3/20/05

EXTREMITIES

Chapter 6

Author's note: Once again, I'm sorry this took so long, but I've been dealing with the mother of all colds this past week and Ny-quil is just not conducive to coherent writing.

Emerging from the lower level of the Tomb, the small group could now hear the incoming Cylon Raiders and felt the ground shake from the explosions of more bombs being dropped around them. And then, suddenly everything fell quiet. The only sounds to break the harsh silence, was their own heavy breathing and the dust and debris settling around them. Looking at each other, they cautiously crept from the building.

Lee led the way, his gun drawn. Kara brought up the rear. They all scanned the sky above them apprehensively, but for now, it was clear of enemy Raiders. Once again, it was Laura who guided them through the ruined city in the near-total darkness. They had just made it to the outskirts of the city's boundaries when they began hearing a strange, rhythmic sound, metal grating against metal. Turning, they saw beams of light sweeping the ground behind them. These lights emanated from several tall, indistinct, but still menacing, mechanical soldiers, unlike anything any of them had ever seen These soldiers were marching toward them, weapons drawn, less than a half mile away.

"What the frak are those?" Kara asked, wide-eyed. "What happened to the old chrome toasters?"

"Looks like they upgraded," Lee said. "Come on, keep moving, we've got to get the frak out of here!"

After nearly 20 minutes of hard running, Lee finally allowed the group to slow its pace for a brief break. He and Kara were slightly winded, but could have continued running all the way back to the transport, although Lee noticed that Kara was favoring her so-recently injured knee again. He knew it would be of no use to ask her about it. She would never admit that it was bothering her until she collapsed. He let it go. She was a big girl and knew her own body's limits. He turned his attention to the two civilians. Dr. Baltar was holding up better than the captain would have expected, but Laura was not doing well at all. Lee felt guilty about putting these kinds of physical demands on her, knowing how ill she was, but he didn't see any way to avoid it.

Adjusting his stride to match hers, he fell into step beside her. "Are you alright?" he asked softly.

Too out of breath to verbally respond, she simply nodded. She was clutching her side with both hands, but whether this was just a side stitch or something more serious, Lee didn't know and was too afraid to ask.

"We're still about a mile and a half out from the transport. I want to pick up our pace again. Can you keep up?" he asked.

Again, she nodded. Gesturing to Kara to take the lead and pick up the pace, Lee wrapped an arm around Laura's waist and half-pushed her along with him, taking up the rear, behind Baltar. When they were within a half mile of the transport they became aware of the sound of gunfire coming from the direction they were headed.

Approaching the transport from the rear Lee halted the group about 10 yards from the small ship and had them take cover behind a low rise. The sound of the gunfire was coming from the far side of the transport. Gesturing for Kara to stay with the civilians, Lee left them, running toward the ship at a low crouch.

Pressing his back against the ship's bulkhead, he slid to the nearest corner and peered cautiously around it. Several more of the tall, mechanical monsters were exchanging gunfire with two figures inside the transport. He could just make out Tyrol in the hatchway. Lee couldn't identify the other person.

Banging his gun against the hull of the ship to get Tyrol's attention, Lee immediately dropped to an even lower crouch, in case the chief shot before looking. Tyrol swung his gun to the left, but didn't shoot. Spying the captain, a look of profound relief crossed his face. Lee held up a hand, indicating to the chief to wait for a moment.

Ducking back behind the ship, he gestured to Kara for her to bring up the others. When all four were standing, pressed against the hull, Lee gestured for Tyrol and his companion to cover them while they made the dash to the hatchway door.

Once he had seen that everyone was safely inside the transport, Lee called out, "Starbuck, get us out of here!"

The order was unnecessary, however, as the blonde pilot was already making her way to the cockpit. Lee and Tyrol continued to fire out the open hatch at the Cylon warriors and they kept up their fire until the transport had lifted off the planet. Swinging the door shut and spinning the wheel lock, Tyrol leaned against it, breathing heavily.

"Thank the Lords, you all showed up when you did," he said. "I wasn't sure how much longer we could hold out."

At the mention of the word 'we', Lee remembered that there had been another person with the chief. Looking around, he spied Cally sitting in one of the passenger seats, toward the back of the transport.

"Hey, Cally, you okay?" he called to her.

"Yes, sir, I'm okay," the girl said, with a tired smile.

Lee returned her smile, but the relief of the moment was broken by Kara calling from the cockpit that she was about to jump them back to the Galactica. "Everybody hang on!"

Lee and Tyrol quickly lowered themselves to the deck and braced themselves against the passenger seats. Baltar, Cally, and the president were already strapped into their seats. They experienced the familiar, but still disorienting, feeling of space both expanding and contracting simultaneously. Almost the instant the jump was completed, the ship was rocked by the distinct sound of gunfire. Lee heard several bullets glance off the thick hull of the transport.

"Apollo, get your butt up here now!" Kara called out from the cockpit. "We've got company and a lot of it!"

Dragging himself off the floor, Lee moved quickly to the cockpit. Standing behind the pilot's seat, he looked over Kara's shoulder out the main viewscreen. Two Basestars sat opposing the Galactica and the entire space between them and the Battlestar was filled with Raiders.

"Oh, my frakking Gods," he whispered.

Kara was unable to respond as she was forced to take evasive action, to keep them from being shot down. But even as she went through the motions automatically, she knew it was a lost cause. There was no way she could evade that many Raiders for long. They had no weapons. All they could do was jump back to the planet and hope that the Galactica survived to pick them up later.

"Oh, Gods, Kara, look."

Now what? she thought as she reluctantly ripped her eyes away from the viewscreen to see what Lee was pointing at.

When she had taken her seat in the cockpit upon boarding, she had absently tossed the Aegis device onto the top of the instrument panel. She hadn't known what else to do with it, and up there, it was out of her way. Seeing that Lee was pointing at it now, she looked to see that it appeared to be melting into the instrument panel. It had almost completely and seamlessly integrated itself into the metal on the top of the panel. The engraved image of the severed head was still distinctly visible, gazing up from the panel, and now the wide, vacant eyes began to glow an eerie green color. They heard a soft, low humming sound, much like the sound they had heard in the passageways of the Tomb of Athena.

Tearing his eyes reluctantly away from the fascinating device, Lee looked up, just in time to see a Raider flying towards them, guns blazing. "Kara!" he cried, even as his brain registered that she would never be able to evade the shots in time.

The transport shuddered as the shots drove home. Flashes of greenish lightning skittered across the viewscreen momentarily. The attacking Raider sped past them. Lee stood, stunned. Somehow, the ship seemed to be undamaged.

"We should be dead right now," Kara said, softly.

"Yeah, we should," Lee agreed.

When, despite Kara's best efforts at evasion, another Raider's shots found them, the result was the same. There were flashes of green 'lightning' and the transport flew on undamaged.

"How did you say The Scriptures described this thing?" Lee asked.

"As a protective device."

"It must be some kind of shield generator. We need to get this thing back to the Galactica."

Now, freed from the worry about being shot down, Kara needed only to avoid colliding with the Raiders. She pushed the transport to its limit, speeding them to the Galactica.

They were directed by a rattled-sounding Dee to land on the port-side landing pod. The landing was tricky, the area around the Battlestar was thick with Raiders, Vipers and ordnance fire. The civilian ships were no where to be seen. Tigh had evidently already ordered them to jump to the next safe coordinates.

As Kara powered down the engines and activated the magnetic locks to secure the ship to the landing deck, she and Lee watched as the 'eyes' of the Aegis device darkened and it disengaged, or more accurately, solidified itself from the instrument panel. It once again appeared to be no more than a strangely decorated, metal disc sitting innocuously on the top of the panel. Kara picked it up reverently.

Leaving the cockpit, they found that Tyrol and Cally had already disembarked to resume their duties with the ground crew. Lee, Kara and Laura immediately headed up to CIC. Baltar hung back, forgotten by the others. Climbing down from the transport, he left the hangar deck, headed in an entirely different direction.

He found the sick bay buzzing with activity. The Galactica had sustained heavy damages and there was plenty of wounded. No one gave the scientist more than a cursory glance. Once they saw that he was relatively unhurt, they quickly dismissed him from their thoughts. This was all to the doctor's liking. He hadn't come here for treatment, nor did he wish to be questioned.

He quickly found the partitioned off area, where Sharon was being kept. The guard who should have been stationed there had been drafted to help with the wounded, so no one challenged Baltar as he stepped around the partition to gaze down at the patient.

Sharon was asleep, as was Helo laying the bed a few feet away. As the scientist gazed down at the sleeping young woman, a strange sort of possessive smile crossed his face. Looking up, he gazed at the stunning blonde who stood on the other side of the bed. She returned his smile warmly. Reaching out, she took his hands in hers and placed them on the sleeping woman's stomach.

Up in CIC, Lee, Kara and Laura found Col. Tigh barking orders and looking quite harried. He glanced at them as they entered.

"Did you find Baltar?" he asked by way of greeting.

"Yes sir," Lee answered.

"Did you bring Tyrol and Cally back with you?"

"Yes sir."

"So, everyone's off the planet?"

"Yes sir."

"Dee, recall all Vipers. Gaeta, warm up the computers. Be ready to jump us out of here the second all the Vipers are on board."

"Well, I hope you're all quite proud of yourselves," the colonel said angrily. "You brought every Cylon in the sector down on us. I just hope they won't be able to track us."

"We brought presents," Kara said smiling, her excitement irrepressible.

Tigh glared at her, but said nothing. The pilot took the starglobe from the president and held it out to the colonel.

"A three-dimensional star chart that shows us how to find Earth. And this..." She held up the Aegis device.

"And what the hell is that?" Tigh asked skeptically.

"The means to get us there."

Again, Tigh said nothing. His attention was diverted by Dee, who reported that all the vipers were on board. The colonel gave the order to jump the Battlestar. Once they had rejoined the rest of the fleet, he ordered the CAP Vipers to relaunch and establish that they were, in fact, alone in this sector of space. He gave orders for crews to immediately begin the repairs to the ship.

With a few minutes of breathing space, he turned to gaze unhappily at his two mutinous pilots. He supposed he could return them to the brig, but what good would that do? He knew damn well they had had help breaking out the first time, so returning them wouldn't be setting any kind of example for the rest of the crews. And he wouldn't be teaching either of them any lessons. It was obvious from their expressions that neither felt any remorse for their actions. But just ignoring this flagrant insubordination, by all the parties involved, stuck in his craw like a hand around his throat. And then there was the president...

Turning his attention to the woman in question, he saw that she wasn't even paying attention to the proceedings. She was gazing off at nothing in particular, her eyes distant and unfocused. She seemed to be oblivious to her surroundings.

Noting the direction of the colonel's gaze, Lee turned to look at Laura as well. He also noticed her distraction with some concern. "Madam President, are you alright?" he asked.

She turned to look at him, her eyes still unfocused. He wasn't sure she even recognized him. Stepping closer to her, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Madam President?"

He saw her eyes roll back in her head and felt her body start to sag under his hand. He quickly caught her before she could collapse and gently lowered her to the deck. Her face was ashen and he wasn't sure she was breathing.

"Madam President!"

THE END

Author's note: Okay, Okay, before y'all start deluging me with hate e-mail (and before Cyndi's doctor wins that Kewpie Doll), let me just say: Yes there will be a sequel. Yes, I'm working on it. I didn't want to simply tack it on as chapter 7 because it's going to be very different in tone and style, so I wanted it to be a story by itself. Anyway, stay tuned for it. Yes, I promise, I will give you some closure. Even I am not that mean (well, maybe...).