Finding Purpose (12/?)
Title: Finding Purpose (12/?)
Author: Nytel
Rating: R (eventually)
Spoilers: Up to 213 (Epiphanies)
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Genre: Angst/Romance
Summary: When your whole life gets flipped upside down, you need to find a reason to go on.
Word Count: 3,290
Beta:
tracyj23
Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing them. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: This fic is AU after Epiphanies.
Chapter 12
By the time Lee made it down to the hangar deck, the nervousness that he’d felt that morning had fully returned, but this time it was manageable. He’d have to be an idiot to think that anyone other than Kara was to thank for that. A small smile twitched at the corners of his lips as he entered into the crowded hangar deck.
He walked towards the raptors, weaving his way through groups of pilots and deckhands, and suddenly remembering why it seemed like the place was bursting at the seams. Taylor, a squadron of pilots and some extra deckhands had flown over from Pegasus earlier that morning. All in all it wasn’t that many more people to have on the ship, especially given Galactica’s size, but when they were all crowded onto the hangar deck it was very noticeable.
Lee scanned the area around where the raptors were kept until he caught sight of a group of deckhands. He recognized only one of them, but she’d be able to tell him what he needed to know.
“Cally,” he called out, having to raise his voice above the commotion.
She turned around, and leaving the other two to whatever they’d been doing, she made her way over to him. “Do you need something Sir?” she asked, looking at him attentively.
“Yeah,” he affirmed with a nod. “Are those the raptors for the mission?” he asked, pointing to the three that were closest to them.
“Yes Sir,” Cally confirmed. “I just finished checking all of the systems. Everything’s ready.”
Lee found himself nodding again. “All right,” he said quietly. “Listen, I’m going to go over them one last time.” It was probably unnecessary, but it would make him feel better. That and he didn’t know what else he could do to pass the time until they launched. Working on his viper always seemed to give him something to concentrate on other than his thoughts-he just hoped that it would work the same with a raptor.
Cally gave him an odd look, but didn’t comment on his decision. “I’ll be over there if you need anything Captain.”
***
Kara waited anxiously as personnel began to file in and set up what they needed for the mission. It was mostly technical things like comm links to the pilots, CIC, and the interface Sharon needed to send out the virus. They were things she couldn’t help with, and it was driving her crazy because she had nothing to do but wait.
It seemed like forever until the Admiral made his way into the room along with the President. Checking the clock, Kara saw that it was nearly time. Racetrack was set to jump to the coordinates and scout in less than five minutes.
“Everything ready Starbuck?” the Old Man questioned as he took a spot beside her at the table.
She nodded. “We just need Sharon.”
She was quick to notice the odd glance that passed between the two leaders of the fleet, but she dismissed it. Now was not the time to be second-guessing her plan. Second-guessing meant that people might get hurt-it meant that Lee might get hurt.
***
Lee zipped up his flight suit as he entered into a raptor with one of the three marine strike forces. Everything was set to start as soon as Racetrack and Beehive returned. They’d jumped less than a minute ago, but it wouldn’t take them long to get the position of the cylon ships.
As soon as they returned and sent the information to CIC and the situation room, Galactica would jump. They were on a tight schedule and knowing that other basestars could return at practically any moment, they would jump in without even waiting for Racetrack to land. She’d have to head to Pegasus instead.
Lee waited impatiently as deckhands began to move the raptor he was in over to an elevator that ascended to the flight pod in order for them to launch. Suddenly a crackling noise broke out over the radio. It was only a second before Lee heard Racetrack’s voice come in over the frequency. They cylons were still there and she was sending the exact coordinates now.
Lee had to force himself to breathe-this was it.
***
Kara watched Sharon closely as she entered the situation room. She couldn’t help but still feel nervous about trusting the cylon. But what she’d told the Old Man and the President had been right-this was the best plan that they were ever going to be able to come up with.
Helo entered not even half a step behind Sharon. Kara’s eyebrows lifted in surprise, even though she should have been expecting it-Karl was one loyal man, she’d give him that.
“You ready?” she asked briskly as she gave the cylon a pointed look.
Sharon nodded as she quickly scanned the situation room. Luckily all the people were focusing on their jobs and not on the cylon in their midst. “Ready,” she said, confirming it verbally as well.
The Admiral looked back and forth between both of them but didn’t say a word.
Not half a second later Kara heard Racetrack’s voice filter in over the speakers. This was it.
***
As soon as the jump was complete the hangar deck came alive, like a nest of ants that had been poked with a stick. The transformation was near immediate and evident to Lee even though he was in the raptor. He could see and hear the difference… Hell, he could feel it.
What he could also feel was the clenching of his gut as adrenaline began to pound through his veins. He ignored it, instead focusing all of his attention on the mission.
***
“We’ve launched vipers and the main battery has commenced firing on the nearest basestar,” Gaeta said quickly as he relayed information from CIC.
“Now,” Kara said to Sharon, not waiting for confirmation from the Old Man. If they didn’t send out that virus immediately they were going to be facing a lot more than a couple of undefended basestars.
Sharon connected the wire from Galactica’s mainframe to the IV that Cottle had put in her arm. She grimaced immediately.
“I’m in,” she said as she closed her eyes.
***
In less than a minute all of the vipers were launched and the raptors were being raised to the flight pod. If there was time, Lee would have admired the efficiency of Galactica’s deck crew, but there wasn’t… not now.
The basestars and raiders were frozen, just like Sharon had promised. Galactica was well on its way to destroying the first of the basestars and from what he could gather from the transmissions coming in, the pilots were doing a hell of a number on the raiders. Lee just hoped that they had the time to destroy them all before the cylons found a way to counter the virus.
Both basestars had launched all of their raiders as soon as Galactica jumped in, and if the raiders overcame the virus too quickly it would turn into a bloodbath.
***
“Galactica, Apollo. Raptors are away, ETA one minute.”
Kara felt her breath catch in her throat as Lee’s voice came over the speakers. She knew he could do this, but that didn’t lessen the worry, not in the slightest. Was this honestly how he felt every time she was out there in a dogfight? She couldn’t help but wonder how the hell he did it.
***
Lee led the marines through the corridors of the cylon ship. Everything looked the same in there and they could have been going in circles for all he knew.
Luckily they had only run into inactive centurions so far-apparently Sharon’s virus was better than she’d thought it would be, because it seemed like the metal toaster heads were being affected just as much as the cylon ships. So far, so good.
“Sir?” one of the marines questioned, catching his attention.
Not taking his eyes off he hallway in front of him, he responded. “What?”
“Sir, there’s a door here.”
Lee stopped walking and motioned for one of the others to take point. He dropped back beside the marine … Bonnington maybe… and looked around. Sure enough there was a doorway, practically hidden in the wall. He should have seen it, but he’d been too busy scouting ahead.
Ignoring his mistake for the moment, Lee reached toward the door, looking for some sort of way to open it. Noticing a small sensor pad off to the right, he swiped his hand over it. The door slid open from top to bottom.
Not taking the time to stop and think about it, Lee held his gun at chest level as he entered into the hallway, calling over his shoulder for the rest of the marines to fall in behind him.
It was different from the rest of the ship. It was pure white, almost pristine looking, and it had an unpleasant smell about it. Something told him that the antiseptic hospital odor meant they’d found what they were looking for.
***
Kara braced her hands on the map table and leaned against it heavily. Closing her eyes, she simply listened. That was really all there was left to do-take in the various reports coming from CIC, the squadron, Lee, and make sure that nothing was going wrong.
“CIC reports that the first basestar has been destroyed!” Gaeta said, raising his voice so that it would penetrate the room. The cheering that followed was loud and boisterous, but the Admiral’s voice quickly silenced it.
“Don’t lose focus,” he said. “We’re far from done.”
Kara couldn’t help but notice the extra tension in the Old Man’s voice-Galactica might be almost in the clear, but Lee was still stuck in the heart of a cylon ship.
***
The hallway was empty except for two doors that faced each other from opposite sides.
Not even pausing, Lee made his way towards the door on the left. “Alpha with me,” he said, indicating one team of the marines with him. “Constellation in there,” he added, pointing to the door on the right. “Bravo stay and provide cover.”
Lee tried the door on the left, swiping his hand over the same kind of sensor as before. He was a little surprised to find that it opened without need of a recognition code or something.
“Apparently they weren’t expecting visitors,” he muttered as he entered.
***
“The virus is still affecting them,” Gaeta said in response to the Admiral’s question. “Both the CIC and the vipers are reporting no activity.”
“Thank the gods,” Laura whispered quietly from her place across the table from Kara.
She was right, they’d passed the seven minute mark and the virus was continuing to work. Still… Kara couldn’t help but wonder much longer it would last.
“Any word on Apollo?” she asked Gaeta.
He shook his head. “Nothing since they arrived on the prisoner ship.”
***
“What are you doing?!” a voice asked angrily as Lee stepped into the room. “I told you not to disturb me. If we’re to make more copies I need to finish harvesting the cells.”
It was only a fraction of a second before Lee registered the speaker in the room and where he was. It was a tall black man in a white medical jacket-he was standing across the enormous room, hovering over something that was quiet obviously the cylon version of an infirmary bed.
Instinctively Lee held his gun a little tighter, but he remained silent, motioning for the marines to do the same.
When the cylon finally turned around to scold whomever it was he thought they were, he received a rude surprise.
“Who are you?” he asked angrily as he advanced towards them. “How did you get in here?” Lee recognized him immediately as the cylon that Kara had described in her mission report from Caprica.
Not feeling particularly inclined to answer him, Lee pulled the trigger. The cylon fell to the floor with a bullet in his head.
“Let’s move,” Lee said. “We need to get these people to Galactica ASAP.”
***
Kara watched the clock in the situation room. The hands seemed to be ticking at much too quick a pace. They were almost at nine minutes. Sharon had guaranteed them that the virus would last no longer than ten.
“Come on Lee,” she whispered under her breath.
***
Lee quickly made his way over to the bed that had the cylon had been looking over. A pale, blonde woman was lying there-she looked like she was on the verge of death. It took him a second to realize that he’d seen the woman before, or at least a cylon who’d looked like her-it was the Shelly Godfrey model. He briefly wondered what other models they’d found, but he didn’t have the time to check on them all.
The next thing he noticed were the tubes and the wires. They were everywhere. There must have been at least a dozen connected to the woman on the bed.
“Sir,” Wenzler said as he entered the room, having previously been in the other with the Constellation team. “They’re hooked up to a bunch of machines. I’m no doctor, but I’d say this is what’s keeping them alive.”
Even though Lee couldn’t make out the people occupying the other beds, he could see that they were surrounded by just as many, if not more, stands of equipment. It was obviously the same in the other room as well.
“Unhook the machines,” Lee commanded, knowing that they were already taking too long.
“Sir, I don’t think…”
“No,” Lee said forcefully. “We don’t have time.” He stared at Wenzler intently, making sure he understood. “Unhook them and let’s get the hell out of here.”
***
Lee led the three strike forces back to the raptors as fast as they could go given that they now had six people to carry. Fortunately the marines that were carrying the people didn’t seem to be having any problems, as the prisoners were obviously underweight.
Even though he’d only had a good look at the Shelly prototype, he’d managed to catch glimpses of the others from their positions over the shoulders of marines. From what he could tell they had just saved three men and three women from the cylons, any details other than that were lost to him for the moment.
Lee just hoped they would survive the trip back to Galactica. It just seemed like the people were all asleep, but he had no way of knowing what disconnecting those devices so abruptly had done to them.
Checking his watch, Lee realized that they were out of time. More than ten minutes had passed already, and the needed to get the hell off the ship as fast as they could, or else none of them were going to make it.
Lee rounded the second to last corner and the next thing he knew there was a series of gunfire. Acting on pure instinct he ordered the marines to stop as he backtracked and took cover behind the wall. His heart began to race as another surge of adrenaline kicked in.
They had almost made it back to the raptors, and now the only thing lying between them and their way off the ship was half a dozen centurions.
***
“The virus has stopped working!” Gaeta called out from his console.
Kara automatically turned to the Old Man, a look of worry on her face. They still hadn’t heard anything from Lee since he’d boarded the cylon ship. He was running out of time.
***
The details were fuzzy, but somehow they’d managed to take down all of the centurions and they were on the move again. Two marines were injured, but all in all they were in good shape.
“Everyone get on a raptor right away,” Lee ordered as they jogged down the corridor, carefully watching for any more surprises. “We’re leaving the second we get there.”
***
“Galactica, Apollo.”
Kara breathed a sigh of relief as she heard Lee’s voice. Another shared look with the Old Man told her he was having the same reaction.
“We’re outbound from the cylon ship with six new people on board. I’m requesting a med team to meet us in the hangar deck.”
***
Lee could hear the cheering in the situation room over the comm link. He couldn’t help but grin knowing that they’d done it-that he’d done it without screwing up. The adrenaline began to fade away, only to be replaced by that post op high. Gods he’d missed that feeling.
Looking out the front of the raptor Lee saw that saving the people wasn’t the only thing they’d accomplished-only one of the basestars was left intact, but in a few more seconds it would be just a mess of metal and blood like the other one.
In addition, some of the squadron was now engaged with the raiders, but there were only a handful left for them to mop up.
Three vipers sped by them and headed straight for the ship they’d just left. The pilots opened fire and Lee knew that in less than a few minutes there would be no cylons left at all.
He felt a surge of pride knowing that Kara’s plan had worked so well.
***
Kara left the commotion of the situation room, only to find herself engulfed in the same atmosphere, but this time in the hangar bay. The crew was working hard to bring in all the vipers and raptors, but it wasn’t like normal-there was a distinctly elevated energy to their movements.
She couldn’t blame them though-she’d practically bounced down to the hangar deck, and she was grinning from ear to ear. The plan had gone off without a hitch and she couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this good.
Looking around, Kara immediately spotted the three raptors and headed over to them. The hatches opened and marines began to file out. Lee’s raptor was the one farthest away from her, but that didn’t stop her from catching his eye as he stepped out.
He looked at her, a broad grin covering his face. Kara felt her smile get even larger knowing that Lee was happy too. He was finally over his ejection from the blackbird, and all Kara could think was that it was about damn time.
Lee started making his way over to her, and looked like he was about to call out over the crowd, but the commotion from one of the nearby med teams drew her attention away.
She recognized one of the medics from when she’d been stuck in sickbay. Layne Ishay was talking to another paramedic as they put a blonde woman on a stretcher. “We need to get these people down to sickbay immediately. There’s no telling what’s wrong with them.”
Kara took in the Ishay’s words as she looked more closely at the woman on the stretcher. She was pale, and thin… much too thin.
Glancing around at the group that had exited the raptor closest to her, Kara caught sight of two more stretchers. The dark skin of the man on one threw her off for a second. She shuddered as memories of the farm on Caprica washed over her. Tearing her gaze away her eyes landed on the third stretcher.
Time stopped. She felt all the blood drain from her face. Every ounce of happiness that she had been feeling disappeared.
She inhaled sharply. A second later his name passed from her lips. “Zak?”
TBC
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Chapter 11