Out of the Black- Chapter 7
Title: Out of the Black
Chapter: 7/8
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica/Firefly
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Ensemble, both shows. Very Kara-centric and Lee-centric, somewhat Roslin-centric
Pairings: Mostly gen, with canon pairings (Kara/Lee primarily, with mentions of Kara/Sam, Lee/Dee, Adama/Roslin, Helo/Athena) and Kaylee/Tyrol
Summary: Just before the jump to Earth, the Fleet comes into contact with a small transport ship of non-Colonial origins. (AU after Revelations)
Spoilers: Up to and including Season 4.5 for BSG and the Big Damn Movie for Firefly.
Author's Note: I wrote the original Out of the Black over a year ago, and looking back was not pleased with it at all, there was so much I wanted to do with the story that I just didn't pull off and so I decided to rewrite it, do more justice to both of the stories I wanted to tell. The original story is still archived at ootbverse and will remain there. If you have read the original, I welcome you to read this new version of the story as it does take a different direction from the original. Beta'd by taragel . All information on the 'Verse detailed in this fic has been taken from the Map of the Verse poster and the Atlas of the Verse booklet.
Previous Chapters Here
Lee has heard that the word Beaumonde comes from an Earth-that-Was language and means beautiful world. Standing in the door of the transport at the Atoll City Docks, he surveys all that stretches before him. Whoever named it, he thinks, clearly never set foot on it.
The air on Beaumonde is toxic. Lee can feel it in his lungs already as he slings his duffle bag over his shoulder and steps out into the port. What a place to live, he thinks, taking in the smokestacks spewing noxious clouds over the rooftops. Still it’s nice to get out into the open after being cooped up on that transport for the long trip.
He heads out, in search of a nearby bar-there’s still some time to kill before his father and Laura’s shuttle arrives. He weaves through the crowds, trying to keep a wide berth from the locals. Out of the corner of his eye, he catches a flash of blonde hair. He can barely see the face of the woman standing by the vendor’s stall, but he knows it’s her. He can feel it in his gut. “Kara!” he calls, as he pushes his way towards her.
When she turns to face him, Lee feels his heart begin to race. The muscles in his face are aching from the grin he can’t contain. Gods, it’s been so long. Kara looks tired, weary, her hair pulled back into a short ponytail with disheveled strands hanging out-even so, she smiles and she’s beautiful.
He moves towards her, arms reaching out instinctively, when suddenly she steps back from him. The smile quickly dims. “What the frak are you doing here, Lee?”
“I got Helo’s message.” Her face is blank, confused. She doesn’t know, hasn’t been expecting him, and he can’t help but feel a little bit set up. “Look, he left me a message-he said you were going after Sharon and Hera and S-”
“And you thought you’d come riding to the rescue,” she cuts him off, already shaking her head. “No. You can’t be here, you are getting on the next shuttle back.”
Lee feels a slight churning in his stomach, it’s the first time they’ve seen each other in over a year and the first thing she tells him is to get gone. His hands clench into fists at his sides but he shakes his head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
Kara crosses her arms over her chest, her biceps white where her fingers press into the flesh. Her voice drops, just audible above the din of the port.. “Look, I’m not going to let you get caught up in this. Just go, alright? I don’t know what Helo said, but this is…”
“This is what, Kara?” he asks, his hands relaxing.
“This is personal,” she says, stepping backwards towards a crush of people. “So you just go back to sitting behind your frakking desk, doing whatever the hell you were doing before you came here, because this isn’t any of your business.”
He catches a flicker in her eyes, and suddenly he realizes what this is all about, maybe what it’s always been about: she’s trying to protect him. “None of my business,” he echoes as he steps towards her. She stops, looks up at him, jaw set as they stand toe-to-toe. She isn’t about to back down. “Alright. Fine. I’ll go, but only if you can look me in the eye and tell me that you don’t need help-that this isn’t going to turn into a suicide mission when it’s just you and Helo against the Alliance?”
Kara’s gaze falters for just the briefest moment. “I’ve got backup.”
“Yeah,” he says, settling his hands on her shoulders. “You do. Kara, I’m not going to sit back and watch you try to pull off some beyond insane stunt like this. Not without me.”
The corner of her lips twitches, almost like she’s fighting back a smile. Her tongue darts out, moistening her lips, and he’s completely distracted by the tiny motion and suddenly the urge to just kiss her already is overwhelming. Blushing, he steps back.
“Besides,” he says, letting his hands fall away. “I have my own reasons for going.”
“Oh really?” she asks, quirking an eyebrow.
“Yeah, but…” Lee tosses a glance at the sea of people around them. “Got any place a little less public where we could talk?”
Kara’s weight shifts back slightly, looking him up and down as if it’s finally sinking in that he isn’t going away. “Fine. Follow me.”
She leads him through the crowds and towards a small transport ship, leading him through the cargo bay, up a flight of stairs, and through a common area. “You can drop your stuff in there,” she says, motioning towards a hatch. He opens the door to a small, dimly lit, single bunk and drops his duffle on the bed. Kara leans against the open hatch, watching him. “So. Any more surprises Helo’s going to need his ass kicked for?”
“Well, I passed the word to my father; he and Laura are due in in a few hours from Ariel.”
The corner of her lip quirks upward again. “The Old Man’s coming?”
Lee nods, remembering the miserable tone in his father’s voice when they last spoke. “Tigh’s gone missing. I guess the Alliance got him, too.”
“Son of a bitch.” She crosses her arms over her chest again as she steps into the room. Lee glances at her, a heavy silence settling in the room, neither of them bringing themselves to speak. “So,” she finally says. “You said you have your reasons for being here. What are they?”
“Well one of the things I discovered, sitting behind my frakking desk as you put it, is that Miranda doesn’t exist.” Her brow furrows in confusion and Lee presses on. “At least according to all the legal documents. There are big gaps of missing information. Something happened out there, something big enough that they covered it up and are using the cylons as scapegoats.” He steps towards her. “I don’t know what it is, but if they’re going through all this trouble, it’s big… and we have to find out how-”
“You know there’s no going back, right?” Kara cuts him off. “Even if we do live through this thing, you can’t go back to your cushy little office job, Lee. You can’t just break into a secret government facility and walk out. You’re going to be stuck on the run for the rest of your life.” Her eyes lock onto his fiercely, almost daring him to back down, to take this one last chance and run away with it. “Can you really handle that?”
Lee lets out a frustrated huff of air, a bitter-sounding laugh. “You think I want to go back to that life?”
She pauses. “Don’t you?”
Gods, how can she really think that? Does she really not understand that ever since he turned his back on her and got on the shuttle to the Core his life has been a monotonous hell? “Of course not! I was spending my life filing papers and fetching coffee for a small-time Alliance nobody who thought all the worlds spun around him. Why the hell would I want to go back to all that when I could be here with you?”
The words are out before he can stop them. He never intended to say them, and by the look on Kara’s face she didn’t expect to hear them either. Her hands fall to her sides. He hopes she’ll say something, mock his words so he can joke them off the way they’ve done before. She doesn’t.
Lee isn’t sure which one of them moves first, but before he knows it, he has his arms wrapped around her and she’s got her arms threaded around his neck. Kara buries her head into the crook between his neck and shoulder and lets out a shuddering breath. For a moment, Lee is terrified that he’s about to wake up to the sound of his alarm clock blaring in his empty apartment; but he doesn’t and reality slowly settles in.
This is real, he reminds himself. Gods, he had been so sure he was never going to see her again and now here she is in his arms. He brushes a hand down her back as she relaxes into him. Her voice is low and soft when she whispers, “I missed you.”
A slow grin spreads across Lee’s face as he rests his cheek against her hair. “I missed you too,” he whispers back. “I missed you too.”
===========================
When her ship breaks atmo for the first time, Kara watches Beaumonde vanishing beneath them all and thinks, It’s about frakking time. She sets the ship’s auto-pilot to take them out of the Kalidasa system. She doesn’t want to jump until they’re out of range of Alliance sensors. The last thing she needs right now is to be attracting unwanted attention.
She steps out of the bridge, into the common area and takes a good look at her team. Adama and Roslin arrived just before Chief announced that the FTL drive was up and operational. Lee and Helo are over with Mal, sorting through the myriad weapons they’d gathered for the mission-thank the Lords for Jayne and his love of weapons. Mal’s sent Serenity on to Boros to continue working on a transport job-Kara thinks of Wash, Inara, Book, Simon, and River trying to complete a job on their own and it almost makes her laugh. Sitting on the floor, Jayne is waxing poetic about the new flashkill grenades he’s gotten his hands on-the dual settings, the craftsmanship, the pure destructive power. He’s even named them.
“What’s the plan, Starbuck?” Adama asks when he sees her.
Of course they’ve been waiting to start this mission for weeks, she ought to have something resembling a plan by now. The pure fact of the matter is, she doesn’t. “We’ve got a contact down on the planet’s surface. We’re going to rendezvous with them, and figure it out from there.”
Lee glances up, a wary look on his face. “Who’s the contact?”
Kara swallows, she flicks her gaze towards Helo who is wearing a nervous expression. He knows the answer too-or rather the lack of answer. Finally, her gaze locks back on Lee. “I don’t know yet. But they’re Colonial, sent me the message over Dee’s channel, sent us a set of jump co-ordinates.”
Lee’s jaw drops slightly, staring at her in shock. “So we’re going in completely blind? Kara, we can’t. We don’t have enough information, this is sui-”
“You got a better plan?” She cuts him off before he can finish the sentence she’s been trying to hard not to think herself. Kara plants her fists on her hips, her lip cocking in a sneer. “Or you want to just sit around, think about it, not make a move until it’s too late?” she snaps. Same old Lee. She doesn’t say the words but she sees him flinch and she can tell they’re both thinking them.
Lee’s jaw clenches and he’s opening his mouth to say something that’ll probably make it hard for her to sleep tonight. Or ever again. But the admiral cuts him off.
“Kara’s right,” Adama says, stepping between the two of them. “We’ve wasted enough time as it is, and even if all the elements aren’t in place, there are people counting on us. People we love. Sometimes you have to roll the hard six.”
Lee looks like he’s about to start protesting when Helo cuts in. “Sharon and Hera have been gone for weeks-I don’t even know if they’re still…” he trails off and shakes his head. “I need to find them.”
Lee’s jaw unclenches, a look of empathy on his face. “We’ll find them. All of them.” He raises an eyebrow, as he gaze sweeps to Kara. “Guess we better just double up on the ammo if we’re relying on one of your crackpot plans, Starbuck.”
There’s still a few hours yet until they can jump, so Kara heads up to her shuttle to clear her head. As she reaches the stairs, she hears the Old Man’s voice behind her. “She’s a good ship.”
Kara feels a small glimmer of pride. She’s taken this clunker of a ship and breathed life back into it-with a little help from her friends. “Thank you, sir.”
“What’s her name?”
Kara flattens her hand against the bulkhead. “Her name’s Kobol.”
Adama smiles. “Good name.”
When he returns to sorting through weaponry with the others, Kara continues to her quarters. She sits down on the edge of her bed and stares up at the ceiling. They have to do this. She has to this. Even if she has to play the entire frakking mission by ear. She just hopes she can get everyone out of this alive.
===========================
The jump coordinates land them just out of Miranda’s orbit, out of range of any unwanted company. Once in range, Kara gets a wave containing landing instructions that bring them down to the planet’s surface. She expected this. What she doesn’t expect, however, is the man who meets them at the edge of the city. Before she can say anything, she hears Lee beside her unable to contain his disbelief.
“Gaius Baltar?!”
The man looks just as uncomfortable and shifty as he always has-though apparently he’s ditched the whole cult angle and, by the lab coat, Kara guesses he’s just returned to being the same old jackass he’s always been.
Jayne grunts. “Who the hell’s this scrawny piece o’-”
Roslin cuts Jayne off, her voice is sharp and to the point. “What do you want Baltar?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“You wouldn’t be helping us if there wasn’t something in it for you.”
A dangerous energy hums between the two of them before Baltar turns to Kara. “Captain Thrace, I can get you in and out of that building,” he gestures to a tall, white stone and glass building, standing above the other city skyscrapers. “With minimal security interference. I can get you the passcodes to the holding cells. All I want in return is the rescue of one more person-I believe you know her as Caprica Six-and transport off this planet.”
“And how do you have that kind of access?” Kara steps forward, hands fisted on her hips, and Baltar takes a step back.
“I’ve been working for them. I forged some paperwork and insinuated myself into a military lab aboard the Dortmunder.” He tugs at the collar of his shirt for a moment like he needs to get more air. “I had a feeling being on the inside would come in handy and it appears that I was right.”
Right now, Kara can’t really argue. Fact of the matter is, if he were going to betray them, he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of getting them safely onto the planet. They wouldn’t be anywhere without him, and if they manage to pull off this rescue, it’ll be in large part because of him. She doesn’t like it, but Baltar deserves some kind of compensation for his part in this. “Fine. You’ve got a deal.”
He reaches into his pocket, and hands a small earpiece out to Kara. “Take this. I will deliver instructions from the security mainframe.”
She takes the earpiece and sets it into place before drawing her sidearm. Kara looks back over her shoulder at the others. “Let’s go.”
Baltar stops them about a block from the building, tells them to hold their position until further notice. Kara watches as he disappears around the corner, flashing a card to the two guards standing at the front door, before disappearing into the building.
The wait to hear anything is excruciating. She can feel her heart rate starting to creep up. It’s been a long time since she’s gone into battle on foot. She turns to survey her team; everyone is armed, Jayne the most heavily-he’s toting an enormous laser gun, which he apparently calls Vera and is carrying a sash of grenades. Even Roslin’s taken a pistol for herself-Kara can only hope she’s learned to aim a little bit better by now.
She flicks her gaze from Helo to the Old Man to Chief and Kaylee to Mal and the rest of his crew, and then to Lee beside her. Gods, they’re more than her team-they’re her family. Kara shuts her eyes, offering a quick prayer to the Lords to see them through this. If any of them die out here on this rock, it’ll all be on her. She feels something brush against her hand. She opens her eyes to see Lee watching her with concern. “You ready for this?” he asks.
“It’s now or never,” she says, giving his hand a light squeeze. For a moment, it feels like she’s back on Galactica feeling that rush of adrenaline before the viper hurtles through the launch tube. With a grin, she adds, “Apollo.”
As he smiles back at her, the earpiece finally crackles to life.
Captain Thrace, can you hear me?
Showtime. First step, eliminate the guards.
“ ‘m on it,” Jayne says, pulling a flashkill grenade from his arsenal. As he goes to pull the pin, Zoë’s hand reaches out to stop him.
“What’s that thing set to?”
“Stun,” he says, sounding like a kid denying that he has his hand in the cookie jar. She takes the grenade from him and switches the setting over from kill to stun before lobbing it towards the front entrance. An electronic pulse flashes and the two guards drop to the ground. Kara heads out into the street, waving for the others to follow.
She rushes past the bodies, throwing the double doors open as she goes. They’re in. Her heart is pounding now as she turns to make sure the others have filed in behind her. Baltar chatters in her ear.
Cameras are down in the main hallways. Stay on alert, doesn’t mean you won’t have some unexpected company.
The entire facility is a labyrinth of what feels like endless hallways, mirrors and glass and steel, all of it seems to pull her towards the center, even without Baltar’s babbling. Something about it feels inevitable. Twice she herds the group into corridors, empty rooms, to avoid the officers patrolling the building, but other than that Gaius sticks to his word and gets them to the laboratory with minimal security interference.
There is a large steel door sealing them off from the laboratory, with a keypad to the side of it. Baltar rattles off a string of numbers-112365365321-and when she punches them in the hydraulics hiss and the door slides open. The first level of the lab appears to be empty, but after Baltar feeds her some more information about the lab-it’s been a while since she’s needed Starbuck’s planning skills, but the pieces of a plan start to click into place and she knows what needs to happen now.
She turns to address the others. “Here’s where we split up. Lee, you take Mal, Kaylee and your dad down in the elevator; it’s two flights to the holding cells. You’re the decoys.” Lee’s eyes lock onto hers and he nods, she knows he can pull this off. “Jayne, Zoë, Helo, you’re on me. We’re taking the back entrance from the stairs. Chief, Laura, make sure the stairwell stays clear, we’re going to need it to get out.”
Kara leads her team down the back stairwell, two flights, to the landing where another door is waiting for them. It has the same passcode as the door to the lab and she gets it open with almost no effort. From a few feet ahead, she can hear gunshots, and her heart instantly drops into her stomach. Has Lee been hit? The Old Man? She shakes the thought out of her head, and just takes off running, Jayne, Zoë, and Helo at her heels.
The halls of the lab twist and turn, leading them to a central atrium. Jayne lets out a burst of laserfire towards the ceiling, drawing attention away from the decoy group and towards them. It’s mostly scientists, men and women in white coats, and two soldiers plus one lying bleeding on the floor.
“Now, if y’all would kindly get on your knees, place your weapons on the ground, and put your hands behind your head,” Mal says, addressing their hostages, “we’ll be outta your hair in no time-assumin’ no one tries anythin’ heroical.”
Through the earpiece, Baltar rattles off cell numbers and access codes. Kara shouts them out, watching as the others scatter to unlock the doors ringing the room’s perimeter. Finally, he gives her the information to unlock Sam’s cell. She all but sprints to the door and punches in code. When the door slides open, she can see him sitting in the corner but looking like he’s ready to spring towards the door. A look of surprise and relief settles over his face as recognition sinks in.
“I wasn’t sure you were coming for me,” he says as he gets to his feet.
Kara steps forward, eyes already sweeping his body up and down. He doesn’t look injured or ill-got a few cuts and bruises but other than that no worse for wear-and she can’t help but grin. “You’re always making me save your ass, Sammy.”
“How the hell did you pull this off?” he asks.
Kara takes the gun she’s got strapped to her back and holds it out to him. “I’ve got backup,” she says as he takes it.
She turns to head back out but Sam catches her by the arm and pulls her back to him. There’s something so earnest about the way he’s looking at her as he releases his grip. “Thank you, Kara. Gods, if you hadn’t-”
“Forget it,” she says. The last time she saw him, they’d fought. Their relationship was never the same after New Caprica and it died on the Demetrius. Being together on Beaumonde started more out of desperation than anything else, she still loved him, but she knew it wasn’t enough. He deserves better than most of the crap she’s put him through over the years, but she’s never going to be able to give him the life that he wanted. “Come on, let’s just get going.”
She heads out into the atrium once again and the first thing she sees is Karl holding Hera in his arms, beaming that proud dad look again. He sets her down, and then wraps both of his arms around Sharon who is standing beside him. Kara can’t quite tell from where she’s standing but she looks hurt, leaning most of her weight on one leg.
They’ve done it. They’ve actually frakking done it. Now all that needs to happen is for Baltar to follow through on getting them the hell out of there and they are home free.
Of course, that means that it’s the exact moment for the entire mission to go FUBAR. Her earpiece crackles with a loud burst of static as the line goes completely silent. From here on in, it looks like they’re on their own. “Godsdamnit!” she hisses. Something is wrong and she sure as hell doesn’t want to stick around and find out. “Come on, let’s move out.”
She hangs back, keeping her weapon trained on the hostages as the others start to file out the back entrance. She flicks her gaze over towards Lee who has stayed back with her. He turns, watching to make sure that everyone is getting out safely. Kara catches a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye. She can see one of the Alliance soldiers reaching for the pistol in front of him on the floor, about to get-as Mal put it-heroical.
Everything seems to happen all at once. The officer raises his gun; it’s aimed towards Lee’s chest. Before Kara knows what she’s doing, before she even hears the sound of the bullet firing, she’s sprinting towards him. Suddenly, there’s pain-a sharp burning sensation along her left bicep. She stumbles forward and two strong arms are holding her up as her knees threaten to give out on her. Then another burst of laser fire rings out and there’s the sound of a body hitting the floor.
Kara turns to see Jayne standing at the entrance to atrium with Vera in his hand. “You two comin’ or what?” He turns and heads out without another word.
“Kara?” Lee asks, letting her hold his shoulder as she gets steady on her feet again. “Frak,” he hisses, as he catches sight of the wound. “You’re shot.”
“I’m fine,” she says, trying to hide a wince. “Barely nicked me.”
Lee takes her arm, careful not to touch the wound itself. He tears off a strip of cloth from his shirt, and winds it quickly around her upper arm to stem the blood flow. Lee frowns, and she knows he’s not satisfied, but also that it’s all they can do for now. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Sufficiently terrified by Jayne’s display of brutality, none of the other hostages make a move as Starbuck and Apollo take their leave. She stumbles twice on the way back out to the stairwell, but Lee is there to steady her. Her heart is pounding and her vision is blurring as the door comes into sight, but she just keeps pushing. They’ve come so far, she can’t give up now.
When they reach the stairwell, the landing is crowded-everyone she entered with is alive, and now Sam, Caprica Six, Athena and Hera, and Saul and Ellen Tigh stand among them. Before Kara has the chance to say something she hears footsteps descending from above. She draws her gun, Helo and Sam moving to cover her in this shit tactical position. She catches a glimpse of a white labcoat before Gaius Baltar comes into view, panting, eyes wide.
“We have to go now!”
Farther up in the stairwell a door swings open. Kara hears shouted commands, pounding footsteps-too many sets to count, all blurring like thunder echoing in the enclosed space.
“You led them to us?!” Kara snaps, grabbing him by the lapel.
“Now is not the time for accusations!” he gasps, voice high and panicked. He is, unfortunately, right. There’s no way they can defend themselves in the stairwell, their only choice is to fall back.
She releases him with a shove. “We need another way up.”
Baltar leads them down another flight of stairs, taking them to the very bottom level of the facility. He opens the door and leads them out into a long corridor, the walls lined with metal storage crates. “There’s a secret passageway at the far end of this level. We’ll be able to get out-”
“Hera?” Kara turns to look back Athena. Her eyes go wide as she scans the corridor for her daughter, a hint of panic rising in her voice. “Hera?!”
---To Be Continued---