Awakenings

When Boomer returned with Athena, Cassiopia was
surprised at how haggard she looked.  Her eyes were
bloodshot and her face was smudged with dirt and
tears.  Cassiopia brushed her hand across Starbuck's
face to rouse him as he leaned heavily against her.
"Starbuck?"

"It's okay," Athena told her as she knelt down beside
them.  "It's better if he's out."  She could see the
light blue tinge around Starbuck's lips and knew that
he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.  She
rubbed her hands together subconsciously then slipped
her hand under Starbuck's shirt.  Nausea rose up in
her stomach instantly, but she ignored it and closed
her eyes.

An endless stream of images flashed through her mind
as she linked into Starbuck's psyche many of which she
recalled herself.  Births, deaths, friends, lovers,
battles, card games, the images were fleeting and yet
they remained with her so clearly once the connection
was broken.  She did what she could to stop the flow
of images, but she hadn't mastered the technique as
Gaea had and could only manage to slow the onslaught.

When she focused her attention on healing the wound an
image of Cassiopia suddenly appeared before her.
Athena started to ask how she had managed to slip into
the binding when Gaea's teachings returned to her.
This was not Cassiopia, but a manifestation from
Starbuck's mind.  As Athena healed the wound, Starbuck
projected Cassiopia using one of her medical
instruments.  It was his mind's way of relating to
what was happening to him.

Once the wound was healed, Athena turned her attention
to Starbuck's blood-filled lung and had to choke back
the bile that rose in her throat.  Starbuck was only
one of several people that she had healed in the past
centar and she had to fight her own body's responses
to the transference.

"What's going on?" Apollo asked as he came upon the
scene.

"Starbuck started coughing up blood," Boomer explained
softly.

"We didn't have a choice Apollo," Cassiopia told him.
"Starbuck isn't getting enough oxygen.  I can only
assume that his lung has filled with blood."

Everyone jumped when Starbuck suddenly took in a deep
breath then all eyes turned to him as Athena slowly
removed her hands from his back.  "He'll be all right
now," she said softly as she rubbed her blood stained
hand against her thigh.

Starbuck continued to take in rapid breaths and tossed
his head as consciousness returned.  When he blinked
his eyes open, the crowd around them erupted in
excited chatter.  "She healed him!  The bomoh healed
him right before my eyes!  The bomoh is real!  She
just touched him and he's healed!"

Starbuck looked up at Cassiopia still cradling him
against her chest and smiled.  "This is a nice way to
wake up."  He struggled to sit on his own then reached
up to put a hand to his forehead.  "I feel like my
head has been used as a Triad ball."

"You've had very little air," Cassiopia explained as
she rubbed her hand across his back.  "The headache
will go away now that you're healed."

He looked at her in confusion then reached back to
touch the wound only to discover that it was no longer
there.  "What did you do?" he asked.  "I thought you
didn't have a medkit."

Cassiopia shook her head.  "It wasn't me.  It was
Athena."  At the mention of her name, everyone turned
to look for Athena, but she had already disappeared up
the line of people.

~~~

"Finally," Bojay said as they stood at the cave
opening.  It was a mere slit which had kept it hidden
from their scouting expeditions, but wide enough for a
man to pass through.

Sheba scanned the horizon as Bojay trained his eye on
the steep wall behind them.  "None of this looks
familiar.  We went through so many turns in the cavern
that I don't know right from left."

"Someone needs to come up with a scanner small enough
for us to keep standard in our utility belts," he
commented.

"Yeah, that would come in handy right about now," she
returned.

Bojay watched in silence for a long moment while she
tried to get her bearings.  She had, not only flown
over the area, but had visited all of the landing
sites at one time or another.  "Care to venture a
guess?"

She shook her head uncertainly.  "The ruins can't be
too far off in either direction.  I say we try to the
left first."

"Sounds good to me."

~~~

"It worked!" Dr. Wilker said with a sense of
satisfaction as he looked up at the white dome of the
agro pod.  The foam sealant had released itself when
the outer dome had been cracked by laser fire in the
battle and saved all of the vegetation.

"Yeah, a little too well," Carmichael said as he
scratched his head.

"What do you mean?"

"This one dome getting cracked set off the sealant in
all three of the pods in this section."  He looked up
at Wilker.  "Have you given any thought as to how
you're going to get it out?"

The doctor looked down at him as his mind raced.  He
had always assumed that the dome would have to be
replaced making it easy for the sealant to be removed,
but he hadn't considered what to do if the domes were
intact.  "I wonder if I can make some sort of solvent
that we can put in the ejection tubes," he mumbled
almost to himself.

"We'll have to figure out some way to get the debris
out of the grid too," Carmichael added.  "We got a lot
of metal in the grid work from all those destroyed
ships."

Wilker's smile edged up once more.  "But the system
worked," he reminded him.  "We didn't lose a single
talon plant even though one of the domes was cracked."

"True enough," he conceded as he started to walk away.
 "I'm just glad that I'm not the one that has to clean
them off."

Doctor Wilker looked up at the white dome once more as
he pictured the massive grid work on the other side.
He folded one arm across his waist as he rubbed his
chin with the other.  "I wonder if I could make a
drone to remove debris," he mumbled to himself.  The
satisfaction of seeing the success of one of his
inventions was already starting to fade as his mind
focused on the current problem.  "It would have to be
equipped with a finite laser to cut out the larger
chunks and strong enough to remove them later.  A
magnetized base wouldn't work," he dismissed as he
slowly walked out, not noticing the puzzled look or
pitying shake of Carmichael's head.

~~~

Athena knelt down next to the dark stream and stared
at her blood soaked hands.  She was completely spent.
She felt as though she had been walking in a dream
world for the past centar, a nightmare that she
couldn't wake up from.   She plunged her hands into
the icy water and rubbed viciously at the blood and
dirt that had caked on her palms.  Even in the dim
light from random palm torches, she could see that her
hands were still crimson when she pulled them out and
her chin trembled.

She was afraid that she would never be able to escape
the images of blood and death.  She not only had her
own memories, but visions from others that she had
healed.  She had seen through the eyes of a man that
had watched his wife killed by laser fire and shared
his revulsion.  She knew the searing pain of a Nomen
blade and had tasted death.  She felt the anguish of
the children who had lost one or both of their parents
and understood the true meaning of cost.

She squeezed her eyes shut as she tried to block out
the images then another bit of knowledge sprung up to
taunt her soul.  When she had been psychically linked
to Starbuck, she got a firm dose of reality concerning
his feelings toward her.  While he did care for her,
the emotion didn't even compare to what he felt for
Cassiopia.

Athena knew that it was over with Starbuck and had
been for some time, but it was still a crushing blow
to know that his feelings for her paled in comparison
to his love for Cassiopia.

Her eyes blinked open and she stared at the children
splashing at the water's edge.  She had a new
understanding of love.  From the healings, she knew
what it felt like to be a parent and a child and she
envied that unconditional devotion.  She even envied
Cassiopia.  Although Starbuck had yet to profess his
love, Athena knew that the devotion was there and her
own heart ached for it.

"Athena?" Croft said softly as he came up behind her.
"We need to keep moving."

She buried her hands in the flowing sleeves of her
dress to hide her stained palms and allowed him to
help her to stand.  She gave him a subtle nod and kept
her gaze firmly on the ground as she started out once
more.

~~~

"Yes!" Sheba said when she spotted the shuttle sitting
just outside the city ruins.  She ran the short
distance to the shuttle and popped open the hatch.
She had to work her way through stockpiles of storage
containers and equipment to reach the cockpit, but
eventually made it around everything to reach the
communicator.

"Oh great," Bojay moaned as he stepped inside.  "I
guess I get to become a pack animal."

"Lieutenant Sheba to Galactica," she said into the
unicom.  "Lieutenant Sheba to Galactica.  Come in
please."

"We read you Lieutenant," Tigh returned, excitement
evident in the sound of his voice.  "What's you're
status?"

"We're on foot and have a lot of wounded Colonel.
Warriors and civilians.  Is it safe to send a shuttle
after us?"

"Affirmative.  Enemy combatants have left the area.
We have two shuttles on the ground now at the camp
site looking for survivors.  Give me your location and
we will send them out to you immediately."

"Right now Bojay and I are at the ruins, but everyone
else is still coming through the cavern we
discovered."  She glanced back at Bojay who walked up
to show her that he had found a personal communicator.
 "We've got a communicator with us now.  Can you lock
onto that signal?  We can go back to meet the others."

There was a long moment of silence while the colonel
made sure they were receiving the transmission.  "We
have you."

Sheba let out a sigh.  "Thank you Colonel."

"Sheba," Tigh said to stop her when she would have
signed off.  "The Commander's son and daughter?"

"They're both okay," she assured him.  "Starbuck and
Boomer too."

Tigh heaved a sigh as well.  "Thank you Lieutenant.
We'll see you soon."

~~~