TITLE: Foreverland
AUTHOR: DramaLexy
DISCLAIMER: We all know who's mine and who's not. Let's leave it at that.
SUMMARY: Third (and final) story in my set (Destiny & Chance came first). Follows the new Adama family and explains what happened to William Adama. Set a year before Chance's epilogue (yeah, I seem to like going backwards to go forwards).
DISTRIBUTION: If you want it, be my guest, just let me know where.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: First off, if you haven't read Destiny and Chance, you'll probably be kinda confused with this.
Second, I got a lot of reviews saying they wanted to know more about Zak and Carrie, and some others that just wanted to know what happened to Adama. This is two birds with one stone – er, story. This is set about a year before the end of Chance.
Third, one other thing I got a lot of questions about was what happened to Hope by the end of Chance. I had a one liner in there alluding to it, but I guess that got overlooked. I purposely left her out of the end of Chance because I already had the plans for this story in the works, and it explains a lot of stuff.
I did my best to try and keep people in-character (I actually rewrote this whole thing because I didn't like how the original was turning out), but before anyone flames me about that topic please remember that 25 years have gone by since present time on BSG – who knows what in-character is at that point? Anyway, I hope you enjoy.
0430 hours was a time that most people on the Battlestar Galactica tried not to be conscious to see. For the most part, only those unfortunate enough to get stuck with late shift were awake at that time in the morning. But not everyone. Sixteen-year-old Caroline Adama was always awake that early, and hadn't ever needed an alarm clock to do it – which kept her bunkmates happy. She'd only been living in the Deck Crew Four barracks for a couple months, and almost everyone else worked early or mid shift, so they would not have appreciated an early wake up. Carrie was always very careful not to make a sound as she put on standard issue PT clothes and slipped out the door.
Usually her older brother, Zak, would be waiting for her in the hall. "It's about time," he would tell her, and they'd pester each other amicably while they stretched out. They'd had their morning tradition of laps around the ship for years; Zak had picked it up from their mother, and Carrie always had to do everything her big brother did. Some days they would just jog for fun, some days they would race each other around a deck, but they always enjoyed their mornings together.
"What shift are you on today?" Zak asked as they made their way around the ship.
"Early. I've got a Raptor engine replacement with my name on it. I've got flight training during mid shift, though, so it's going to be a long day. You?"
"I'm on CAP for early shift. And at least you're almost done with flight training."
"Yeah, thank the Lords."
"Have you seen Grandpa recently?"
"Yesterday, why?"
"Just wondering. I was going to stop by after my patrol was over."
"Sure. And then someone's going to want to get lunch, and someone else is gonna want to hit the training room, and before you know it, it'll be dinnertime and you still won't have gone."
"I'm not that bad about visiting," Zak tried to protest.
"Of course not," Carrie replied, her tone slightly sarcastic. "So then why don't we go now?" He looked a bit hesitant, glancing around to check a clock, but Carrie was determined. "Come on; last one there's a Centurion!" She took off at a sprint, and Zak followed.
It was a photo-finish by the time that Carrie and Zak arrived at the hatch to their grandfather's quarters. They both took a minute to start breathing normally again, and then Zak knocked.
"Feel up to some visitors?" he asked as he stuck his head in the door. Adama smiled from his place on his bed, putting down the book that he'd been reading.
"I'll never turn down a visit from my two favorite people on the ship…just don't tell your parents that they've been replaced in that respect." Carrie went to give her grandfather a hug.
"How are you today?" she asked him. The retired Admiral offered her a small smile.
"I'm still here."
"Do you want one of us to get you breakfast?" Zak asked.
Adama shook his head. "One of the petty officers will do it. I forget whose turn it is today."
"We don't mind, Grandpa," Carrie assured him. She had become as protective as a mother hen in the weeks since his health had begun to decline.
"You should be getting ready for your shifts, not baby-sitting an old man."
"I don't have a maintenance shift tomorrow," Carrie told him. "I can come spend the morning with you. We can play cards or something."
"I can't afford to play cards with you," he told her, his smile widening. "I've got a book for you instead. But don't worry about that now. Do you have training today?"
"Yep."
"Then you be careful out there, Cadet."
"I will, Sir."
"Same goes for you," Adama told Zak. "You're giving your father gray hair."
"That's just as much Carrie's fault as mine," he countered.
"Oh, I have no doubt about that. Now, go on before you're late." They both gave him one last hug before heading back out the hatch.
Adama smiled to himself once he was alone, reaching for a picture that was beside his bed. Kara, Lee, Zak, and Carrie were posed beside a Viper after Kara had completed the first test-flight for the Mark IVa model. His grandchildren had been fourteen and six, respectively, and were grinning happily from their places beside their parents. He couldn't deny that he hadn't been the greatest father when his own sons were growing up, but he'd gotten better at it in the time since the colonies had been destroyed, and he'd tried to make up for Lee's childhood with his children's. His family had become everything to him.
Lost in thought, the knock on the door a half hour later was a surprise. Adama put the photo back down and smiled at the crewman that had brought him something to eat. "Morning, Sir," she said as she set down a tray on the table by his bed.
"Good morning. What's the latest news around the ship today?"
After shifts were done, any pilots who possessed a few cubits and were able to push away their exhaustion found their way to the officer's mess hall for a game of cards. Carrie had been considered an unofficial officer since she was ten, so no one looked twice when she entered the mess hall. She knew everyone that was seated around the table – pilots Joe 'Midnight' Vega and Alicia 'Jinx' Santos, Bravo Squadron Leader Sarah 'Ice' Loring, plus Zak, and Carrie's surrogate big brother, Evan Tyrol. Jinx was practically sitting in Evan's lap, proving how he'd gotten the call sign Romeo.
"Pull up a chair," Midnight told Carrie as he noticed her come into the room. "You bring the cubits, we supply the fun." She joined the group with a smile.
"Hopefully you all brought the cubits, too, because I'm not taking IOU's tonight." They all grumbled responses to that. Money still didn't have the value that it had once held on the Colonies, but it was still a nice prize.
"All right, no guts, no glory," Zak said, putting a few chips in the center, and then pulling a stogie from his pocket to light up.
"I'm in," Evan added, putting down some chips of his own.
"Me, too," Carrie said, adding to the pot. Alicia did the same.
"Too rich for my blood," Joe told them, folding. Ice thought about it for a few moments, and then added some chips.
It went around the table again, everyone adding more to the pile. Their eyes all widened when they saw Carrie's bet. "Whoa, I'm definitely out," Evan said. She just grinned.
"The midget's just getting a bit big for her britches," Zak said, matching his sister's bet.
"The midget's going to knock you out if you call her that again," Carrie shot back. "And if you can't handle the heat, get out of the fire."
"Who said I couldn't handle it?" he replied. "Check." Jinx was the only other person left in the game other than the Adama siblings. She laid her cards down on the table.
"Three in a run."
"Four in a run," Zak said. Carrie was grinning like a Cheshire cat.
"Full colors," she told them, displaying her own hand. They both groaned, rolling their eyes as she collected her winnings. "Come on, you guys. Be good sports."
"I plan on winning that back," Jinx told her.
"You can try," she replied. "Who's dealer this go around?" Evan sat up in his seat, taking the deck of cards to shuffle and re-distribute.
"Isn't it past your bedtime yet?" Zak teasingly asked his sister. She reached over and grabbed his cigar from between his fingers. "Hey!"
"Hey yourself," she replied.
"You're going to make yourself sick with that." Carrie gave him a defiant smile and took a long drag. She almost managed to do it without choking, but not quite. Zak laughed, taking his cigar back. "Yeah, you're not in the big leagues yet, kiddo. Don't rush it."
There was nothing that Carrie hated more than being told to slow down and not grow up so fast. Childhood on a Battlestar was a waste of time. Children couldn't be officers or fly fighters or do any of the really critical maintenance. She'd only just recently learned how to do engine replacements on Raptors. The CPO wasn't letting her do the same for a Viper until she was seventeen. There were no parks to play in without taking a shuttle to Cloud 9, and no toys in the traditional sense of the word. For Carrie, it seemed like an utter waste that those born on Galactica still had to abide by the age regulations when it came to working in the fleet.
Her parents had gotten sick of the arguments that came every time they said no to her, so they let her start basic flight a couple months early. Any free time she had between that and maintenance was supposed to be spent with her grandfather, learning some history and culture. In all honesty, she was probably supposed to be babysitting Adama just as much as he was supposed to be babysitting her, but that didn't matter. She adored him, and the feeling was mutual.
"So what book did you want to read today?" Carrie asked Adama as she had breakfast with him in his quarters the next morning. He pointed to a novel that was on his desk. "Foreverland?" she asked as she read the title.
"Have you heard of it?" Carrie shook her head, and Adama sighed. "I'm not surprised. Our civilization is being lost little by little."
"What's it about?" she asked as she sat with him on his bed.
"I first read it when I was a little younger than you. I was drawn to it because the main character had the same name as mine. He is a boy from somewhere on Caprica who loses both of his parents when he's on that fine line between child and adult. He runs away, looking for a place called Foreverland in order to avoid growing up."
"That's silly," Carrie told him. "It would never work. Everybody grows up."
Adama smiled, taking the book from her and opening it to the first page. "There's a difference between growing up and getting older."
"Not from where I'm sitting."
"I never thought your mother was going to grow up, no matter how much time passed…but she did, as you and your brother got older."
"If growing up lets me be a pilot now, then that's all I want," Carrie explained.
Adama smiled as he turned back to the book. "Every child," he read, "grows up. All of them, but one…"
TBC…
Thoughts so far? Comments, questions, concerns?
Oh, and there's no time like the present for this disclaimer - yes, I was greatly inspired by Peter Pan for this story. I'm trying to redo it for Colonial culture, but I'm probably going to end up borrowing a few lines. Credit to the genius that is JM Barrie.