I don't recall exactly how old this is, but it appeared in an issue
of Purple & Orange, which stopped doing BG zines at least a dozen
years ago.  I don't know if they still even have the old ones
available, so it's been a while since it was around.

-- Sharon


	"That Special Day"
	By Sharon Monroe

     Medea was nervous
     The sealing gown fit her slender figure to perfection.  The lacy
veil suggested a mystery worth revealing.  A single re ruby on a golden
chain adorned her neck.  Her bouquet, on the table near her, was of
green gerns and a singe red Aquarian rose.  She was an enchanting
picture, dark-haired, storm-purple-eyed, slender, silver-robed.  In
ancient days, they might have called such beauty the result of sorcery
set to trap a man.
     She'd been a socialator, and knew how to show off her charms to
their best effect.  But she'd left that profession in the ashes of
Gemon.  For a time she'd been a politician's aide, but found less
self-respect in that post than the survivors had given her in her first
profession.  Now, her time was spent with children rather than men,
trying to heal the wounds the Destruction had left in their fragile
minds.
     Today was her sealing day.  Medea was marrying a warrior.  As
eager as she'd been for this day to arrive, she was afraid she would
somehow be found lacking, not enough for the man.  Although she'd left
her first calling behind, and he'd never held it against her, today it
haunted her.  She wondered how she deserved such a wonderful man.
     "Will you relax?" Cassiopeia scolded, adjusting the bride's veil
slightly.  "You look heavenly!"
     On her other side, Melantha smiled encouragingly.
     Medea was glad they were here.  Cassie had been a close friend for
yahrens.  Melantha was a squadronmate of the man who'd chosen her. 
Cassiopeia and Melantha wore pink; they were her bride attendants.
     "Am I good enough for him?" she asked anxiously.
     "You're *too* good!" Melantha declared.  "At least, that's what
Jolly keeps saying!  It's enough to make a girl jealous, the way he
talks about you!"
     Medea tried to think herself calmer, and ease her fast breathing. 
Any centon now, the ceremony would begin, and she would have no way
out.
     The door chimed.
     "You can't come in!" Cassie called.
     "Why not?  I'm her protector!"
     "Come in, Apollo!"  Medea had no surviving family.  Apollo had
asked Medea, quite humbly, if he could serve as her protector, and hand
her over into his friend's care, as old Caprican tradition still
demanded, as outdated as the custom was.
     Apollo entered with a wide smile.  "Everybody's ready.  All we
need is a bride."
     With final hugs, Cassie and Mel grabbed their own flowers and
slipped out for the procession.  Light strains of music wafted into the
room.  Medea wasn't sure she could walk.
     Apollo offered his arm.  She grabbed it like a life mask in an
airless room.
     He smiled again, shaking his head.  "I'm not sure which of you is
more nervous."
     She was still trying to even her breathing.  "Am I good enough for
him, Captain?"
     "Medea, my name is Apollo.  You're part of the family now.  And,
yes, you're good enough for him.  The first thing we ever heard about
you was that you were the woman of his dreams.  He's been floating
around the ready room ever since, and he hasn't looked at anybody
else."
     "That wasn't so long ago.  Maybe we should have waited a while?" 
She looked unsteadily into his reassuring eyes.
     "What does your heart tell you?" he asked softly.  "Could you bear
to be without him?"
     She knew Apollo had been left without his heartmate after too
brief a time.  If ever he didn't come back...
     The music was suddenly the Procession March.
     "Are you ready?"
     "Oh, yes!" she said fervently.
     They reached the decorated, brightly-lit room.  Ahead of them,
Cassiopeia reached Starbuck, and they stepped aside.  Melantha and
Boomer were just approaching each other.  Jolly stood next to Boomer,
strong and tall in dress uniform.  Adama stood at the front of the
room, his expression a solemn reminder of the formality of the
occasion, occasionally breaking into a smile of paternal fondness as he
watched them approach.  All around them, a mixture of warriors and
civilians hushed in their seats.
     Jolly's eyes found Medea the micron she entered the room.  Now, as
she approached with Captain Apollo, their eyes locked together in love,
sharing overflowing hearts and emotions, bound more closely than any
mere ceremony could make them.  Neither felt any doubts or nervousness.
     "Who gives this woman?"
     "I do."  Apollo lifted her hand into Jolly's, then stepped aside. 
Electricity sparked through them.  Medea and Jolly never heard the
first words the commander spoke.  Their feelings threatened to spill
from their hearts and eyes, to sing and cry their love for everyone in
the room to hear and see.  Both stood proud, needing only each other to
make life worth living.
     "This is the most sacred union for a man and a woman, blessed by
the Lords of Kobol--"
     Their union was complete; they felt as one.
     Red alert!  The klaxons screamed an enemy presence, completely
disrupting the solemnity of the room, sending men and women scrambling
for duty posts or safer quarters.  Medea and Jolly felt a wrenching
tear as the mood was broken, and knew that duty had interfered with
their joy.  Their hands clasped tightly, painfully together.
     Medea felt a tear on her cheek, stinging.
     Jolly felt an unreasoning hatred of whatever was out there, then
forgot it in his beloved's sob.
     The other warriors and tech crews had dashed out.  Only the
commander still waited, halfway to the door to return to the bridge. 
"Jolly, do you hear the alert?  I'm sorry, but-"
     "Commander, witness us."  His eyes never left hers.
     Adama stepped closer again, understanding their need and fear.  "I
will witness your joining before the Lords of Kobol."
     "Medea, you are my wife.  For now, forever.  I love you."
     "Jolly, you are my husband.  Forever.  I love you."
     "I witness this union, for the Lords and all the people.  You are
sealed."  Adama's voice was solemn, but hurried.
     "Come back to me, Jolly."
     "Always."
     Then both men were gone, and a new wife sank to the floor of an
empty room, sobbing her fears into the silence.  "Lords, bring him back
to me."

* * * *

     And still the Cylons came after them, never truly permitting the
survivors of the Colonies to vanish in exile among the stars.  They
might vanish for a time, but they always returned, to attack again and
again, to destroy and kill, and leave the mourners behind with their
fears and pains and hates.
     Today was the same.  The Cylons struck rapidly, but the warriors
and their Vipers held them back from the fleet, although the Galactica
herself was forced to move into the battle, and sustained some minor
damage.
     Jolly struck furiously against the Cylons, attacking ship after
ship, sending the Raiders to whatever hell the Cylons had. Today, he
couldn't be as cool and careful as he usually was.  Today, he couldn't
help being angry and wild.  They had torn him from her side, today of
all days.  They had dared to destroy happiness along with life and
security.
     "Jolly!  Look out!  Pinwheel!"
     Boomer's voice cut urgently into his bitterness.  Trapped!  Cylon
fire cut very near his ship.  He tried to spin away.  Boomer and
Melantha streaked desperately through space to try and reach him.

* * * *

     A woman prayed for her husband's safety, tried to think where he
might be, willed herself to be there where he could think of her and
know he had to survive.  He had to come back, he had to.

* * * *

     An opening!  The Lords were generous today!  Jolly fired, then
rammed forward, following his own laser burst.  He slipped between two
Cylons, through the dissipating wreckage of another.  With rapid spins
and banking maneuvers, he brought his nose to face the enemy.  They
weren't getting any free shots at his tail!  Another Cylon
disintegrated.  Then Boomer's and Melantha's fire cut the remaining
Cylon ships to ribbons of metal.
     "Watch it, Jolly, you know Tigh's been complaining that we lose
too many ships!" Melantha called with a weak attempt at a joke.
     "I've got my head clearer now.  Thanks, both of you," he
responded.
     The rest of the battle was brief.  Jolly's anger had faded with
the failure of the pinwheel attack.

* * * *

     Back aboard the Galactica, everyone felt relieved that another
attack had been turned back.  Most of the Raiders had been destroyed;
the rest had turned away and vanished as quickly as they had come.
     Boomer patted Jolly on the back.  "Don't worry, buddy.  We'll get
you sealed off right yet!"
     "Yeah!  You don't get off this easy," Starbuck declared.  "Even if
it *does* mean dress uniforms again!"
     "I may get to like being a protector, if you make me do it so
often," was Apollo's contribution.
     "Not with my wife, you don't."
     The four men hastened back to the ceremony room, past repair crews
and various other personnel.  Melantha, still with her pink gown giving
odd bulges to her pressure suit, was on her way to life center to have
a burn tended to.
     The room was a shambles.  The battlestar had taken a hit near this
area.  No one had realized, however, that this room had taken damage. 
A beam had fallen from the ceiling.  The ceremonial table at the front
of the chamber lay shattered.  Chairs were upended.  The gauze curtains
had fallen and lay around the room, some torn.  One was half-burned
where candles had fallen; the rest was soaked with chemicals from the
fire-control systems.
     "Medea?" Jolly called, staring wildly about at the mess, then
running for the altar.
     "She probably left," Starbuck tried to reassure him while Boomer
and Apollo picked different sections of the wreckage to search.
     "No, she wouldn't have.  She'd have been at the landing bay
waiting for me."
     They found her.  Medea lay between the viewport and the pieces of
the broken table.  One of the torn curtains lay over her like a shroud. 
She was still, eyes closed.  Blood stained curtain, gown, veil, hair,
and face.
     "Medea!" Jolly choked.
     Apollo caught his breath.  Not like this.  Not today.  He pulled
off the curtain to check for life signs, while Boomer and Starbuck
tried to hold Jolly back long enough to find out-
     Her eyes opened slowly.  She smiled, and reached for Jolly with
one arm.
     Nothing could keep him from her.  Starbuck and Boomer both went
flying as he shook them off and threw himself down beside her, scooping
into his arms.
     "You came back.  I knew you'd hear me.  I waited."  She sighed,
leaned against his broad chest, and lost consciousness again.
     Jolly carried her to life center, the others tagging behind.  The
memory of Serina hung over them all.

* * * *

     Jolly was not to be left as Apollo had been.  Medea would survive. 
She had a concussion and broken bones, many bruises and scratches, but
Cassiopeia had assured them before hurrying to another patient, she
could be released from life center in a few days.
     "We'll have to plan this all over again," Boomer complained, as
worry turned into relief, which turned into a need to lighten the mood.
     "Dress uniforms.  Ugh!" said Starbuck.
     "No, you won't," Jolly replied, smiling happily and holding his
sleeping wife's hand.
     "Aren't you getting sealed?" Apollo asked, astonished.
     "Not again, Skipper.  I couldn't take another day like this."
     "Huh?"
     "I witnessed them those last centons before the attack." 
Commander Adama joined them.  He was touring life center, offering
encouragement to wounded warriors.  "You boys missed the whole thing."
     "How could you do this to us!"  Starbuck looked properly offended,
trying to keep a straight face.
     "Without her protector, yet!" Apollo said, with mock severity. 
"Is that legitimate?"
     "We knew what we needed.  I wouldn't have gotten through it
without you," Jolly said, his voice dropping softly.  He was speaking
to her, forgetting the others.
     "I think we could manage to give you a leave of absence, Jolly. 
For a few days, at least," Commander Adama said, wondering if Jolly
even heard them.  Then he gestured at the other warriors to come away
and leave the couple alone.  He met Apollo's eyes.  The young man
nodded back silently.  Father and son both knew the loss when the right
woman wasn't there to share life.  They walked away together.
     Starbuck looked at Boomer, then finally said, "Well, I think it's
a hades of a way to spend a honeymoon!"

- The End -