Fic: The Other Side of Dawn (2/?)
Part 2
Interim
It was over.
Laura stood wearily at attention in the Admiral's quarters, watching Cain pace the sterile floor. She was exhausted from the twenty hours spent running, attacking, and running again. Combined with her early wake up call, that gave Laura somewhere around twenty five hours with no sleep and too much adrenaline. Her legs were shaking and her arms felt heavy and weak.
“Further orders, sir?” She said, hating how obvious it was that she was ready to pass out where she stood, especially in front of the tireless Helena Cain. Admiral Cain looked up at her suddenly, stopping her pacing to look her over.
“Sleep for you, I think. I'll take a five hour watch in CIC before you can relieve me. We'll do the same with the crew. I'll have Hoshi create a timetable. No sense in fighting if we're all half dead anyhow.”
“Yes sir.” Laura replied with a weak salute. Cain nodded and returned the salute.
“Oh, and Laura?” Cain said. Laura turned around at the door, “I'm sorry...I did not know Tigh, but I knew Adama. Good men, good soldiers. We fight for them now.”
“Yes, sir.” Laura said, all but fleeing this time. She'd done so good throwing off her personal thoughts during their flight from Sagittaron and the gorilla-style fighting, letting her mind bring all her old tactical skills come to the forefront.
But now, as they hid and began to rest, thoughts of her friends and family flooded her waking thoughts, dragging her weary body down even further. Her cousin Marina lived in Caprica City...surely she was dead. Her nephew Mike and his family...Sagittaron. Bill, Saul, Kara and Lee on their dry ship, no ammo and no modern fighters. They couldn't survive a full-scale attack by a heavily armed Cylon fleet.
She stifled a sob just as she tripped into her quarters, hastily kicking off the heels she hadn't been able to slip out of for hours. The soles had rubbed her feet raw and they were red even under her nylons.
They were all supposed to have met on Galactica and then flown home, to Caprica together. Bill had put in a reservation at Helion and Laura even sent home for her best, most girly dress and slip shoes. Those, she noted distractedly, were poking out of her travel bag when she threw it on the floor. Knocking off her uniform, she barely got her skirt and nylons off before she collapsed on her rack.
What was she going to do without them?
Her first shift passed with no signs of the Cylons, then she'd switched with Cain for another few hours sleep and nourishment followed by a second shift in which she had hit a Cylon scouting party and wiped it clean. A dark joy still ran through her at the destruction of the Cylons she encountered, but her mind rebelled against it's own pleasure; This was wrong, not the fighting back itself, but the concept. The war was over, wasn't it? One battlestar left in the Fleet could only do so much. And there was certainly a bunch of civilian ships in flight during the attack. Could some of them have survived?
“Admiral,” she said in her fifth shift, excitement running along her skin like electricity. Six says since she'd thought about survivors and now...now,” I've got sixteen Colonial signals coming in loud and clear. We found a fleet, sir.”
“Have Mr. Hoshi get in touch with any fuel ships immediately. Petty officers can contact each of the smaller vessels. I'll be up in a minute to relieve you. Your shift is up.”
“Yes, sir, Admiral.” Laura replied. Her vision swayed a bit as the adrenaline of the moment seeped away. She needed to rest.
Exchanging looks with the Admiral as the other woman entered CIC, Laura gratefully took the path from CIC to her room and collapsed on her rack.
But she didn't sleep. Weeks later, and Bill's face was still in the back of her mind, reminding her of the people she'd lost and how alone she ways now.
Bill and Saul. Kara and Lee. With Zak in the old days, they had been her foundation through her mother's death from breast cancer and her constant fear of the same. Bill had, just a few days before, berated her senseless for trying to skip her yearly exam. She went at his threat to sic Jack Cottle on her, and while she didn't know the man, the threat was from Husker.
Who would threaten her with sarcastic doctors now
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Laura didn't know when exactly she fell asleep, but the waking knocked her out of bed and sent her crashing to the floor. As she tried to rise, another blast struck the hull somewhere near her quarters and she felt herself lift off the floor. The weightlessness lasted only a moment, but it was enough for Laura to realize she was in very deep trouble.
The last thing she thought before her head connected with the round handle of her hatch was that she really should of stayed in politics. At least when you got killed over and over, it didn't hurt quite so much.