SUMMARY: Lee and Kara, and how their friendship may have started.
DISCLAIMER: The character's and the universe of the Battlestar Galactica do not belong to me.
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THE LEAST LIKELY by -yannik-
Chapter One – COMPETITOR
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"Lee Adama?" a gruff voice right above his head woke the young cadet from his musing. He lifted his eyes to meet ones of a short, solid guy.
"Can I help?"
"Major's son, huh?" Asked the guy, placing the tray on the other side of the table, and starting to eat. "Don't mind if I joined?" he asked matter-of-factly, his mouth already full of noodles.
"It's Colonel actually, but yes." Lee choose not to dwell on whether he minded or not. He just stuck to the first subject. "Have a problem with that?"
"Colonel it is, sorry. Naaay, no problem. At first I thought, duh, Adama'a kid, another one of those who climb their daddies' backs. But then I saw the board. You know? The one with yesterday's weekly evals."
"It's on already?"
"Just half an hour ago. I looked and decided to get to know my competition. I was third y'know?"
"Oh?"
"You second."
So the first tests didn't go that bad – Lee thought. He was second in a group of a little over a hundred students that started Academy this year. He knew he did his best on P.E. and at maths. As well as their first flight simulator. But not knowing other people's abilities, it was hard to tell what position he would end at. Second was satisfying. For the moment.
"Have you met the number one?" Lee asked the fat guy.
"Not yet, she's in another group. As well as number four actually. But I know their names – it's Kara Thrace, and Jamie Kudel. I'll catch up with them some other time. If they stay on top that is."
"Good luck! Will you let me know? By the way – what's your name?"
"Duh, sorry. Didn't introduce myself? Larry Davies."
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Sadly Larry didn't stay on top of the list, while Adama, Thrace and Kudel did. They pretty much competed with one another over the next couple of months in various tests. And while Lee was winning in shooting targets, Thrace was always the best when it came to speed, while Kudel had no competition in tactics and strategy planning.
In spite of his falling position in rankings, Larry stayed close to Lee. It was an odd friendship, and young Adama couldn't stop thinking, it had something to do with the name he was bearing. If only Davies knew when Lee last saw his old man… Maybe he should keep that information in his pocket in case he wanted to get rid of Larry for good.
Although Lee wasn't interested in "getting to know his competition", Larry had shown him the fragile blonde Kara Thrace, and sturdy fellow Jamie Kudel. The fat guy lost interest in getting to know those two however, as soon, as names surrounding his own on the board, had changed. Lee himself was observing them from afar. And simply doing his best to beat them in their own respective fields. He was hoping to meet either of his competitors in actual face to face confrontation sooner or later.
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"You. And you." Captain Borowsky, the flight instructor, pointed at Lee and… Kudel. "Top scorers, huh? We've had enough of theorizing about landing techniques, now we'll talk about the actual faults made by the pilots. And you, top-shots, will be the first to show us those mistakes. Off to the simulators, and the rest of you stays here, watching the monitors. See what you shouldn't do!"
Oh, so the teacher was sure, they would do wrong. Lee was all eager to disappoint him, having spent as much of his free hours in simms, as was possible for a first year cadet. But from the cheers given to Kudel by his group, Lee could tell, that his major opponent wasn't spending all his spare time in the lounge either.
That round of applause and encouragements that wasn't meant for him at all, made Lee's adrenaline level bounce up sky-high. He was not nearly as popular as Kudel, therefore the only one, who gave him a friendly pat on a shoulder, was Larry. But it didn't matter.
Kudel was good and – from what Lee could observe when he once wandered off to the lounge – certainly not accustomed to losing, whether it was flying or triad game. But that didn't matter either, or maybe simply added to Lee's determination. He knew this was his time to show Kudel his place in a row. And then there will only be Thrace to race against.
Lee was the first to get into his cockpit. Helmet on, shut the covers. He waited a few heart bits, and finally the program was turned on. He found himself drifting in space, among a squadron of about fifteen Vipers. They were in the middle of a battle!
Fiery arrows soared through the space around him without warning. Lee reacted instinctively, without thinking. He pulled the stick, and then made his fighter twist over to port. The move was too sudden, and it sent the machine rolling over in an out-of-control tumble.
Only by some unbelievable luck, the Viper didn't meet it's fate of a fiery ball.
"Combat landings!" the order came through the speakers, and Lee tried to focus. Stabilizers, thrusters, main engines.
He straightened his ship, and realized that all the Vipers – those run by the program, and the one piloted by Kudel – were gone. In fact – so were the enemy fighters.
One look at the draids told him where they were all headed – the Battlestar. He flipped over, and kicked the thrusters. The bird sprinted ahead, jumped over the line of cylon riders chasing the squadron, and caught up with his virtual colleagues.
This was when he realized he was coming in too hot. He was so going to crush! In a weird moment of slow-motion he wondered which one was Kudel's Viper, and he could see faces of people from his group applauding the winner of this informal competition. He saw Kudel's broad smile – a little girlish smile if anyone asked him. He saw boards, and his name slowly dropping down the list, until it joined Larry Davies' again.
Well that couldn't happen, but…
The thought of Kudel's satisfaction was enough to make him remember all the techniques he tried in simms so far. He was never in a situation that bad off, but at least he could use some of the thin experience he'd had. Stabilizers, and stabilizers again, and lower the thrust up until the point where engines were almost at a dead stop.
The hexagonal entrance to the landing deck was nearing quickly, but Lee's mind wandered off again, curious what Batlestar exactly was this scenario based on. It wasn't Galactica, the starship his father had served on during the cylon war. Lee knew the layout of that vessel very well, and it wasn't it. Maybe he'll check up later. Now…
The speed of another vessel coming in next to him, almost blew him off, right into the hull of the Battlestar. Quick blow of the stabilizer and he was back on track, and off into the tunnel. Lower, lower… Other Vipers were bursting in, bouncing, and sliding gently. The landing pods started the closing sequence. But Lee was still up in the air, still at high speed!
One more blow, gently now. He must have been around the middle of the landing pod, when one of the machines passed him bouncing from one footpad to the other in an oddly ridiculous way. Lee nearly burst out laughing, but he had to concentrate if he wanted to make it out alive. Or not humiliated at the very least.
Hoping his speed was now low enough, he pushed the Viper down, and it bounced, nose-first. Kick on the stabilizers again, and by some miracle he avoided crash again. It made him turn though, and the force of his speed kept pushing him down the pod, while thrust was about to shove him in the opposite direction. Kill the engines! – Lee thought.
And in a few moments his Viper was standing still, facing other Vipers' noses. Lee was relieved there weren't any real people there, to laugh at him now. He was expecting laughter as soon as they return…
Suddenly, an ugly grating sound of a metal being smashed against metal interrupted his train of thoughts. It was followed by an exasperated "Ough!", and the program ended.
Lee was sitting in a cockpit of a flight simulator, breathing heavily. Kudel was already climbing out of his cockpit, seemingly infuriated. So it was him, who crashed eventually! – Lee thought, not without satisfaction. He climbed up quickly and run after the guy.
They entered the class simultaneously, and were greeted by… laughter, cheers, screaming. The instructor was seating at his podium, smiling mockingly, and waiting for the noise to subside.
Kudel was welcomed by his friends, and Larry run towards Lee.
"Did you see that?" he was laughing so hard, he almost cried. "The guy landed like a duck. A Space-duck, kwa, kwa!"
"What?" Kudel didn't go far enough yet, not to hear that. He swirled, and gazed at no one else, but Lee.
"I didn't say anything!"
"Starduck!" Larry had to add one more comment in spite of Lee's nudging him in his side. Oh it wasn't bound to end well…
Lee saw fire in his competitor's green eyes, and braced himself just in time to take in the blow that might shatter his jaw into pieces. Instead he only ended up on the floor, slightly lightheaded, trying to count his teeth with his tongue, and feeling the swelling grow, but no pain yet.
Yeah, Kudel didn't know how to lose.
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t.b.c.
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