Prologue.

Sky, cloud, sky cloud….Voices….No, a voice…..One voice…..

"Starbuck, Apollo. I've lost you on dradis. I'm blind. Starbuck, Apollo. I repeat, I got no sign of you or the Raider. Starbuck, report! Starbuck, report!"

Hole in the canopy…..what the frak? Images….Mother?!…...Leoben…...Voices again…..

"This is Apollo. Do you read me? Starbuck, report! Starbuck! Starbuck, I have zero visibility. Starbuck, are you out there? Kara!"

Alarm….What's that noise?…..Images….things in the clouds…

"Starbuck, Apollo. Lost you on dradis. I say again, I've lost you. I'll try and fix on you. Kara! All right, Kara, listen to me. Forget the damn toaster. Climb now or you're dead. Godsdamn it, Kara, pull up now. We can still pull out of this, we haven't gone past the point of no return. Pull up!"

Silence….Lee…..Gone…...Can't hear him….

Kara Thrace sat in the cockpit of a damaged Viper, falling into the gravity well of a gas giant she and Lee Adama had been patrolling. Wind rushed through a hole in the canopy. She lolled in her harness as the plane fell, drifting like a leaf in the wind. Images rushed past her in her minds eye and….outside? She craned her neck over as the light faded and ebbed…

"What the frak?"

Her voice sounded hollow in the flight helmet, the air rushing through the cockpit muffling it. The images….no the things she could see through the clouds….stars? A huge white object began to coalesce, object?….No! A ship!? Round saucer shape, graceful sweeping hull she saw…...Words! Numbers….1701? In a blink though it was gone, lost in the murkiness that surrounded her. Shaking herself from the funk she found herself in, hypoxic now she keyed the wireless once more, desperation flooding her system.

"Apollo...Starbuck...Lee do you copy?"

She called, her answer nothing but static. More things swam about her...Objects glimpsed through the clouds vessels, people, places. A grey thing parted the clouds this time….NO! She started at the almost familiar shape...The Galactica...or something like the old girl came at her. Like an older, clunkier version of her home…..images of an old man in a blue uniform, kind face….white hair….who? Adama? Noooooo!

Another time Kara Thrace, another place, another you.

The voice came through her headphones in a dreamy whisper, a smooth old voice before it faded away with the almost Galactica. More visions assailed her. A strange fighter plane, stars on its flanks, dodging flak, another her in its cockpit. Then a more vivid vision. A ship, ocean going this time, heading for her. It was so real that she threw an arm up and yelled! Figures scurried on its decks, images of giant flying lizards swarmed before it swept past her leaving more numbers in her mind…..163

A hissing on the wireless….A voice…..distant coming through the waves of dizziness and increasing tiredness. She was tired. Tired of fighting...tired of it all...the voice cut through and woke her...

"Visual. Visual. Okay. Kara, I'm coming to get you. Kara, please, listen to me! Come back. Godsdamn it, Kara! You come back! Come back!"

She started out of her funk, a jolt of adrenaline at the sound of Lee's voice. The objects in the clouds swirled…...Pyramids? Black holes?…..All came swirling in and out of sight around the stricken Viper. Then a peaceful scene appeared, the gusting air seemed to calm and Lee's voice was reduced to a chattering she only vaguely heard. It was as if she was watching from above through clouds, floating without her ship. Before her appeared a car, big and black. Two men sat on the hood drinking beer…..beer? A presence beside her and there another man…..dark haired and wearing an…..overcoat? Floating with her. She giggled at him. He smiled, the sounds subsided more and he spoke. His voice as clear as a bell.

"Not yet Kara Thrace…..Not yet"

She smiled back and another name came to her…..Cas…. Then in an instant the sounds returned, the buffetting grew worse and...What the frak?! Starbuck, mild panic welling up, keyed her wireless again. More strange shapes in the mist. Less dream like now she realised. It all became more real. Suddenly there was a crack, jolting the Viper, a blue box bounced off the nose to her port slipping in and out of the swirling clouds. Its door was open, she goggled again in awe, a man with a mop of hair and a large chin gawked back, appeared to recognise her, grinned, then waved. Waved!?

"Doctor?"

The words came unbidden from her mouth. She Knew him….How?!

"Doctor!"

In an instant though the box, the man, had disappeared and her knowledge of that face faded from her mind leaving her even more confused. The moment lasted seconds before she cast an eye about her. At the instruments, the airframe shuddering and the bits flying off it. She sighed, slumping in the seat. Briefly she thought of home, her mother, her friends. Zak, Lee...Sam. Then, a final click of the wireless and...

"Apollo…..Starbuck….It's okay. Just let me go."

She heard herself speak but couldn't understand her words. The sound of Lee's voice, of CIC were becoming indistinct, tinny as she again began to grey out. Then as the cockpit, the sounds faded to black she thought she heard one last voice…..

"No, Dad, it's no use. Her ship's in pieces. Her ship's in pieces. No chute. We lost her""

One

The Princess.

1 ABY

Crevice Palace

The angular towers of the palace jutted from a crater scooped out of the mountainside. Red lights flashed at the tips of various antennae and scopes at the peaks of these towers, throwing up garish shadows in the caves roof. Kr'l birds and Bresh lizards swooped and soared about them, brightly coloured flashes of movement. Lush green moss, fed by the thermal power the palace pulled from the planet through this mountain, flowed down the rocks on the internal side of the crater towards a small landing field and training/parade ground. Lights flashed at its corners and lines were painted to denote landing pads. They seemed curiously out of place. In this place of history modernity always looked...well...wrong. more out of place was the grey hulk of a Lambda class shuttle, wings folded and guarded by white armoured figures. The Empire was paying a visit.

On a balcony that jutted out overlooking these areas, patrolled by leather armoured warriors of the Way, a solitary figure, similarly dressed, leant on a permacrete wall. Another out of place structure that had been added to the natural stone works of the palace. She was about 19 or 20, shortish but well defined in the way of an athlete or gymnast rather than the rather hulking and more toned warriors that kept a discreet, watchful, distance from her. The reddish armour she wore, breastplate and greaves over an olive smock and leggings, clashed with her auburn hair and the tribal tattoos on her pale cheek. Princess Swana was sulking again, hence the discreet distance.

She stared out at the warriors training below her, the Imperial ship, the customs cutter of her father's fleet and huffed to herself, a brief but explosive outburst of air. The small droid beside her, a drumshaped DD unit with a monowheel and a dome not unlike that of an Astromech tilted its photo receptor to watch its mistress. It keened a question, plaintive and low. Her eyes closed for a moment as she calmed herself. The sullen face softened slightly and looked down at the green droid. She smiled and turned to lean an arm on the parapet as she spoke.

"I know DD. I should be happy to be in my position. But how do I rule, which I eventually will, without ever having seen anything outside of Danju? And why do we still invite these Imperial swine into our home?"

With a sweeping arm she indicated the cavern, the palace and the landing field. The droid burbled to effect that he didn't know, or more likely, didn't understand. Smiling sadly at the droid Swana sighed and kicked at a patch of moss. The stuff grew everywhere and could get out of control if not checked. As she idly considered why the patch hadn't been dealt with something in her senses flashed, someone was…...BEHIND HER!

The long bladed Danji sword was out before she even considered what she was doing, the Way leading her. It clanged against one end of a Danji fighting stick, somewhat like a pugil stick but with wicked blades instead of pads. A grinning, flat-nosed face appeared above her and the pressure of the blade began to increase pushing her back and down. She tilted her head and grinned back causing her assailant to double his efforts. DD skittered away, whooping to himself. The noise alerted the guard but before a young sentry could react his colleague stayed him with a hand, gestured to the man who now appeared to be attempting to murder the young princess and, leaning against his shield commented.

"Master Genaris. It will be interesting, rest your weapon young 'un"

After much back and forth grunting and clanging of weapons the deadlock finally seemed to be going the way of the larger man until Swana shifted slightly on her feet and kicked out suddenly, flipping up and over the man and landing with her katana shaped blade at the base of his skull. The older guard held out a hand and his colleague, grimacing, handed over a credit chip.

"I see your reflexes have not suffered in the same way as your mood you highness."

The large man smiled, carefully, very carefully, tilting his gaze to watch Swana from the corner of his eye. One flick of a wrist would effectively remove his head. In turn Swana grinned and deftly returned the blade to its sheath on the rear of her armour.

"Of course not Genaris. You taught me well enough. But you're right…."

The smile slipped a notch and she stepped back, head lowering. Genaris closed his eyes and shook his head, he hadn't meant to bring the princess down that way. He turned to gaze at the landing field, hand feeling the back of his neck. With a sigh he wiped the smear of blood it came away with on a trouser leg and looked back to the young woman.

"Your high….Swana….."

She looked up sharply at the use of her name rather than her honorific. Then softened again, Genaris had afterall been in her fathers service for decades.

"I know old friend. I'm just kriffing annoyed. With my father, my life, this kriffing world!"

An eyebrow raised at the use of offworlder slang but he remained quiet. He'd known Swana since she was a young girl. He'd trained her in the use of the Way and in other forms of combat she may need. He'd watched her grow to the young woman stood before him. She was a strong character like her mother but lacked the level headed qualities of her father…...for now. He didn't think she'd lack them for long and he disagreed, to a point, with her fathers banning her from serving with the Navy. Such were the constraints of being an only child in a time of Galactic civil war. The rebellion had just scored massive victories at Scarif and Yavin and the last thing the boss wanted was his daughter in the firing line.

"You will find your own way child. Whatever that is. But you must be mindful of the power you have within you…..and that impetuousness that you possess. What I'm saying is…..don't do anything rash"

Swana smiled in a way he'd seen a hundred times before, usually before she got into trouble…..

"You know me too well old man….."

She smiled again, more sadly this time and turned to leave.

"Swana….Be careful?"

She hesitated a moment. Then walked away, DD rolling after her dutifully.

Genaris Quinn watched her until she disappeared into the palace. Softly, to himself he groaned.

"Oh frak…."