

Unfortunately, removing his hand from the side of his ship
had been a big
mistake.  His vertigo seized him and took him down to the
deck in a flash.

"Starbuck!" Both Apollo and Boomer shouted as they raced
across the bay
toward him.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he protested as hands pushed him back
down, refusing
to let him up.

"Starbuck don't move," Apollo cautioned.

"He said he'd gotten some kind of a shock, but assured me it
was nothing too
serious.  I knew I should have requested a medtech meet him
in the bay."
Boomer explained to his worried and irate Captain.

A breathing mask was forced on Starbuck's face, and he
violently ripped it
off. "Let me up!! I'm fine, I tell you!  I was just dizzy,"
he shouted at
the crowed around him.

"Let me be the judge of that, lieutenant," came Salik's no-
nonsense
baritone.  Boomer got out of the way as the burly doctor
came forward,
medical scanner in hand.

"He came around his ship and collapsed ton the face of the futility of saving his reports,
Apollo angrily
glared at the ruined papers before him.  Starbuck's smile
was long gone. "Hey, I
'm really sorry.  I didn't mean to startle you.  You can
reprint those, right?"

Starbuck watched Apollo continue to glare at the ruined
reports.  He had watched
Apollo, from across the OC, stare unseeing at the papers
before him with such a
heavy look of uncertainty that Starbuck had decided that his
friend needed
someone to talk to.  He had tried to get Apollo's attention
as he walked over,
but Apollo had been starting off into space, oblivious to
his approach.  Now, as
he watched Apollo's face tighten with irritation, Starbuck
began to think he had
made a mistake in disturbing him.  "I can come back later if
I'm bothering you."
Apollo looked over at Starbuck surprised.  "I'm sorry
Starbuck.  It's not you."
Instantly Apollo's expression changed from anger to
contrition and Starbuck
realized, as Apollo looked apologetically over at him, tha the deck," Apollo
was explaining
to the doctor as Salik passed his sensor over Starbuck.

"Lie Still!" Apollo ordered, as Starbuck tried to sit up,
and placed the
breather back onto Starbuck's face.

Frustrated, Starbuck gave an exasperated sigh and laid back.
The throbbing
in his head seemed to be in rhythm with his angered pulse.
Soon Salik had
his sensor over Starbuck's face.  Gently, he turned
Starbuck's head to the
side, exposing the injured ear.  Then Salik sat back, put
his scanner away,
and shot something into Starbuck's neck.

"Doctor?" Apollo asked when Salik removed the breather from
Starbuck's face.

"Well, the Lieutenant's right.  I suspect he *is* quite a
bit dizzy.  Seems
he's blown out his ear somehow," Salk said as he put his
instruments away,"
but, otherwise he's seems fine."

"But..?" and Apollo motioned to the blood that covered the
upper left side
of Starbuck and the streaks of blood on his upper thighs.

Salk shook his head as he helped Starbuck up into a t
he had been
momentarily lost in his own thoughts again.

Apollo gathered up the reports and piled them to one side.
"I wasn't having much
luck reading them anyway."

"Yah, I noticed."  Apollo raised an eyebrow in enquire.
"You've been staring at
the same page for over twenty centons.  You looked like you
had some pretty hard
problems you were trying to solve.  I thought I'd come over
and see if I could
help."

Apollo chuckled." Yah, I guess you could call it that."

Starbuck gave Apollo one of his winning smiles. "I'm good
with problems."

Apollo looked thoughtfully over at Starbuck. "I don't know
Starbuck, this one
kind of personal.  I'm not sure I want to discuss it."

"Sheba?" Startled at Starbucks perception, Apollo just
started at him. "Apollo,
I'd recognize that look on your face anywhere.  It's your 'I
don't want to deal
with a painful subject' look.  You seemed to wear it anytime
I've mentioned
Sheba of late."  Apollo sat back in his chair, his face
unreadable.  Starbsitting
position. "All
from his ear apparently."

"See, I told you I was fine." Starbuck grumbled at them
sourly.

"Yah, but you could have warned us about the blood," Boomer
reproached.

"Blood?" Starbuck looked down at himself.  "Oh," was all he
said as he
looked at the red brown stains all over his uniform.

"Starbuck..." Apollo heaved a sigh as he shook his head.
"Boomer why don't
you help Salik get Starbuck here, to the life center."
Apollo said as he
stood up then turned to look at the Dark Raider.  "While I
take a look at
what you've brought home."


"Sir, the computer's finished decoding the message Recon
Patrol One
intercepted." Omega turned to face the ensign that stood
just behind him and,
taking the page that was handed him, scanned it quickly.

"Is it bad?" Athena asked.

Only the slight widening of his eyes betrayed his surprise
that she had come up
behind him unnoticed. "Could be worse," he said as he passed
it on to her.

Smiling her thanks, Athena took the uck
took a long pull on his fumerello.  He could tell that he'd
hit the preverbal
nail on the head.  He could also tell his friend was in a
lot of pain over it.

Apollo gave Starbuck a searching look, then sighed and
leaned forward, putting
his arms on the table his head bowed.  Starbuck waited for
him to speak. "I don'
t know what to do, Starbuck."  Apollo looked up. "I feel so
lost.'

Starbuck rolled his fumerello's tip around in the ashtray.
"It's been hard on
you ever since the attack."  Starbuck looked up from his
fumerello.  Apollo was
intently looking at him, waiting for him to continue.  "You
haven't let yourself
grieve." As Apollo looked away Starbuck leaned forward.
"Apollo, you can't run
from this."  Apollo's eyes jerked back to Starbuck's.

"I'm not running from it.  I'm trying to survive it." he
snapped.

Starbuck met Apollo's incensed gaze.  "By running yourself
ragged, trying to do
everything yourself?  You've thrown yourself into every
task, every problem,
non-stooffered paper.  Then
after reading it, she
looked back up at him, her face taut. "It could?" She asked
unsteadily.

"Well, they could already be here," he said pragmatically as
he took the printed
out back from her.

"True," she granted as she followed him down the dais steps.
"So we've got about
two days before the second ship rendezvous with the one that
attacked us?" he
nodded his agreement as he continued down the main station
steps, then crossed
in front of the helm station. "How long did Shadrick say the
repairs would
take?" she persisted as she followed him. It was all she
could do not to slide
down into a chair and wrap her arms around herself. Her
anxiety had doubled in
those few moments she had looked at the decoded
transmission, and her over
anxious nerves now seemed to be trying to turned her inside
out.  Her intestines
had settled for wrapping themselves into knots.

He stopped just outside the bridge office and turned back
toward her. "Longer
than two days," he said p.  When was the last time you ate?  Slept?  You're
killing yourself in
your attempt to escape your feelings."  Apollo looked away,
unable to answer.
"I know you, Apollo.  I watched you do this same thing when
we lost the
colonies,"  Starbuck paused.  "I watched you practically try
to kill yourself
when you lost Serina." Apollo's head snap up at Starbuck's
words.  Starbuck had
never discussed that time with Apollo, even though he had
secretly feared that
Apollo had been taking every high-risk mission he could get
his hands on in an
attempt to get himself killed.

Apollo's face was guarded as he started at Starbuck.  He
rejected the idea that
he actively sought to kill himself.  He hadn't.  Although he
had never allowed
himself to analyze that time in his life for fear of what he
would discover.  "I
've only done what everyone else has done.  What do you
expect me to do?  Go sit
in my quarters and cry, feeling sorry for myself?  I refuse
to do that.  And
there is a lot of work to be dquietly as he opened the door.

Athena watched him enter the room, the door closing behind
him, then finally
allowed herself to sink into a nearby chair.

___________________________________

The main lights were out in the computer room, but Starbuck
could still see the
dim light coming from the computer station in the back. He
could just make out
the dark hair over the back of the adjoining station as he
threaded his way
through the room. As he walked he took in the mess it was in
now. Piles of
printouts were strewn across the floor near the main station
to his right. Even
more printouts were piled all across a nearby table. Someone
had stuck together
pages of some diagram and tacked them to the wall.  Then, in
what to him looked
like a haphazard fashion, they had attached even more pages
over the main
diagram.

As Starbuck came around the last set of computer stations,
he could see that
Apollo was intently starring at something on the screen
before him. All about
him, data disone.  It helps; it's how I
cope with it.  Don't
deny me that."

"I don't.  But, you don't have to run yourself into the Life
Center in the
process.  You are allowed to rest once in a while, you
know." Starbuck's look
implored Apollo to listen.

Apollo's stubborn nature would have continued the argument,
but for the look of
real worry on Starbuck's face.  That fact that Starbuck was
really worried about
him cleared the anger from his thoughts.  "Okay, " Apollo
gave Starbuck an
ironic smile, "I'll take a break once in a while."

"I'm going to hold you to that you know." Starbuck smiled to
take the sting out
of his words.  "I'm going to get a drink.  Do you want a new
coffee?"

"Yeah, I do need to actually read these reports."  At
Starbuck's chastising
look, Apollo held up his hands. "I slept before I came in
here."  Starbuck gave
him a dubiously look but continued over to the bar.

As Starbuck ordered the drinks the door to the Officer's
club opened, and Sheba
came in.  She didn'tcs were scattered around the station, and
Apollo was concentrating
so hard on the text before him that not only did he not
notice Starbuck's
arrival, he was even muttering out loud to himself as he
read.

The scene was one from their past, and Starbuck smiled at
the memory. How many
times had he awoken at night to hear Apollo muttering, only
to find him at their
shared computer station, intensely studying one of his
textbooks before an exam?

"...after the Sythian disaster in 2986, various laws and
interstellar
regulations were soon developed concerning the use of the
light-speed capable
engines within a planetary system. Colonial regulation 1401,
specifically
states; ' No vessel shall under any circumstances ignite a
Sythatic light-speed
drive with in a parsec of a planetary system...' "

"Studying for an exam?" Starbuck interrupted.

"What?" Startled, Apollo looked up, momentarily confused,
then his eyes widened
as he recognized the reference. "No. No exams this time," he
replie say anything. She moved quickly and
quietly through the
room, but her eyes blazoned with anger.  The type that could
bore a hole in the
bulkhead.  And she was aiming that gaze on Apollo.

>From the safety of the bar, Starbuck watch her approach
Apollo.  Apollo, for his
part, was trying to pretend he didn't see her anger.  But as
she got closer he
flinched as if he half expected her to take a swing at him.

Starbuck wasn't too sure that wasn't her intention.  But,
with what Starbuck
figured must have been a great feat of self-control she
stopped next to Apollo
and did not, in fact, hit him.

She instead placed her hands on the table in front of Apollo
and with her face
mere inches from his, spoke intently at him.  Over at the
bar, Starbuck couldn't
hear what she said, but Apollo actually paled at her words.
Stiffly Sheba stood
up and without so much as a glance at anyone in the room,
left the club.

Starbuck looked back at Apollo, who quickly gathered up his
stuff and left the
clud as he sat
back in his chair and leaned as far back as he could,
stretching his arms above
his head. They both heard the sound of Apollo's back
cracking and Starbuck
laughed at the surprised look on Apollo's face.

"Yep, just what I thought. You're getting old.  Me, on the
other hand, will
never age," Starbuck said as he sat on the edge of the
computer station. "What
are you reading anyway? Sure sounds like a textbook."

"Sythanitc engines: A technical and historic look at light
speed." Apollo
replied, still leaning back in his chair, his hands
interlaced behind his head.

"Oh, lovely, some 'light' reading. " Starbuck grinned as he
picked up the data
disc cover, "Why?"

Apollo yawned then sat back up. "Every bit of information
helps. Besides, after
talking to one of the sythainc engineers, I figured I needed
more information on
the subject if I was ever going to understand what he was
trying to explain to
me."

"Yah, but technical manuals?" Starbuck picked up one on
shuttles anb himself.  Starbuck put the drinks he had gotten down on
the bar and hastily
followed him out.  He all but ran out the club door in an
attempt to catch up
with Apollo.  No one was in the corridor outside the club.

*Now what?,* he thought.  Not sure which way Apollo had
gone, Starbuck hurried
down the corridor.  As he turned the first corner he found
Apollo leaning with
his head against the corridor wall, his arm around his head,
hiding his face
from view.  Starbuck stopped.

Fully aware that he was intruding into a very sensitive
moment, Starbuck spoke
softly "Apollo, are you alright?"

Starbuck could just make out softly muffled response. "Go
away, Starbuck."

Never one to follow orders he didn't agree with, Starbuck
remained.  He was
reluctant to leave his friend alone like this.  Slowly and
cautiously, Starbuck
approached and leaned his back against the same corridor
wall a few feet away
from Apollo.  He looked up at the glow panel in the ceiling,
noticing that the
right sided looked at
it skeptically.

"It's the best source of information on the details of how
something works. If
you wanted to know about, say, a certain regulation, you'd
look the regulation
itself up wouldn't you?"

"Not if I could avoid it!" Starbuck held up his hands as if
to ward off
something unpleasant.  "Those regulations go on for pages,
heck volumes. No, I'd
just pull out my handy version of the officers best friend,
'Bluff Definitions.
'"

Apollo rolled his eyes at Starbuck. "If you don't read the
regulation then you
won't know why it was instituted. The way I look at it, it
can only help to know
why a regulation exists instead of just that it exist,"
Apollo explained. "Take
this one here." Reaching forward he tapped the computer
screen before him.
"Regulation 1401."

"No light speed in a planetary system." Starbuck answered
without pause.

"Good. So you were paying attention to some of your classes
back at the Academy?
Or do you only know the BD abbreviation?" Apollo gri had burned out. "I remember when Athena told me
to get lost the first
time.  You wouldn't leave me alone then, either."

"What?" Apollo looked over at Starbuck.  Starbuck wasn't
looking at him but at
the ceiling, examining it intently. With a heavy sigh,
Apollo stood away from
the wall.  He looked down at the floor unable to look at
Starbuck. "This is
nothing like that."

"Maybe not, but I still know that feeling." Starbuck looked
over at Apollo.  At
his words, Apollo looked up at Starbuck, and for a moment
they connected.

Apollo turned and leaned his back against the wall.  For a
while they both just
stared at the ceiling, neither one sure what, if anything to
say.

"Do you love her?" Starbuck had spoken softly as if afraid
to break the silence.

Apollo closed his eyes but did not response.

"You know you are also entitled to some happiness. "

"What?" Apollo looked over at Starbuck, but he was still
studying the ceiling.

Finally he looked back at Apollo, "In Sheba, you arenned at
Starbuck. "Do you
know why?"

"The Sythian Disaster," Starbuck replied, grinning back at
Apollo, enjoying the
challenge. This was like when they use to study for an exam.
Apollo would fire
questions at Starbuck until he was sure Starbuck understood
the subject inside
and out. Apollo had been a tough, if thorough, tutor.

"Yes, and what was the Sythian Disaster?" Apollo persisted
as he leaned back in
his chair and crossed his arms. The sparkle in his eyes
betraying his amusement.

"The Sythians ignited a light speed engine near their home
planet, destroying
it." Starbuck fired back, crossing his arms smugly.

"True, " Apollo said, but he had obviously not yet received
the answer he wanted
from Starbuck, so he continued. "So, how did that destroy
the planet?"

"How?" Starbuck faltered . He unfolded his arms as he racked
his brain for more
information on the subject. "Does it matter?" he finally
said.  "Just knowing it
could destroy a planet is good enough to keep people fro allowed
to be happy."

"Starbuck, I can't." Apollo couldn't meet Starbuck's gaze
and looked down at the
floor again.

Starbuck studied Apollo's dejected posture and closed face,
looking for clues.
"Why?

"I couldn't survive that pain again."

Starbuck mouthed a silent 'Oh'.  He should have known.  But,
how to get Apollo
to see beyond that?  "Do you love her?"

"It doesn't matter." Apollo's voice was neutral, trying to
hide his emotions.

"Doesn't matter? Of course it matters!"  Starbuck exploded
away from the wall
coming to stand before Apollo.  "What do you think does
matter out here?  We
live in tin cans floating through space, never knowing if
we'll survive until
tomorrow.  Never sure if we even want to survive.  The only
thing that does
matter is Love.  It's all we have left right now.  It's all
we have to hold on
to."  Starbuck's burst of energy seemed to evaporate as he
looked at Apollo.
Apollo looked like he had given up, the never-ending
sureness of his, that part
ofm
doing it," he
reasoned, frustrated. He'd forgotten how annoying this game
could be, especially
when he'd run out of answers.

Apollo shook his head, realizing he was pushing Starbuck. "I
guess, but unless
we know what it did and why, how do we know we won't
accidentally cause some
other disaster simply because we didn't know all the facts?"

"I don't know," Starbuck admitted. " I guess that's why you
get to make the
decisions. You're good with all the extra details and
stuff." He flashed Apollo
a grin.

"I guess, but you're right.  It is dry reading," Apollo said
as he picked up a
data disc, then tossed it back down, rejecting it. "I keep
hoping to find out
something, anything, that might make a difference in the
long run," he said as
he rubbed at his temples.

Starbuck watched as Apollo searched through the mess of
printouts to his right,
uncovering a small pile of medical packets that looked
remarkably like the one
he'd find in an emergency med kit, and shook his head. Some
 him that always knew things would work out, was not
there.  Starbuck needed
it to be there.  He relied upon it, depended on it.  "It's
what keeps us sane,"
he whispered, "You know that.  I know you do.  I know you've
been hurt, but
Hades, Apollo, Serena would never have wanted you to live
without love.  Don't
do that to her memory.  It's not right and it's not fair to
her, nor to Sheba."

Apollo stared at Starbuck.  A hundred denials flashed
through his mind, but he
couldn't voice any of them.  Starbuck was right.  Apollo's
hand had been called;
he had to either show his hand or fold.  Part of him,
despite everything, was
not ready to give up.  He was not prepared to fold just yet.
He just didn't
know how to proceed.   "I don't know how, Starbuck, I've
never been so afraid of
anything before."

"Do you really think that if something were to happen to
Sheba tomorrow, you'd
feel any less pain than if you allowed yourself to love
her?"

Apollo's face flashed with emotions as he realihad already been
opened and apparently used. "Salik won't like you stealing
from his emergency
kits."

"What he doesn't know won't hurt me," Apollo replied as he
popped the purloined
pills into his mouth and tried to wash them down with, what
Starbuck figured
from the grimace Apollo made, very cold coffee.

Acutely aware now of his own tension-tight muscles, Starbuck
rubbed at the back
of his neck and thought about how long the past two cycles
had been. It felt
like they had been the longest since the Destruction. He
watched as Apollo again
rubbed at his temples and couldn't help but notice the
strain that was showing
on his friend. It showed in the rumpled clothing that
Starbuck figured Apollo
hadn't changed since the attack, in the bloodshot eyes that
probably hadn't
closed for more than a half dozen centons, at best. And,
Starbuck was certain,
the headache Apollo had was not merely brought on by stress,
but severe fatigue.

"You know, some sleep would probably cure that headachezed the truth
in Starbuck's
words. "No."  He looked over at Starbuck as he realized what
Sheba had been
trying to tell him "No, I'd feel worse for not telling her."

Starbuck smiled, "Then you do love her?"

"Yes.  Despite myself, I do." Apollo looked at Starbuck and
shook his head.  "As
if you had any doubts."

Suddenly, Apollo closed his eyes and with a groan slid down
the wall until he
was perched upon his heals, his head bowed.  "It may already
be too late."

"Why?" Starbuck was confused.  He had finally gotten through
to Apollo.  He had
got him to admit his love for Sheba.  This was not the
reaction he expected.

"She left me," he said.

"So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know," Apollo replied, disheartened.

"I've never known you to back down from a fight before, so
don't start now!
Look, you've got a capstone in your corner." Apollo looked
up at Starbuck,
questioningly, and Starbuck grinned back at him. "You've got
me, and if there is
one thing I know besides pyramid, it's how to romance a
woman."

Apollo just stared at Starbuck, dubious.
, "
Starbuck suggested.
Apollo looked up at him and sighed.

"I don't have time," he said.  "I've got to finish going
through these repair
requests from the department heads. Shadrick needs a
prioritized list as soon as
possible, so he can arrange his repairs and see which ones
he'll need to add to
the main repairs he's currently doing."
"So, why were you going through the technical manual then?"
Starbuck asked as he
took note of the report folders that had been partially
hidden under the
printouts.

"To try to understand what it was I was reading," Apollo
said, exasperated. The
momentary lightness their banter had affected seemed to
evaporate as Apollo's
eyes turned troubled. Running his hand through his hair,
Apollo looked lost as
he looked at the pile of reports, then down at the scattered
discs around him.
"I just feel so inadequate."

"You? Would you rather have *me* in charge?" Starbuck shot
back.

Apollo gave a short laugh. "No."

"I didn't thinks so, " Starbuck replied