Armistice Blues

Chapter 1

"So 'Spriggan,' are you finally gonna grow a sack today and ask her out or what?" I heard from behind me. Shortly after, I got that familiar chuck on the shoulder from my friend, Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon. I turned to him and there he was with that goofy grin he has whenever he was busting my chops. I put on my shirt and finished buttoning up my pants before I threw my gym clothes in my locker. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of emptiness at his words even though he was just being his usual, jovial self.

"The same can be said about you Helo. Still haven't asked out Boomer yet have you?" Suddenly his grin was gone and it was my turn to wear a shit-eating smile as I zipped up my flight-suit and slammed my locker shut. I glanced down to the right shoulder of my "Jock-smock" which had a "Viper" patch boldly emblazoned on it. Every time I looked at it, I couldn't help but feel a certain amount of pride. But then again, anybody who flies always has pride, probably a little too much sometimes. "It'll happen, I'm just waiting for….for my moment is all."

Helo looked at me with that sympathetic look he always gave me when this subject came up. He knew how bad I was at it. I could do a lot of things, fly fighters, plot jump coordinates, write poetry but the one thing I couldn't do, I could never do, is ask out Kara "Starbuck" Thrace. Actually, I was bad with women in general but when it came to somebody I truly liked, like Starbuck, well there were no words for the depths of my failure. I would have rather faced down five incoming squadrons of Cylons by myself than be shot down by her. But that was me, Lieutenant Miles "Spriggan" Eddington, screw up at large.

Ever since the academy, I could only admire Starbuck from afar; she, Helo and I graduated at the same time. She was the most vivacious, beautiful, toughest, and sweetest person I'd ever met. I could've gone on with the adjectives but why belabor the obvious? After graduating flight school, Starbuck, Helo and I had went our separate ways. I heard she was stationed on the Triton and then did a stint as a flight instructor back at flight school. That didn't shock me in the slightest; she always had been the best stick in the fleet. I myself had done duty on the Solaria and liked it there before I got rotated to the Galactica. I thought I must've screwed up somehow being assigned to a relic like the Galactica but I was a soldier and a soldier follows orders without question.

It was just dumb luck that we were both stationed on the Galactica together after all this time. I hadn't seen her in two years before that and when I finally did see her all those old feelings were dredged up again. Feelings I thought I'd quashed a long time ago. I wanted her desperately to like me but I was merely the nice guy in her life and I hated it.

I knew I should've just let it go and move onto something else. Deep down in the logical centers in my brain I knew this, but I couldn't let go for some reason. I didn't mention my crush to too many people but to the ones I did tell, they all either told me to let it go because she was out of my league or the same thing Helo told me. The problem was, every time I tried to do something about it, it was either inconvenient or I got choked up so bad that I'd stumble over my words and sweat lakes through my clothes.

It got to the point that Helo took pity on me and used to talk to me about Starbuck; he would tell me her likes and dislikes and feed me intel as to her dating situation since he was one of her closest friends. I even had him talk me up to her once but nothing ever really came of it. I always admired his confidence all throughout the academy and when we were stationed together on the Galactica, until Sharon "Boomer" Valerii came aboard. All of a sudden, he was the same type of shy, gibbering mess that I was, only he hid it better than I did. Helo and I went from jock and nerd respectively to two guys awkwardly head over heels in love with the crushes in our lives.

"Speaking of the pot calling the kettle black, when are you going to talk to Valerii?" I reiterated, this time not busting his balls. "She seems like a nice girl. Besides you have no excuse to not talk to her, you're her EWO (Electronic Warfare Officer) for frack's sake!"

"To paraphrase you, I'll get around to it." Helo replied deadpanning.

Minutes later, we were in the ready room, receiving our briefing from our squadron leader. The ship was abuzz with activity; the Galactica was getting decommissioned in a week and plans were underway to turn "the big G" into a museum and educational center. I would've much rather pulled parade fly-by's than combat drills but being in the military, you learn to follow and not question orders no matter how much they suck. Helo sat next to Boomer a row behind me and out of my peripheral vision, I could see him fidgeting in his seat. Inwardly, I grinned at his uncomfortableness.

The briefing was the same standard briefing I'd received hundreds of times since being stationed on the Galactica a year ago. But it wasn't the rote repetition that caused my attention to wander, it was the fact that Starbuck was sitting in front of me; I couldn't take my eyes off of her the back of her head. It wasn't like I was trying to stare; I'm not a creep in the slightest! But there was something about her that I couldn't help myself when it came to Starbuck.

"Lieutenant Eddington, your attention needs to be here and not in the stars or at the back of Starbuck's head!" Major "Ripper" Spencer our Commander of the Air Group or CAG, yelled at me, jolting me out of my reverie. The rest of the ready room chuckled at my embarrassment; I could feel my ears burn red hot at the rebuke.

"Sorry Major, won't happen again." I muttered which got the ready room laughing even harder. Normally I could take their laughter but when Starbuck shot me a "what the hell man?!" look with that big, pretty grin on her face, that made my gut twist up in knots. I sheepishly looked down at my notepad on my desk. That wasn't the way I wanted her to find out that I was interested in her.

"Alright, knock it off!" Major Spencer yelled, shutting everybody up but some still had grins on their faces. "Skids up in one hour, keep the formations tight. Let's make the old man proud with our performance. Dismissed!"

We stood up at attention when Major Spencer left the room. Once he left, we all began filing out, pairing up with our buddies or the guys we had flight assignments with. In my case, I was teamed up with Helo and Boomer since we were running a joint exercise between Vipers and Raptors. In the crowd of people, I caught a glance of Starbuck laughing and talking with the pilot she was to be teaming up with. I could only imagine that she was laughing at me.