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Fic: BSG/Aliens Fusion AU, Xenophobic Agenda, R, Kara/Sam (2/2)
Disclaimers on part one.
Kara felt it when Pegasus left dock, sliding out of the cradle and into the freedom of space. For a moment, the entire battlestar seemed to shake itself like a dog after a bath. Then it settled and began coasting into position for the first of the four jumps that would take it out to Kobol.
Without the jump-drives, the crew would have all been in cryo-sleep for the duration. But with the new technology, the journey would only take a little over a week. That meant they would have to be on their guard for anyone slipping into the maintenance areas, though in Kara's experience, most crews stayed away from the auxiliary areas during a regular voyage. They weren't expecting trouble until Kobol.
If she'd had time to plan, she would have brought a bedroll and rations. As it was, she found herself shifting closer to Anders for the heat as much as for the reassurance that she wasn't alone in the dark.
She never used to worry about the dark, but in the months since the asteroid, she'd had nightmares about the reactor and its environs. Dead colonists watched her accusingly from the dark as she left them to die. Awake, she knew that there had been nothing she could do, but it was hard to convince herself of that as she slept.
Eventually, she checked the time and nudged Anders awake. "I'm going to scrounge us some rations," she murmured. "Kacey awake?"
"He snores too loud," Kacey informed her before stretching, the movement obvious from the little cranky noises she made.
"Yeah." Patting Anders on the leg, Kara got to her feet and held a hand out for the kid. "C'mon, let's get us some grub." And the head. Kid was probably bursting.
That set the pattern for the next week. Kara and Kacey snuck around together getting food, blankets, and whatever extras they could think of while Sam held down their bit of corridor. It wasn't a bonding activity, Kara firmly told herself as she ducked down before a cadre of soldiers jogged past their position. It was recon, and teaching the kid how to survive on a battlestar. But she couldn't deny she liked the kid, not after spending breathless minutes worried that the marine just down the hall would see the short human sneaking past him.
Kacey had guts, and Kara admired that in anyone. Just because she was too short and young to have been drafted into the marines didn't mean she wouldn't get there eventually.
While the week passed, they also tried to work out their plan. Kara wanted to just blow everything up, but Sam was more worried about the people of Kobol and on the battlestar surviving such an eventuality. He also wanted to make sure that the Company hadn't already managed to get eggs to Kobol without anyone knowing.
That was an unpleasant thought, and Kara turned it around from all angles before grudgingly agreeing that it might be possible.
It made planning harder, and Kara had to tap into the computer systems as stealthily as she could (really, Maggie should have been doing it), so that they could monitor Robert's transmissions to determine whether he was contacting someone on the surface or not. As far as she could tell, while he was in contact with Kobol, their conversations had to do with the installations of the eggs he was bringing, and not ones which were already in situ.
Planet-fall was less than a day away when Kara found herself creeping into crew quarters while Kacey watched from the door. Agathon had the bunk closest to the hatch, he'd always liked getting the extra few seconds of kip-time that allowed him. Kneeling next to him, she poked a finger in his shoulder. "At ease, Lieutenant," she growled as he half-woke.
Her voice did the rest, and he opened his eyes and turned his head, blinking.
"Need you to get Maggie to hack Robert's systems--stall getting those eggs delivered. That's all." She murmured the words and turned to go.
Agathon's hand grabbed her shoulder, "Wait, Captain," his voice was just as soft. "Cain's people know someone else is on-board. Not that it's you, but they run a tight ship, and supplies keep disappearing."
"Shit." Kara glanced over her shoulder at Kacey's waiting form, then shrugged. "Not much we can do now. Thanks, Karl. Now get your beauty sleep. You're gonna need it."
"Frak you, Captain," he grumbled, but there was a cheerfulness in his voice that Kara had missed.
She smacked his shoulder and went back to Kacey's side, letting her lead the way back to their little hidey-hole.
When they stepped through the hatch, Anders was packing things up, trying to make the place look less like people had been sleeping there. Kara wondered if he were psychic or just paranoid. He shot Kara a look, and she moved to help him while Kacey put her hands on her hips and made a disapproving noise.
"I have an idea," he murmured, as though they might be overheard.
Kara raised her eyebrows in mockery and shoved the last of the rations in the napsack. "Yeah?"
"Well. You said auxiliary control is around here. Why don't we just use it?"
The idea was ludicrous--too many people might come through there, it was exactly where Cain might expect saboteurs to go. Kara opened her mouth to point this out, then closed it, frowning. Aux control would also be highly defendable, it was constructed to be used when the main CIC went down or was invaded. Even better, it was a life capsule in the event that the battlestar went down. And because it was so obvious, Cain's people might not even bother with it. Whereas, they would be scouring maintenance walk-throughs soon.
"All right." She slung the sack over her shoulder. "Have they searched it yet?"
"Maybe. It's hard to tell from in here." He moved past her with the other bag, and opened the hatch for Kacey to slip out.
They kept silent for the several minutes it took to navigate through the corridors to auxiliary control. Kara used the Company's standard password to get them inside, and the door closed behind them.
-
"Spacious," Anders joked as he set his bag down and turned to make sure Kacey was settled.
The kid was climbing into one of the command chairs. Kara ignored her for the moment to get the systems on--she didn't want much, just low-level communications and to hear any alarms that might sound. The system didn't notice her intrusion for the moment, and she settled down to read through some of the recent communiques.
"Anything interesting?"
She shook her head and looked up at Anders. For just a moment, she thought about forgetting all of the trouble they were in and dragging him down for a kiss. Then she shoved the thought away and turned back to the monitor. "Nothing much. Just some traffic about an upsurge in stomach pains--sounds like some of the newer recruits aren't used to rations yet."
"What sort of stomach pains?"
"The kind that lead to puke?"
Anders grabbed her shoulder and leaned down to read the text himself. "Look," he pointed, "They report that all three of the marines had expanded appetites immediately after their initial complaints."
"Yeah. Sometimes happens." Kara reached forward to scroll to the next message and he stopped her.
"I think there's been a containment problem. Or maybe they hatched early on purpose. I don't know."
"A--" She broke off in confusion, wanting to tell him the entire idea was stupid. But he'd been right before, and he'd faced the whole life-cycle of the bugs. She swallowed against the adrenaline that surged through her at the thought that there was already an infestation. "We can't let anyone leave Pegasus."
"Not until those marines are x-rayed," he agreed, relaxing now that she was following his line of reasoning.
"Cain will never believe us." The words made her straighten in the chair and she pushed his fingers out of her way as she began to use the keyboard to access deeper systems. Some of her old command codes seemed to work, and she worked her way through, sorting the directories until she found what she wanted. "You'd better get ready for them to try to get us out of here."
"What are you doing?"
Kara typed two more commands and then executed them with a decisive click. "Stranding us in space."
Over her words a siren blared, followed by the automated announcement. "Warning. Drive shut-down imminent. Warning. Drive shut-down imminent."
-
While Anders made sure the hatch was secure, Kara showed Kacey how to play with the atmospherics on the battlestar. Just in case, Kara reassured herself as she taught the kid the correct sequence to blow the airlocks and leave only the auxiliary control room with air. If there was no other way to stop the eggs from getting to Kobol, she would do it.
"Sounds like we've got company out there," Anders called to her.
Kara wished, not for the first time, that she'd gotten them weapons. A gun would go a long way to giving her some false confidence. She tried to grin at Kacey, then went to join the civilian at the hatch (Kara was trying to remind herself that she was a civilian herself now, but it wasn't really working). "The locking codes I used should keep 'em outside for a while. But they might try talking us out."
On cue, the speaker crackled. The automated announcement had been shut off once the engines were down, and now Cain's voice came through the speaker. She sounded a little angry. "To the people inside auxiliary control, we have you surrounded and cut off. Once my people are through the door, your chance for leniency will be gone."
"Doesn't beat around the bush, does she," muttered Anders.
"Never needed to," Reaching for the panel, Kara keyed in the comms and said calmly, "Cain, you've got an alien incursion in your battlestar. Three marines are shortly going to be dead, and three bugs are more than enough to take over this ship."
After all, she thought that being polite was supposed to get them somewhere. Cain might even believe her.
"Bullshit." Or not. "I don't know who you are yet, but I'll find out. And when I do, I'm afraid--"
Kara cut her off, "Three marines, Cain. Three gestating bugs. Might want to look into that cargo you're carrying so confidently. Then get back to me." She flipped the intercom off and sighed.
"Think she'll listen?"
"If she's any good at her job, she'll check--you can't let an allegation like that slide, not when you're a frakking admiral." Kara tried to look confident. "Besides, what can she do to us that's worse than where we are now?"
The look Anders gave her said that he had more than a few ideas to answer her question with. But he didn't suggest any of them as he moved away from the door to take one of the other chairs. "How long until they give up on talking to us?"
Smart man, she decided as she dropped into her vacated chair with a sigh. "No idea."
"You ever think this was all some ridiculous dream?" He was lounging in his chair, having worked his way around so that his leg was hooked on an arm, foot twitching back and forth while he thought. "That you'll wake up one morning, and you'll be back in your regular quarters?"
Kara shrugged. "Not really. I ache too much from sleeping on the floor to think it's just a dream."
"Ever the pragmatist," he said, and his voice was quiet as he continued, almost without seeming to think about it. "Sometimes, I want to wake up and find out that my daughter is still alive. That I didn't out-live her by fifty years."
"I'm sorry," she said, feeling that the words weren't really what he was looking for.
But they were all she had.
His foot kicked a little, then stopped. "How about you, Thrace? You got anyone you give a shit about that you keep leaving behind?"
"Nah. Mama would just as soon see me dead," she shrugged at the surprise in his face, "There's my squad, but after this, they might not want me alive anymore, either."
"Comrades in arms are fickle creatures."
"Somethin' like that." Not wanting to dwell on it, she stretched, watching the way his eyes watched her. Even in her shapeless shirt and pants, she knew she looked good. They'd been sleeping next to each other for almost a week, and he'd saved her life prior to that at least once. She'd returned the favor, but there was no point in keeping track. "So, Anders, we've got several hours to kill. What should we do with our time?"
He blinked at her, then glanced at Kacey.
Kara'd already checked on the kid herself (Kacey had dropped off into a nap), but she had to grin as she got out of her chair and moved over to his. With her hand on the back, she leaned down. He watched her with a wariness in his gaze that saddened her. "Thrace," he said, just before her mouth covered his, "This seems like a--"
Bad idea. It truly was, but she didn't care. If she was going to get arrested for saving lives, she might as well have some fun beforehand. And since there was nothing to shoot or blow up, she'd settle for kissing Sam Anders.
"Now's the time for objections," she murmured when she pulled back and nudged his legs so that she could climb onto the chair and his lap. It was a tight fit, but they managed not to dump her back onto the deck. She tilted her head, "I'm not hearin' any."
Anders'--Sam's--hands slid up her arms and his fingers stroked over her neck before he pulled her mouth to his again.
She gave herself up to the sensation of his lips, drinking them down greedily. Storing them up for later, when she'd be on her own again (after all, what was the delusion of survival if you didn't plan for after the death-defying situation?), letting her own hands work between them.
There was no way to have sex in this situation (Kara didn't like the idea of subjecting the kid to such an indignity, for one thing), but they could manage something close to it. Or just kissing. Kara was finding herself a fan of just kissing. Sam was good with his mouth, and she flushed at the thought of that mouth on other parts of her body. Her fingers tugged at his shirts until she could get them out of the way. Bare skin met the palm of her hand before she skimmed her hands up enough to give her space to play.
"Kara--" he gasped, when her fingers brushed beneath his waistband.
A throaty, pleased chuckle escaped her, and she kissed the side of his throat, teasing the skin until he grumbled and pulled her mouth back to his. "Problem, Sam?"
His hands left the safety of her shoulders and slid down her sides. She shivered a little in anticipation before he cupped her breasts through her shirt. It seemed like he was almost uninterested in skin to skin contact, but then he ducked and kissed her jaw and neck while his hands moved to her hips and urged her a little closer.
Kara hooked her hands over the back of the chair as he pulled her shirt and bra up out of his way. Her nails dug into the padding of the chair as his mouth began teasing the skin of her breasts.
She'd been right about his mouth being talented, and she had to bite her lip to keep silent.
"We should maybe stop," she suggested, when she could think enough to speak without squeaking or moaning. His mouth brushed against one of her nipples and she had to suck in a breath against the sound that wanted to emerge. She really hated herself for even opening her mouth on the words.
"Not like we have anything better to do," Sam pointed out, though his hands rested quietly against her hips.
If she slid off his lap, he wouldn't stop her, and she felt a sense of disappointment in her gut before reminding herself that it was the smart thing to do. Still, if they were going to die soon (very possible), she felt a stubborn need to go out on a high note.
She sucked in another breath and then released it, relaxing against him. "I think this is a very bad idea," she admitted in a whisper, "But not because of who you are."
"Don't frak civvies, Kara Thrace?"
A snort escaped her, and she kissed the side of his mouth, "Wouldn't be here if I didn't. But I don't want to complicate things. Not now."
"So don't. But..." his fingers caressed her sides, drifting up to her breasts again. Then he slowly pulled her bra back down, grinning when she giggled over his ineptness in settling it properly. Her shirt was next, smoothed down, but not tucked in. Then he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again. "After this is all over, Captain Kara Thrace..."
Kara kissed him fiercely, feeling the heat that was between them and wishing that she didn't care about the complication of sex to follow-through now. Usually, sex was a fast, pointless thing soon forgotten afterwards. She wanted to remember every inch of Sam Anders. "When this is all over, you might wish you'd run fast."
"Doubt it."
They kissed one last time, then Kara climbed out of his lap. Not without a little disappointment, but if they didn't survive this, maybe she could swing the same afterlife with him.
-
Kara had gone back to monitoring the ship, but there hadn't been any further contact from Cain. That was a little odd, but she wasn't going to worry too much about it until something else happened. The first thing she was expecting was someone cutting through the hatch, but there were no sounds outside the door that indicated that was going on.
The something else happened an hour after their aborted make-out session.
A loud boom shook the deck, and Kara grabbed for the keyboard before it could go flying. She quickly pulled up the relevant data, and swore. "Something just took out part of the main drive unit. What the frak?"
As if in answer, the intercom crackled to life. "Captain? Captain, it's Maggie. You were right--" the lieutenant broke off in a curse, and Kara could hear the sound of gunfire before she came back, "But there were more infestations than you said. We've lost half the crew to bugs--"
"Where's Cain?" Kara demanded, exchanging a look with Sam. There was no triumph in being right.
"She's locked herself in CIC, she's afraid letting anyone else in will jeopardize the ship."
Kara felt the adrenaline kick in, and straightened in her chair. "What the frak was that explosion, Maggie?"
There was silence, and Kara was sure Maggie wasn't going to answer. When she replied, her voice sounded odd. "Some idiots thought of repeating your little trick from the asteroid, ma'am. Didn't get all the bugs, though."
"Who was it?" Kara demanded, feeling that little coldness in her gut that told her it was one of her people.
"Agathon and Valerii."
Kara swore viciously, and wanted to hit something. Those jackasses! But there was no time to think about their loss. Not yet. She hit the button and snapped, "Can you get down to aux conn with weaponry, Maggie?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sam was standing behind her, watching the schematics on the screen as they scrolled through updates.
"We're already on our way down, Captain--but I'm not sure we'll make it." Someone else in Maggie's vicinity swore, and then the connection was lost.
"I trust Maggie," Kara snapped, getting out of the chair and starting to search the room for anything they could use as a weapon. She didn't trust Cain worth a damn, but Maggie? Yeah, she trusted Maggie. She also trusted the bugs to find them eventually, and she wanted a way to keep them at bay.
That seemed to be enough for Sam, and he joined in the search.
-
Kacey woke up while they were checking over the minor assortment of weapons they'd found, and sat in her hair, munching a ration bar and looking bored. Sam had made a pleased noise over the welding torch and was adjusting it for offensive use while Kara checked over the flare guns and made a note of how many she'd be able to attach to her belt. They'd also turned up an emergency pistol with ammunition, but it wasn't a large enough caliber to be very useful. Still, she loaded it and stowed the extra ammo in her pockets.
"Bugs?" Kacey asked, looking between them.
"Yep." Handing over a flare gun, Kara asked, "Know how to use this?"
Kid was colony-bred, she probably knew how to use one in her sleep. The scornful look she gave Kara confirmed it, and the flare gun disappeared somewhere about Kacey's person. Kara handed her several ration bars. "If it all goes to shit, you know what to do, kid?"
For a moment, Kacey stared up at her. Then she gave a short nod and hopped off the chair to go over to Anders, who absently scooped her up and set her on his lap while he worked.
Checking the system, Kara found that the drive system was back online. She frowned at that, and checked a bit deeper. While her shut-down had worked, someone had bypassed it. The explosion hadn't done enough damage--the drive was moving them slowly to their original destination: Kobol. A thought occurred to her, and she looked over at Anders. "Hey, Anders. That ship you and your crew found, did it crash-land?"
"Looked like it had, why?"
"Oh, nothing."
He frowned at her airy answer, but went back to turning the blow-torch into a flamethrower. Kara approved of a man who could use his hands like that, and she thought it was a great pity that they might both die soon.
Another check of the systems turned up a link to CIC, and she tapped in a query, wondering it Cain would answer.
The cursor blinked silently for several seconds in the window before the entire connection snapped closed. Well. That was one way of getting an answer.
A knock sounded on the hatch and Kara was out of her seat and moving towards the door almost immediately. She keyed in the intercom and waited for the other person to make a demand that they leave. If this whole thing was one huge bluff, now would be the time for it to start breaking down.
"Captain? It's clear for the moment." Maggie sounded tired.
With one hand on the flare gun, Kara keyed in the sequence that would unlock the hatch and slowly pulled it open. Maggie was alone, leaning against the wall and looking as though she'd been dragged backwards through a cross-fire. Behind her in the corridor were flickering lights, but no sign of movement. "Get in here."
Not arguing, Maggie slipped through the open hatch and Kara sealed it back up.
"How many are we down?" Kara asked, as she shoved Maggie into the nearest chair before the lieutenant fell over on her ass. She smelled of blood and gun powder, and Kara didn't like that the combination came while she didn't have the ammunition and supplies to take out the problem.
"Don't know." Rubbing her hands over her face, Maggie swore several times, then looked up at Kara. "There was an entire complement of marines on this voyage, Captain. Do you know how many died when those things hatched? It was horrible."
"I can guess." But her words weren't any comfort, and Kara knew it. Maggie had seen something worse than the reactor and its environs, and Kara bet that it would haunt her dreams for years to come if they made it out alive. She made a few calculations, based on the number of marines there should have been, and looked over at Sam, with his makeshift flamethrower. "There is no way this will work. There have to be hundreds of the things out there."
"No shit," Maggie muttered, but she looked like she was recovering.
"We have another problem, though. If Pegasus reaches Kobol and crashes, the entire planet could become infested."
Maggie stared at her, then swore again, "Even with half the drive gone?"
"She's a new ship, she has backups for her backups and redundancies through every system. It might take her longer, but she'll limp into atmosphere in just under twenty-four hours." From there, Pegasus would tumble and fall, eventually hitting the planet's surface hard enough to kill anyone left on board. But not the bugs. Kara had a feeling the bugs would survive. If not all of them, then enough.
That was their time limit, Kara thought as the others digested what she was saying. Just under one day, and they would be either dead or dead, or in some miraculous manner, alive. She wasn't sure how to manage the latter. She didn't trust that the bugs would be as easily dealt with on the battlestar. There were too many places for them to hide, and from what she'd heard from Sam, and seen from the Company's failed experiments, one bug was all it took to continue the species.
She wondered, suddenly, if there had been eggs in Sam's capsule. If that's how they'd started their experiments. He might not even have known, and it would be like the Company to pull shit like that.
"Then we're frakked either way." Maggie slumped into the chair.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Eat something while you're resting, soldier," ordered Kara before she moved back to her own station and began calling up schematics of the ship. "Cain's still alive in CIC, by the way. I think she's the one who got the engines back online."
"She's Company, maybe they told her the truth about the cargo."
Kara glanced over her shoulder at Sam and fit his comment into what she knew of Cain. She shook her head. "I don't think so. She's a cold and driven woman, but I'd never consider her a fan of wasting human life."
"So she doesn't know what she's allowing to happen. Still doesn't help us," Maggie grumbled. She bit into the ration bar Kacey had handed her and made a face. "These things never taste of anything but fried shit. You got any alcohol around here to cut the taste, ma'am?"
"No. And you should probably stop calling me ma'am, Maggie."
The lieutenant shrugged. "That's what I keep telling myself, but it doesn't seem to help any."
"What happens if we blow all the locks?" Sam was fiddling with a spare piece of wiring.
"Not enough of them will get sucked into space, and a few might survive until they hit Kobol." It sounded like such an easy solution, but Kara could already see that it wouldn't work. It left too much to chance, and they had no atmo suits to walk the airless decks to make sure that any left-over eggs were destroyed.
There was another consideration: even if they managed to kill all of the bugs and got off Pegasus, the impact of something as large as a battlestar couldn't have good consequences on the planet. As much as Kara didn't give a frak about Kobol, allowing the Company to ruin them wasn't really on her agenda. Kara had seen projections before, during training. It was the reason battlestars were equipped with self-destruct mechanisms: to prevent such an occurrence.
Which meant they had to get Cain on their side, if possible. Kara looked at Kacey, who was sitting with her hands patiently folded while she waited for the adults to do something intelligent. "We need to set the self-destruct."
Saying it aloud felt horribly final, but Anders was nodding. Maggie just looked exhausted. "But it won't work without the command codes, or I'd set it from here."
"Can we change the direction the ship is flying in?" Anders wasn't stupid, but his solution wasn't any good, either.
With a shake of her head, Kara glanced at the terminal she'd been using, running through the possibilities even though she already knew the answer. "You can only alter the course if CIC is offline."
Maggie looked at Kara, then laughed softly. "Cain would never let us get that far through the system, and you know it."
"Will she believe you, Maggie?"
"No. Frak no. I think she's assuming we're all dead and damn the torpedos and all that bullshit." The lieutenant stood and winced. "I'm going to feel the last day for weeks. Shit, Captain, how the hell are we getting out of this?"
Kara stood as well and gathered her gear. "We're going to disable the engines and blow this tub before it endangers a civilian populace."
And she hoped it would be just that easy, though she highly doubted it.
-
They left Kacey in the auxiliary control room, with the promise that they'd be back. Kara didn't know if they'd be able to keep it, and the kid looked like she didn't believe they would. But promises were things to live for, and Anders at least would probably try to make it back. Then they headed back into the chaos of the mostly-deserted battlestar.
It was eerie, with the lights flickering intermittently and the occasional skittering noise as bugs chased each other and went about their own business.
Maggie still had ammunition for her gun, so she took point with Sam at the rear. His jury-rigged flamethrower got use on the second level down from aux control, and Kara wished the stench of burnt bug wasn't so awful. At least it didn't smell like barbecue, though.
If Cain knew where they were, or what they planned, she didn't send anyone down to stop them. Then again, the admiral probably had no one left to send, if Maggie was right.
"There's a whole infestation up ahead," Maggie hissed suddenly, freezing in place. "I had to detour around it earlier."
"Maybe they've moved on for coffee?" The look Maggie shot over her shoulder told Kara that her levity was ill-timed. She smiled sweetly, then added, "I'll go first. You two get ready to run for the corridor we just passed in case they're still there."
Without waiting for either to object, Kara walked to the corner and slowly peered around the edge. The flickering emergency lights showed her an empty corridor, though she could see a cluster of bugs near the end of it. This was the most direct route down to the engines, and she had no interest in taking her time. They might have nearly a day to stop the ship crashing into Kobol, but she would rather it was sooner than later. Kara liked having a margin for error.
Readying the flare pistol, she swung around the corner with a confidence she didn't feel.
The bugs at the end of the corridor didn't move. Neither did the human corpse sprawled underneath them. Kara could see they were eating it and her stomach turned, but she didn't have time to be sick. She didn't recognize the marine, and for that, she was grateful. "Anders," she murmured softly, "I want you to burn them."
He came past her and aimed at the target. Within seconds, corpse and bugs were in flames. The bugs reared up and tried to escape and Maggie shot them, splattering their remains on the walls and floor.
Coughing on the oily smoke, Kara hurried past the corpse, wincing at the heat. She slipped and almost fell on the acid eating into the floor grating, but Anders grabbed the back of her shirt and she stayed on her feet. She didn't bother thanking him as she moved on.
They had four more levels to cover, and then she had to figure out how to blow up the ship.
Pegasus had backups and redundancies precisely so the ship didn't randomly blow up, and Kara was proposing to bypass all of them and make it go boom (or, in the depths of space, quietly flicker into a billion pieces of flame and metal). The idea was easier said than done, and she wasn't sure she could even manage it. First, she had to see how much of the drive systems Agathon and Valerii had damaged earlier. It was even possible they'd done enough to make it easier.
She wished for as much damage as possible, and then a prime steak and a cold beer while she was at it.
"We've got company!" Maggie shouted, then fired, her first shot exploding the bug in the lead, but there were more behind it. More than there should have been, Kara was certain, though that was probably more wishful thinking. "I don't think we can get past them here--"
The flare gun shot off and smacked into the belly of one of the bugs as it reared up, preparing to grab at Maggie. Kara hooked her fingers in Maggie's belt and yanked her out of the way as the flare went off. The bug went over backwards with a shriek, and another skittered forward to take its place, lunging at Maggie's leg. There was no time for tactics--Sam barely managed to cover enough of a retreat for them and they ran.
Running sent a burst of adrenaline through Kara, and she tore past the other two and ran for the nearest set of stairs. "Down," she gasped, flinging herself that direction and taking the steps two at a time.
Not all battlestars were the same, but they all held the same general design.
Halfway down the next set of stairs, Kara yanked open a wall panel to find a deserted maintenance walkway. "Here."
"Ma'am--"
But she didn't wait for Maggie to take point and plunged ahead into the darkened walkway. Sam was right behind her and Maggie closed the panel, cutting the bugs off from their escape. Though Kara doubted it would be long before the things found the maintenance walkways.
"Slow down--"
Kara shot a glance over her shoulder to find Maggie limping, Anders holding her up on one side. She slowed down and faced forward again. "Bug bite?"
"Yeah."
Shit. Kara hoped that Anders wasn't right about their bite transferring eggs or larva or something like that. Biology had never been her strong suit.
"We'll deal with it later."
Fear might have flashed in Maggie's eyes, but she didn't show it.
They were silent again as they hurried though the maintenance area. Kara stopped a few times to figure out their progress. It was taking them longer to get down to the engines, but at least there weren't bugs again--Kara tried not to add 'yet' to her thoughts anytime she considered their predicament. The maintenance walkways were smaller than normal corridors, and the bugs would have an easier time over-whelming them.
When she came to the end of the walkway, she put her ear to the panel and listened. There wasn't much to hear beyond the metal, and she drew in a breath, readied another flare gun and popped the panel out.
The light in the corridor was brighter, and she could see both ways easily. Nothing moved. Looking back over her shoulder, she gestured to the other two and then stepped out. With the better lighting, she could see the blood on Maggie's leg. The pants leg was slashed, blood soaking it and leaving a trail.
"Frak--wait--" Kara dropped to one knee and pointed at Sam, "Keep watch, we can't leave a trail." Ruthlessly, she tore the Maggie's pants open further, gaging the size and length of the injury. Then she pulled her shirt off and used her knife to rip it into strips. It was a little colder in just her tank top, but she'd manage. She bound the strips around Maggie's leg, tying them tightly before looping the extra strips through her belt and getting back to her feet. "Now move."
Not waiting, Kara walked on towards their goal. There was a hesitation, and Maggie cursed, but they followed her.
-
One more long corridor, and they'd be at the engines. Kara was moving slower, watching the shadows and listening hard. They'd already passed walls coated in bug juice, though there hadn't been any carapaces embedded in it yet. She was a little grateful for that.
Sound up ahead made her stop, and she gestured for Sam and Maggie to wait and slowly moved to the corner. It was hard to tell what the noise was--not quite footsteps, not quite the skittering noise of running bugs. Taking a deep breath, Kara leaned around the corner and took a glance at what they were facing. She yanked her head back a second later, just managing not to get it shot off.
"Trigger happy asshole," she growled.
From around the corner came several curses and then the nigh-unbelievable sight of Karl Agathon, his arm over Sharon Valerii's shoulder. The idiot looked half-dead, and Sharon didn't look much better.
"About time you got here, Captain," Valerii snapped, lugging Agathon a few more feet, then propping him against the wall.
"Shiiit, you two are supposed to dead," called Maggie, her tone disbelieving.
Valerii gave her the finger, then looked at Kara. "What's the plan, ma'am?"
It was too much to hope they'd have time to talk. Kara heard the sound the same time as Valerii did, and they both turned and opened fire as two bugs skittered around the corner. They died, but Kara could hear the sound of more. "Maintenance hatch, now!"
They managed to get the hatch open and everyone inside barely in time--Kara slammed a bug in the hatch as it closed, and swore as the acid it contained began eating holes in the door. "Go left at the junction," she called to Sam, who was leading now. Then she fired a flare at the bug struggling to get through the rapidly-expanding hole in the hatch and backed away, following the others.
Maintenance was even worse in this hatchway, and Kara could smell the distinct aroma of burning plastic. She wondered just how much of the systems had been wrecked by Valerii and Agathon. Not enough, if the battlestar was still moving.
"Captain, we're at a dead end."
"I know." She reached the corner herself and found the keypad, quickly typing in the code to bring down the blast shield there. It slammed into place and she turned and worked her way through the others to where Maggie and Anders were glaring at the blank wall. "Everyone get back."
Passing her fingers over the wall, she found the near-seamless joints. It would be great to have Agathon's welding kit, but they were shit out of luck, here, so she used the only other method she had: a line of explosive jelly applied in a thin layer. Then she stepped back, raised the last flare gun and fired. The jelly ignited, searing through the welds and the panel popped out of the wall and fell out onto the deck beyond.
Kara ran forward and jumped through the still-smoking gap. There weren't any bugs in her immediate vicinity, and she waved the others out after her. There wasn't any blast-door to bring down after them, so she hurried them along until she found the right corridor that would lead to the engine control area.
"Cain's locked everything out," Valerii warned her as they stepped into the room.
A skittering sound could be heard coming towards them, but Kara ignored it for the moment, trusting that the others would watch her back while she did her work. "I know. Maggie, will this work?"
"Think so."
Better than nothing, especially coming from her favorite explosives expert. Kara shot her a wild grin and then began finding the right panel for what she needed to do. There, she moved and used her knife to unscrew the panel, yanking it off and leaving the wires underneath exposed.
The battlestar had backups and backups and redundancies galore. She isolated each and every one of them, ripping through the circuits with brute force rather than finesse and leaving several sparking sections of the control unit behind before she was done. Then she grabbed her radio and keyed it on, "Thrace to the kid, do you copy? Over."
Static crackled and then Kacey's voice came back. "I'm here, over."
"Do it, kid. Over and out." Kara clicked off before Kacey could ask when they'd be back. Wouldn't do to worry her.
"I've got movement, Captain."
"Two more minutes, Lieutenant." One hand on the unblemished panel in front of her, Kara felt the shift in the ship's movement, as Kacey keyed in the order to fire the drives on full. With one of the modules out, there was no way the ship would manage it, and with the backup systems down, it wouldn't cut out.
Counting to fifty, Kara unscrewed the last panel and pulled it off. She found the wires she needed quickly and cut them, then put the panel back on as the last ten seconds of her two minutes echoed in her brain.
Someone fired--Valerii, she thought, intent on keying in a specific sequence and destination into the drives.
Grabbing her useless flare gun, Kara flipped two switches and then broke them off with the butt of the gun. "We're done here, let's go, people."
Turning, she found chaos in front of her. Bugs converging from everywhere, Sam struggling under Maggie's weight and the flamethrower--so she jumped forward and took his place, leaving him to clear a path for them all. Kara was last, Maggie almost dead-weight against her shoulder, and she worried about the woman's shallow breathing. Blood-loss, she prayed that it was blood-loss to gods that had deserted them on that damned asteroid.
"No maintenance hatches yet--" she shoved at Agathon, getting him moving faster, though Valerii was beginning to look strained with hauling him along. "Turn left, Sam!"
One corridor, two, and the bugs were boiling around a junction ahead of them. Anders dove through the crossing, then turned back, flamethrower igniting the oncoming wave before he rejoined them, almost skipping to get around Kara and Maggie.
"Frak, frak, frak," the monotonous cursing from Maggie was enough to make Kara consider dumping her to the ground, but since it seemed to keep her moving on her one good foot, Kara didn't see the point in complaining. Yet.
"Should leave the wounded," Agathon suddenly said, and Valerii snarled something unidentifiable.
They burst into one of the corridors they'd been in prior to the engine room, and Anders turned back to check on them before hurrying forward in a reverse of their outward journey from auxiliary control. She was glad someone remembered the way.
Kara wanted to swear, as she felt her internal clocking ticking down the minutes. Too many levels between auxiliary control and where they were, too slow, too many bugs to dodge around--the things sometimes came out of the damned walls at them, like some primeval terror brought to life in three-dimensions.
Somewhere along the way, Maggie ran out of ammunition, and Kara pulled out the tiny revolver she'd found and used it, though it didn't make much of a dent in their enemy.
"Gotta a nice pea-shooter there, Captain," Maggie suggested, breathless and sagging.
"Don't I frakking know it."
Anders slammed open a maintenance hatch and then looked back at Kara, "How much time?"
"Just keep moving!"
There was no point in being honest. If they made it, well, they would have made it.
One more level, and Maggie and Agathon made the stairs difficult. Kara refused to leave either of them behind, cursing them both for being bullheaded assholes who were too much frakking trouble. The words didn't really spur any of them on faster, but they made her feel better.
Looking back over his shoulder, Anders swore back at her, then yanked open the next hatch with more force then he should have needed. The corridor was empty, and he dragged Agathon out and into it, shoving the flamethrower at Valerii. "Go!"
"But--" then Valerii looked back down the stairs and her eyes widened.
Kara swore again and refused to look back. She had four more steps to go to get Maggie out of there, and it didn't matter what anyone else had seen, she was working as hard and as fast as she could.
On the last step, something wrapped around her leg and pulled. She shoved Maggie forwards and then fell, catching herself on her hands and knees painfully and turning just enough to kick out at whatever had hold of her. She nearly froze when she caught sight of the thing looming over her.
If she'd ever imagined a queen bug, it would have been only a little bigger than the others. Maybe twice or three times as big. Nothing like the giant, monstrous body that hovered over her, filling up the entire stairwell, its pincers clacking and chittering. Kara had time to really get a good look at the thing--probably, if she'd been into insects, she would have found it wonderful and beautiful. Probably she would have described it with raptures to other etymologists. But as it was, Kara was fighting for her life against a gigantic thing that had shot sticky webbing around her legs and was inexorably pulling her closer.
Fire shot out over her head, sending the thing rearing backwards and Maggie's hands grabbed the straps of Kara's tanks and bra, yanking her upwards.
Kara scrambled for all she was worth, cursing as the webbing nearly pulled her back into the thing's grip.
Flaming the thing again, Valerii whooped in glee before she curved the nozzle down to blast the stuff webbing between the creature and Kara's legs.
With nothing clinging to her legs, Kara surged upwards, knocking Maggie out into the corridor. Valerii followed them with one last triumphant rain of fire and Sam slammed the hatch closed.
"No time to breathe--" Kara shoved herself to her feet, got her shoulder under Maggie's and pointed Valerii towards the hatch to auxiliary control. "Move, people!"
Anders reached the hatch first and shouted for Kacey to open up.
It seemed to take an agonizingly long time for the door to move, and when it did, Kara shoved and pushed until they were inside, then whirled around and slammed the hatch closed. "Kacey, last sequence of numbers, now."
There was a separate panel next to the hatch and Kara ripped it open, pulling the lever inside and grabbing onto the frame-work of the doorway as the auxiliary control room was ejected from Pegasus just as the ship tried to execute a jump.
Even with the distance provided, they could all feel a sickening lurch in their stomachs for a second as the great battlestar's engines, over-taxed and pushed to their limits tried to do as they were told. And then failed.
"Grab onto something, this might be a bumpy ride."
Arms wrapped around Kara from behind and then Anders was pulling her down to the deck as the others complied in a similar fashion. Kacey was fine, already strapped in, Kara had time to notice before the tiny capsule began to rock and roll as the battlestar it had just left exploded in a rather spectacular fashion.
-
"Company ain't never gonna forgive you."
It wasn't the first time Agathon had made the observation, and Kara doubted it would be the last time. He and Maggie were 'convalescing' in two chairs apiece, their wounds bandaged and seen to. Maggie might have permanent muscle damage to her lower leg, but there were no sign of infestation. Agathon probably wouldn't get the full use of his arm back, but he was in good spirits. Kara had a few burns on her hands, Anders had damage to his shoulder no one could remember him receiving, and Valerii was just bruised up good.
The control module they'd jettisoned in was homing in on Kobol as the nearest inhabited planet, but it would be another three days before they reached it.
Kara and Maggie had made a thorough search of the surviving Pegasus data records, but there wasn't much about the secret experiments the Company had been conducting. Kara had always wondered just how good they were at covering their tracks, and now she knew. But they had a start on something, at least.
"We'll all be hunted." That wasn't the first time Maggie had said those words, either.
"Always wanted to settle down one day." Valerii hadn't ever expressed any such sentiment before, but she shrugged at the look Kara gave her. "Can't all want to die in a fire-fight, Captain."
"Gonna have to get used to callin' her Kara."
With a groan, Kara buried her head in her hands. "I am not settling down. Neither are the rest of you." She didn't object to being called Kara. No point, really.
"Then what are we going to do, Kara?" Leaning against Valerii's chair, Anders looked oddly smug about something.
"I don't know yet."
Which wasn't true. It seemed obvious that they'd just have to buy themselves a ship of their own and start hunting up evidence about the Company, and keeping the bugs from taking over the galaxy. Maybe they'd need to recruit some help eventually. They still had three days to work it out. But Kara had a feeling that her idea might appeal to the rest of them. Even the kid, though she didn't seem to care where she went, as long as Anders was there. Kara was beginning to get used to having her around (and if she thought about it, she actually respected the kid and appreciated her quick wits).
'Sides, she and Anders still had a date for hot sex. It was pity there weren't any really private places on the tiny little escape capsule.
"But you got an idea," Maggie drawled, a knowing grin on her face.
Kara looked around at them, gaging their faces, and then slowly nodded. "Yes. I've got an idea. You're not gonna like it."
-f-
Kara felt it when Pegasus left dock, sliding out of the cradle and into the freedom of space. For a moment, the entire battlestar seemed to shake itself like a dog after a bath. Then it settled and began coasting into position for the first of the four jumps that would take it out to Kobol.
Without the jump-drives, the crew would have all been in cryo-sleep for the duration. But with the new technology, the journey would only take a little over a week. That meant they would have to be on their guard for anyone slipping into the maintenance areas, though in Kara's experience, most crews stayed away from the auxiliary areas during a regular voyage. They weren't expecting trouble until Kobol.
If she'd had time to plan, she would have brought a bedroll and rations. As it was, she found herself shifting closer to Anders for the heat as much as for the reassurance that she wasn't alone in the dark.
She never used to worry about the dark, but in the months since the asteroid, she'd had nightmares about the reactor and its environs. Dead colonists watched her accusingly from the dark as she left them to die. Awake, she knew that there had been nothing she could do, but it was hard to convince herself of that as she slept.
Eventually, she checked the time and nudged Anders awake. "I'm going to scrounge us some rations," she murmured. "Kacey awake?"
"He snores too loud," Kacey informed her before stretching, the movement obvious from the little cranky noises she made.
"Yeah." Patting Anders on the leg, Kara got to her feet and held a hand out for the kid. "C'mon, let's get us some grub." And the head. Kid was probably bursting.
That set the pattern for the next week. Kara and Kacey snuck around together getting food, blankets, and whatever extras they could think of while Sam held down their bit of corridor. It wasn't a bonding activity, Kara firmly told herself as she ducked down before a cadre of soldiers jogged past their position. It was recon, and teaching the kid how to survive on a battlestar. But she couldn't deny she liked the kid, not after spending breathless minutes worried that the marine just down the hall would see the short human sneaking past him.
Kacey had guts, and Kara admired that in anyone. Just because she was too short and young to have been drafted into the marines didn't mean she wouldn't get there eventually.
While the week passed, they also tried to work out their plan. Kara wanted to just blow everything up, but Sam was more worried about the people of Kobol and on the battlestar surviving such an eventuality. He also wanted to make sure that the Company hadn't already managed to get eggs to Kobol without anyone knowing.
That was an unpleasant thought, and Kara turned it around from all angles before grudgingly agreeing that it might be possible.
It made planning harder, and Kara had to tap into the computer systems as stealthily as she could (really, Maggie should have been doing it), so that they could monitor Robert's transmissions to determine whether he was contacting someone on the surface or not. As far as she could tell, while he was in contact with Kobol, their conversations had to do with the installations of the eggs he was bringing, and not ones which were already in situ.
Planet-fall was less than a day away when Kara found herself creeping into crew quarters while Kacey watched from the door. Agathon had the bunk closest to the hatch, he'd always liked getting the extra few seconds of kip-time that allowed him. Kneeling next to him, she poked a finger in his shoulder. "At ease, Lieutenant," she growled as he half-woke.
Her voice did the rest, and he opened his eyes and turned his head, blinking.
"Need you to get Maggie to hack Robert's systems--stall getting those eggs delivered. That's all." She murmured the words and turned to go.
Agathon's hand grabbed her shoulder, "Wait, Captain," his voice was just as soft. "Cain's people know someone else is on-board. Not that it's you, but they run a tight ship, and supplies keep disappearing."
"Shit." Kara glanced over her shoulder at Kacey's waiting form, then shrugged. "Not much we can do now. Thanks, Karl. Now get your beauty sleep. You're gonna need it."
"Frak you, Captain," he grumbled, but there was a cheerfulness in his voice that Kara had missed.
She smacked his shoulder and went back to Kacey's side, letting her lead the way back to their little hidey-hole.
When they stepped through the hatch, Anders was packing things up, trying to make the place look less like people had been sleeping there. Kara wondered if he were psychic or just paranoid. He shot Kara a look, and she moved to help him while Kacey put her hands on her hips and made a disapproving noise.
"I have an idea," he murmured, as though they might be overheard.
Kara raised her eyebrows in mockery and shoved the last of the rations in the napsack. "Yeah?"
"Well. You said auxiliary control is around here. Why don't we just use it?"
The idea was ludicrous--too many people might come through there, it was exactly where Cain might expect saboteurs to go. Kara opened her mouth to point this out, then closed it, frowning. Aux control would also be highly defendable, it was constructed to be used when the main CIC went down or was invaded. Even better, it was a life capsule in the event that the battlestar went down. And because it was so obvious, Cain's people might not even bother with it. Whereas, they would be scouring maintenance walk-throughs soon.
"All right." She slung the sack over her shoulder. "Have they searched it yet?"
"Maybe. It's hard to tell from in here." He moved past her with the other bag, and opened the hatch for Kacey to slip out.
They kept silent for the several minutes it took to navigate through the corridors to auxiliary control. Kara used the Company's standard password to get them inside, and the door closed behind them.
-
"Spacious," Anders joked as he set his bag down and turned to make sure Kacey was settled.
The kid was climbing into one of the command chairs. Kara ignored her for the moment to get the systems on--she didn't want much, just low-level communications and to hear any alarms that might sound. The system didn't notice her intrusion for the moment, and she settled down to read through some of the recent communiques.
"Anything interesting?"
She shook her head and looked up at Anders. For just a moment, she thought about forgetting all of the trouble they were in and dragging him down for a kiss. Then she shoved the thought away and turned back to the monitor. "Nothing much. Just some traffic about an upsurge in stomach pains--sounds like some of the newer recruits aren't used to rations yet."
"What sort of stomach pains?"
"The kind that lead to puke?"
Anders grabbed her shoulder and leaned down to read the text himself. "Look," he pointed, "They report that all three of the marines had expanded appetites immediately after their initial complaints."
"Yeah. Sometimes happens." Kara reached forward to scroll to the next message and he stopped her.
"I think there's been a containment problem. Or maybe they hatched early on purpose. I don't know."
"A--" She broke off in confusion, wanting to tell him the entire idea was stupid. But he'd been right before, and he'd faced the whole life-cycle of the bugs. She swallowed against the adrenaline that surged through her at the thought that there was already an infestation. "We can't let anyone leave Pegasus."
"Not until those marines are x-rayed," he agreed, relaxing now that she was following his line of reasoning.
"Cain will never believe us." The words made her straighten in the chair and she pushed his fingers out of her way as she began to use the keyboard to access deeper systems. Some of her old command codes seemed to work, and she worked her way through, sorting the directories until she found what she wanted. "You'd better get ready for them to try to get us out of here."
"What are you doing?"
Kara typed two more commands and then executed them with a decisive click. "Stranding us in space."
Over her words a siren blared, followed by the automated announcement. "Warning. Drive shut-down imminent. Warning. Drive shut-down imminent."
-
While Anders made sure the hatch was secure, Kara showed Kacey how to play with the atmospherics on the battlestar. Just in case, Kara reassured herself as she taught the kid the correct sequence to blow the airlocks and leave only the auxiliary control room with air. If there was no other way to stop the eggs from getting to Kobol, she would do it.
"Sounds like we've got company out there," Anders called to her.
Kara wished, not for the first time, that she'd gotten them weapons. A gun would go a long way to giving her some false confidence. She tried to grin at Kacey, then went to join the civilian at the hatch (Kara was trying to remind herself that she was a civilian herself now, but it wasn't really working). "The locking codes I used should keep 'em outside for a while. But they might try talking us out."
On cue, the speaker crackled. The automated announcement had been shut off once the engines were down, and now Cain's voice came through the speaker. She sounded a little angry. "To the people inside auxiliary control, we have you surrounded and cut off. Once my people are through the door, your chance for leniency will be gone."
"Doesn't beat around the bush, does she," muttered Anders.
"Never needed to," Reaching for the panel, Kara keyed in the comms and said calmly, "Cain, you've got an alien incursion in your battlestar. Three marines are shortly going to be dead, and three bugs are more than enough to take over this ship."
After all, she thought that being polite was supposed to get them somewhere. Cain might even believe her.
"Bullshit." Or not. "I don't know who you are yet, but I'll find out. And when I do, I'm afraid--"
Kara cut her off, "Three marines, Cain. Three gestating bugs. Might want to look into that cargo you're carrying so confidently. Then get back to me." She flipped the intercom off and sighed.
"Think she'll listen?"
"If she's any good at her job, she'll check--you can't let an allegation like that slide, not when you're a frakking admiral." Kara tried to look confident. "Besides, what can she do to us that's worse than where we are now?"
The look Anders gave her said that he had more than a few ideas to answer her question with. But he didn't suggest any of them as he moved away from the door to take one of the other chairs. "How long until they give up on talking to us?"
Smart man, she decided as she dropped into her vacated chair with a sigh. "No idea."
"You ever think this was all some ridiculous dream?" He was lounging in his chair, having worked his way around so that his leg was hooked on an arm, foot twitching back and forth while he thought. "That you'll wake up one morning, and you'll be back in your regular quarters?"
Kara shrugged. "Not really. I ache too much from sleeping on the floor to think it's just a dream."
"Ever the pragmatist," he said, and his voice was quiet as he continued, almost without seeming to think about it. "Sometimes, I want to wake up and find out that my daughter is still alive. That I didn't out-live her by fifty years."
"I'm sorry," she said, feeling that the words weren't really what he was looking for.
But they were all she had.
His foot kicked a little, then stopped. "How about you, Thrace? You got anyone you give a shit about that you keep leaving behind?"
"Nah. Mama would just as soon see me dead," she shrugged at the surprise in his face, "There's my squad, but after this, they might not want me alive anymore, either."
"Comrades in arms are fickle creatures."
"Somethin' like that." Not wanting to dwell on it, she stretched, watching the way his eyes watched her. Even in her shapeless shirt and pants, she knew she looked good. They'd been sleeping next to each other for almost a week, and he'd saved her life prior to that at least once. She'd returned the favor, but there was no point in keeping track. "So, Anders, we've got several hours to kill. What should we do with our time?"
He blinked at her, then glanced at Kacey.
Kara'd already checked on the kid herself (Kacey had dropped off into a nap), but she had to grin as she got out of her chair and moved over to his. With her hand on the back, she leaned down. He watched her with a wariness in his gaze that saddened her. "Thrace," he said, just before her mouth covered his, "This seems like a--"
Bad idea. It truly was, but she didn't care. If she was going to get arrested for saving lives, she might as well have some fun beforehand. And since there was nothing to shoot or blow up, she'd settle for kissing Sam Anders.
"Now's the time for objections," she murmured when she pulled back and nudged his legs so that she could climb onto the chair and his lap. It was a tight fit, but they managed not to dump her back onto the deck. She tilted her head, "I'm not hearin' any."
Anders'--Sam's--hands slid up her arms and his fingers stroked over her neck before he pulled her mouth to his again.
She gave herself up to the sensation of his lips, drinking them down greedily. Storing them up for later, when she'd be on her own again (after all, what was the delusion of survival if you didn't plan for after the death-defying situation?), letting her own hands work between them.
There was no way to have sex in this situation (Kara didn't like the idea of subjecting the kid to such an indignity, for one thing), but they could manage something close to it. Or just kissing. Kara was finding herself a fan of just kissing. Sam was good with his mouth, and she flushed at the thought of that mouth on other parts of her body. Her fingers tugged at his shirts until she could get them out of the way. Bare skin met the palm of her hand before she skimmed her hands up enough to give her space to play.
"Kara--" he gasped, when her fingers brushed beneath his waistband.
A throaty, pleased chuckle escaped her, and she kissed the side of his throat, teasing the skin until he grumbled and pulled her mouth back to his. "Problem, Sam?"
His hands left the safety of her shoulders and slid down her sides. She shivered a little in anticipation before he cupped her breasts through her shirt. It seemed like he was almost uninterested in skin to skin contact, but then he ducked and kissed her jaw and neck while his hands moved to her hips and urged her a little closer.
Kara hooked her hands over the back of the chair as he pulled her shirt and bra up out of his way. Her nails dug into the padding of the chair as his mouth began teasing the skin of her breasts.
She'd been right about his mouth being talented, and she had to bite her lip to keep silent.
"We should maybe stop," she suggested, when she could think enough to speak without squeaking or moaning. His mouth brushed against one of her nipples and she had to suck in a breath against the sound that wanted to emerge. She really hated herself for even opening her mouth on the words.
"Not like we have anything better to do," Sam pointed out, though his hands rested quietly against her hips.
If she slid off his lap, he wouldn't stop her, and she felt a sense of disappointment in her gut before reminding herself that it was the smart thing to do. Still, if they were going to die soon (very possible), she felt a stubborn need to go out on a high note.
She sucked in another breath and then released it, relaxing against him. "I think this is a very bad idea," she admitted in a whisper, "But not because of who you are."
"Don't frak civvies, Kara Thrace?"
A snort escaped her, and she kissed the side of his mouth, "Wouldn't be here if I didn't. But I don't want to complicate things. Not now."
"So don't. But..." his fingers caressed her sides, drifting up to her breasts again. Then he slowly pulled her bra back down, grinning when she giggled over his ineptness in settling it properly. Her shirt was next, smoothed down, but not tucked in. Then he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her again. "After this is all over, Captain Kara Thrace..."
Kara kissed him fiercely, feeling the heat that was between them and wishing that she didn't care about the complication of sex to follow-through now. Usually, sex was a fast, pointless thing soon forgotten afterwards. She wanted to remember every inch of Sam Anders. "When this is all over, you might wish you'd run fast."
"Doubt it."
They kissed one last time, then Kara climbed out of his lap. Not without a little disappointment, but if they didn't survive this, maybe she could swing the same afterlife with him.
-
Kara had gone back to monitoring the ship, but there hadn't been any further contact from Cain. That was a little odd, but she wasn't going to worry too much about it until something else happened. The first thing she was expecting was someone cutting through the hatch, but there were no sounds outside the door that indicated that was going on.
The something else happened an hour after their aborted make-out session.
A loud boom shook the deck, and Kara grabbed for the keyboard before it could go flying. She quickly pulled up the relevant data, and swore. "Something just took out part of the main drive unit. What the frak?"
As if in answer, the intercom crackled to life. "Captain? Captain, it's Maggie. You were right--" the lieutenant broke off in a curse, and Kara could hear the sound of gunfire before she came back, "But there were more infestations than you said. We've lost half the crew to bugs--"
"Where's Cain?" Kara demanded, exchanging a look with Sam. There was no triumph in being right.
"She's locked herself in CIC, she's afraid letting anyone else in will jeopardize the ship."
Kara felt the adrenaline kick in, and straightened in her chair. "What the frak was that explosion, Maggie?"
There was silence, and Kara was sure Maggie wasn't going to answer. When she replied, her voice sounded odd. "Some idiots thought of repeating your little trick from the asteroid, ma'am. Didn't get all the bugs, though."
"Who was it?" Kara demanded, feeling that little coldness in her gut that told her it was one of her people.
"Agathon and Valerii."
Kara swore viciously, and wanted to hit something. Those jackasses! But there was no time to think about their loss. Not yet. She hit the button and snapped, "Can you get down to aux conn with weaponry, Maggie?"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sam was standing behind her, watching the schematics on the screen as they scrolled through updates.
"We're already on our way down, Captain--but I'm not sure we'll make it." Someone else in Maggie's vicinity swore, and then the connection was lost.
"I trust Maggie," Kara snapped, getting out of the chair and starting to search the room for anything they could use as a weapon. She didn't trust Cain worth a damn, but Maggie? Yeah, she trusted Maggie. She also trusted the bugs to find them eventually, and she wanted a way to keep them at bay.
That seemed to be enough for Sam, and he joined in the search.
-
Kacey woke up while they were checking over the minor assortment of weapons they'd found, and sat in her hair, munching a ration bar and looking bored. Sam had made a pleased noise over the welding torch and was adjusting it for offensive use while Kara checked over the flare guns and made a note of how many she'd be able to attach to her belt. They'd also turned up an emergency pistol with ammunition, but it wasn't a large enough caliber to be very useful. Still, she loaded it and stowed the extra ammo in her pockets.
"Bugs?" Kacey asked, looking between them.
"Yep." Handing over a flare gun, Kara asked, "Know how to use this?"
Kid was colony-bred, she probably knew how to use one in her sleep. The scornful look she gave Kara confirmed it, and the flare gun disappeared somewhere about Kacey's person. Kara handed her several ration bars. "If it all goes to shit, you know what to do, kid?"
For a moment, Kacey stared up at her. Then she gave a short nod and hopped off the chair to go over to Anders, who absently scooped her up and set her on his lap while he worked.
Checking the system, Kara found that the drive system was back online. She frowned at that, and checked a bit deeper. While her shut-down had worked, someone had bypassed it. The explosion hadn't done enough damage--the drive was moving them slowly to their original destination: Kobol. A thought occurred to her, and she looked over at Anders. "Hey, Anders. That ship you and your crew found, did it crash-land?"
"Looked like it had, why?"
"Oh, nothing."
He frowned at her airy answer, but went back to turning the blow-torch into a flamethrower. Kara approved of a man who could use his hands like that, and she thought it was a great pity that they might both die soon.
Another check of the systems turned up a link to CIC, and she tapped in a query, wondering it Cain would answer.
The cursor blinked silently for several seconds in the window before the entire connection snapped closed. Well. That was one way of getting an answer.
A knock sounded on the hatch and Kara was out of her seat and moving towards the door almost immediately. She keyed in the intercom and waited for the other person to make a demand that they leave. If this whole thing was one huge bluff, now would be the time for it to start breaking down.
"Captain? It's clear for the moment." Maggie sounded tired.
With one hand on the flare gun, Kara keyed in the sequence that would unlock the hatch and slowly pulled it open. Maggie was alone, leaning against the wall and looking as though she'd been dragged backwards through a cross-fire. Behind her in the corridor were flickering lights, but no sign of movement. "Get in here."
Not arguing, Maggie slipped through the open hatch and Kara sealed it back up.
"How many are we down?" Kara asked, as she shoved Maggie into the nearest chair before the lieutenant fell over on her ass. She smelled of blood and gun powder, and Kara didn't like that the combination came while she didn't have the ammunition and supplies to take out the problem.
"Don't know." Rubbing her hands over her face, Maggie swore several times, then looked up at Kara. "There was an entire complement of marines on this voyage, Captain. Do you know how many died when those things hatched? It was horrible."
"I can guess." But her words weren't any comfort, and Kara knew it. Maggie had seen something worse than the reactor and its environs, and Kara bet that it would haunt her dreams for years to come if they made it out alive. She made a few calculations, based on the number of marines there should have been, and looked over at Sam, with his makeshift flamethrower. "There is no way this will work. There have to be hundreds of the things out there."
"No shit," Maggie muttered, but she looked like she was recovering.
"We have another problem, though. If Pegasus reaches Kobol and crashes, the entire planet could become infested."
Maggie stared at her, then swore again, "Even with half the drive gone?"
"She's a new ship, she has backups for her backups and redundancies through every system. It might take her longer, but she'll limp into atmosphere in just under twenty-four hours." From there, Pegasus would tumble and fall, eventually hitting the planet's surface hard enough to kill anyone left on board. But not the bugs. Kara had a feeling the bugs would survive. If not all of them, then enough.
That was their time limit, Kara thought as the others digested what she was saying. Just under one day, and they would be either dead or dead, or in some miraculous manner, alive. She wasn't sure how to manage the latter. She didn't trust that the bugs would be as easily dealt with on the battlestar. There were too many places for them to hide, and from what she'd heard from Sam, and seen from the Company's failed experiments, one bug was all it took to continue the species.
She wondered, suddenly, if there had been eggs in Sam's capsule. If that's how they'd started their experiments. He might not even have known, and it would be like the Company to pull shit like that.
"Then we're frakked either way." Maggie slumped into the chair.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Eat something while you're resting, soldier," ordered Kara before she moved back to her own station and began calling up schematics of the ship. "Cain's still alive in CIC, by the way. I think she's the one who got the engines back online."
"She's Company, maybe they told her the truth about the cargo."
Kara glanced over her shoulder at Sam and fit his comment into what she knew of Cain. She shook her head. "I don't think so. She's a cold and driven woman, but I'd never consider her a fan of wasting human life."
"So she doesn't know what she's allowing to happen. Still doesn't help us," Maggie grumbled. She bit into the ration bar Kacey had handed her and made a face. "These things never taste of anything but fried shit. You got any alcohol around here to cut the taste, ma'am?"
"No. And you should probably stop calling me ma'am, Maggie."
The lieutenant shrugged. "That's what I keep telling myself, but it doesn't seem to help any."
"What happens if we blow all the locks?" Sam was fiddling with a spare piece of wiring.
"Not enough of them will get sucked into space, and a few might survive until they hit Kobol." It sounded like such an easy solution, but Kara could already see that it wouldn't work. It left too much to chance, and they had no atmo suits to walk the airless decks to make sure that any left-over eggs were destroyed.
There was another consideration: even if they managed to kill all of the bugs and got off Pegasus, the impact of something as large as a battlestar couldn't have good consequences on the planet. As much as Kara didn't give a frak about Kobol, allowing the Company to ruin them wasn't really on her agenda. Kara had seen projections before, during training. It was the reason battlestars were equipped with self-destruct mechanisms: to prevent such an occurrence.
Which meant they had to get Cain on their side, if possible. Kara looked at Kacey, who was sitting with her hands patiently folded while she waited for the adults to do something intelligent. "We need to set the self-destruct."
Saying it aloud felt horribly final, but Anders was nodding. Maggie just looked exhausted. "But it won't work without the command codes, or I'd set it from here."
"Can we change the direction the ship is flying in?" Anders wasn't stupid, but his solution wasn't any good, either.
With a shake of her head, Kara glanced at the terminal she'd been using, running through the possibilities even though she already knew the answer. "You can only alter the course if CIC is offline."
Maggie looked at Kara, then laughed softly. "Cain would never let us get that far through the system, and you know it."
"Will she believe you, Maggie?"
"No. Frak no. I think she's assuming we're all dead and damn the torpedos and all that bullshit." The lieutenant stood and winced. "I'm going to feel the last day for weeks. Shit, Captain, how the hell are we getting out of this?"
Kara stood as well and gathered her gear. "We're going to disable the engines and blow this tub before it endangers a civilian populace."
And she hoped it would be just that easy, though she highly doubted it.
-
They left Kacey in the auxiliary control room, with the promise that they'd be back. Kara didn't know if they'd be able to keep it, and the kid looked like she didn't believe they would. But promises were things to live for, and Anders at least would probably try to make it back. Then they headed back into the chaos of the mostly-deserted battlestar.
It was eerie, with the lights flickering intermittently and the occasional skittering noise as bugs chased each other and went about their own business.
Maggie still had ammunition for her gun, so she took point with Sam at the rear. His jury-rigged flamethrower got use on the second level down from aux control, and Kara wished the stench of burnt bug wasn't so awful. At least it didn't smell like barbecue, though.
If Cain knew where they were, or what they planned, she didn't send anyone down to stop them. Then again, the admiral probably had no one left to send, if Maggie was right.
"There's a whole infestation up ahead," Maggie hissed suddenly, freezing in place. "I had to detour around it earlier."
"Maybe they've moved on for coffee?" The look Maggie shot over her shoulder told Kara that her levity was ill-timed. She smiled sweetly, then added, "I'll go first. You two get ready to run for the corridor we just passed in case they're still there."
Without waiting for either to object, Kara walked to the corner and slowly peered around the edge. The flickering emergency lights showed her an empty corridor, though she could see a cluster of bugs near the end of it. This was the most direct route down to the engines, and she had no interest in taking her time. They might have nearly a day to stop the ship crashing into Kobol, but she would rather it was sooner than later. Kara liked having a margin for error.
Readying the flare pistol, she swung around the corner with a confidence she didn't feel.
The bugs at the end of the corridor didn't move. Neither did the human corpse sprawled underneath them. Kara could see they were eating it and her stomach turned, but she didn't have time to be sick. She didn't recognize the marine, and for that, she was grateful. "Anders," she murmured softly, "I want you to burn them."
He came past her and aimed at the target. Within seconds, corpse and bugs were in flames. The bugs reared up and tried to escape and Maggie shot them, splattering their remains on the walls and floor.
Coughing on the oily smoke, Kara hurried past the corpse, wincing at the heat. She slipped and almost fell on the acid eating into the floor grating, but Anders grabbed the back of her shirt and she stayed on her feet. She didn't bother thanking him as she moved on.
They had four more levels to cover, and then she had to figure out how to blow up the ship.
Pegasus had backups and redundancies precisely so the ship didn't randomly blow up, and Kara was proposing to bypass all of them and make it go boom (or, in the depths of space, quietly flicker into a billion pieces of flame and metal). The idea was easier said than done, and she wasn't sure she could even manage it. First, she had to see how much of the drive systems Agathon and Valerii had damaged earlier. It was even possible they'd done enough to make it easier.
She wished for as much damage as possible, and then a prime steak and a cold beer while she was at it.
"We've got company!" Maggie shouted, then fired, her first shot exploding the bug in the lead, but there were more behind it. More than there should have been, Kara was certain, though that was probably more wishful thinking. "I don't think we can get past them here--"
The flare gun shot off and smacked into the belly of one of the bugs as it reared up, preparing to grab at Maggie. Kara hooked her fingers in Maggie's belt and yanked her out of the way as the flare went off. The bug went over backwards with a shriek, and another skittered forward to take its place, lunging at Maggie's leg. There was no time for tactics--Sam barely managed to cover enough of a retreat for them and they ran.
Running sent a burst of adrenaline through Kara, and she tore past the other two and ran for the nearest set of stairs. "Down," she gasped, flinging herself that direction and taking the steps two at a time.
Not all battlestars were the same, but they all held the same general design.
Halfway down the next set of stairs, Kara yanked open a wall panel to find a deserted maintenance walkway. "Here."
"Ma'am--"
But she didn't wait for Maggie to take point and plunged ahead into the darkened walkway. Sam was right behind her and Maggie closed the panel, cutting the bugs off from their escape. Though Kara doubted it would be long before the things found the maintenance walkways.
"Slow down--"
Kara shot a glance over her shoulder to find Maggie limping, Anders holding her up on one side. She slowed down and faced forward again. "Bug bite?"
"Yeah."
Shit. Kara hoped that Anders wasn't right about their bite transferring eggs or larva or something like that. Biology had never been her strong suit.
"We'll deal with it later."
Fear might have flashed in Maggie's eyes, but she didn't show it.
They were silent again as they hurried though the maintenance area. Kara stopped a few times to figure out their progress. It was taking them longer to get down to the engines, but at least there weren't bugs again--Kara tried not to add 'yet' to her thoughts anytime she considered their predicament. The maintenance walkways were smaller than normal corridors, and the bugs would have an easier time over-whelming them.
When she came to the end of the walkway, she put her ear to the panel and listened. There wasn't much to hear beyond the metal, and she drew in a breath, readied another flare gun and popped the panel out.
The light in the corridor was brighter, and she could see both ways easily. Nothing moved. Looking back over her shoulder, she gestured to the other two and then stepped out. With the better lighting, she could see the blood on Maggie's leg. The pants leg was slashed, blood soaking it and leaving a trail.
"Frak--wait--" Kara dropped to one knee and pointed at Sam, "Keep watch, we can't leave a trail." Ruthlessly, she tore the Maggie's pants open further, gaging the size and length of the injury. Then she pulled her shirt off and used her knife to rip it into strips. It was a little colder in just her tank top, but she'd manage. She bound the strips around Maggie's leg, tying them tightly before looping the extra strips through her belt and getting back to her feet. "Now move."
Not waiting, Kara walked on towards their goal. There was a hesitation, and Maggie cursed, but they followed her.
-
One more long corridor, and they'd be at the engines. Kara was moving slower, watching the shadows and listening hard. They'd already passed walls coated in bug juice, though there hadn't been any carapaces embedded in it yet. She was a little grateful for that.
Sound up ahead made her stop, and she gestured for Sam and Maggie to wait and slowly moved to the corner. It was hard to tell what the noise was--not quite footsteps, not quite the skittering noise of running bugs. Taking a deep breath, Kara leaned around the corner and took a glance at what they were facing. She yanked her head back a second later, just managing not to get it shot off.
"Trigger happy asshole," she growled.
From around the corner came several curses and then the nigh-unbelievable sight of Karl Agathon, his arm over Sharon Valerii's shoulder. The idiot looked half-dead, and Sharon didn't look much better.
"About time you got here, Captain," Valerii snapped, lugging Agathon a few more feet, then propping him against the wall.
"Shiiit, you two are supposed to dead," called Maggie, her tone disbelieving.
Valerii gave her the finger, then looked at Kara. "What's the plan, ma'am?"
It was too much to hope they'd have time to talk. Kara heard the sound the same time as Valerii did, and they both turned and opened fire as two bugs skittered around the corner. They died, but Kara could hear the sound of more. "Maintenance hatch, now!"
They managed to get the hatch open and everyone inside barely in time--Kara slammed a bug in the hatch as it closed, and swore as the acid it contained began eating holes in the door. "Go left at the junction," she called to Sam, who was leading now. Then she fired a flare at the bug struggling to get through the rapidly-expanding hole in the hatch and backed away, following the others.
Maintenance was even worse in this hatchway, and Kara could smell the distinct aroma of burning plastic. She wondered just how much of the systems had been wrecked by Valerii and Agathon. Not enough, if the battlestar was still moving.
"Captain, we're at a dead end."
"I know." She reached the corner herself and found the keypad, quickly typing in the code to bring down the blast shield there. It slammed into place and she turned and worked her way through the others to where Maggie and Anders were glaring at the blank wall. "Everyone get back."
Passing her fingers over the wall, she found the near-seamless joints. It would be great to have Agathon's welding kit, but they were shit out of luck, here, so she used the only other method she had: a line of explosive jelly applied in a thin layer. Then she stepped back, raised the last flare gun and fired. The jelly ignited, searing through the welds and the panel popped out of the wall and fell out onto the deck beyond.
Kara ran forward and jumped through the still-smoking gap. There weren't any bugs in her immediate vicinity, and she waved the others out after her. There wasn't any blast-door to bring down after them, so she hurried them along until she found the right corridor that would lead to the engine control area.
"Cain's locked everything out," Valerii warned her as they stepped into the room.
A skittering sound could be heard coming towards them, but Kara ignored it for the moment, trusting that the others would watch her back while she did her work. "I know. Maggie, will this work?"
"Think so."
Better than nothing, especially coming from her favorite explosives expert. Kara shot her a wild grin and then began finding the right panel for what she needed to do. There, she moved and used her knife to unscrew the panel, yanking it off and leaving the wires underneath exposed.
The battlestar had backups and backups and redundancies galore. She isolated each and every one of them, ripping through the circuits with brute force rather than finesse and leaving several sparking sections of the control unit behind before she was done. Then she grabbed her radio and keyed it on, "Thrace to the kid, do you copy? Over."
Static crackled and then Kacey's voice came back. "I'm here, over."
"Do it, kid. Over and out." Kara clicked off before Kacey could ask when they'd be back. Wouldn't do to worry her.
"I've got movement, Captain."
"Two more minutes, Lieutenant." One hand on the unblemished panel in front of her, Kara felt the shift in the ship's movement, as Kacey keyed in the order to fire the drives on full. With one of the modules out, there was no way the ship would manage it, and with the backup systems down, it wouldn't cut out.
Counting to fifty, Kara unscrewed the last panel and pulled it off. She found the wires she needed quickly and cut them, then put the panel back on as the last ten seconds of her two minutes echoed in her brain.
Someone fired--Valerii, she thought, intent on keying in a specific sequence and destination into the drives.
Grabbing her useless flare gun, Kara flipped two switches and then broke them off with the butt of the gun. "We're done here, let's go, people."
Turning, she found chaos in front of her. Bugs converging from everywhere, Sam struggling under Maggie's weight and the flamethrower--so she jumped forward and took his place, leaving him to clear a path for them all. Kara was last, Maggie almost dead-weight against her shoulder, and she worried about the woman's shallow breathing. Blood-loss, she prayed that it was blood-loss to gods that had deserted them on that damned asteroid.
"No maintenance hatches yet--" she shoved at Agathon, getting him moving faster, though Valerii was beginning to look strained with hauling him along. "Turn left, Sam!"
One corridor, two, and the bugs were boiling around a junction ahead of them. Anders dove through the crossing, then turned back, flamethrower igniting the oncoming wave before he rejoined them, almost skipping to get around Kara and Maggie.
"Frak, frak, frak," the monotonous cursing from Maggie was enough to make Kara consider dumping her to the ground, but since it seemed to keep her moving on her one good foot, Kara didn't see the point in complaining. Yet.
"Should leave the wounded," Agathon suddenly said, and Valerii snarled something unidentifiable.
They burst into one of the corridors they'd been in prior to the engine room, and Anders turned back to check on them before hurrying forward in a reverse of their outward journey from auxiliary control. She was glad someone remembered the way.
Kara wanted to swear, as she felt her internal clocking ticking down the minutes. Too many levels between auxiliary control and where they were, too slow, too many bugs to dodge around--the things sometimes came out of the damned walls at them, like some primeval terror brought to life in three-dimensions.
Somewhere along the way, Maggie ran out of ammunition, and Kara pulled out the tiny revolver she'd found and used it, though it didn't make much of a dent in their enemy.
"Gotta a nice pea-shooter there, Captain," Maggie suggested, breathless and sagging.
"Don't I frakking know it."
Anders slammed open a maintenance hatch and then looked back at Kara, "How much time?"
"Just keep moving!"
There was no point in being honest. If they made it, well, they would have made it.
One more level, and Maggie and Agathon made the stairs difficult. Kara refused to leave either of them behind, cursing them both for being bullheaded assholes who were too much frakking trouble. The words didn't really spur any of them on faster, but they made her feel better.
Looking back over his shoulder, Anders swore back at her, then yanked open the next hatch with more force then he should have needed. The corridor was empty, and he dragged Agathon out and into it, shoving the flamethrower at Valerii. "Go!"
"But--" then Valerii looked back down the stairs and her eyes widened.
Kara swore again and refused to look back. She had four more steps to go to get Maggie out of there, and it didn't matter what anyone else had seen, she was working as hard and as fast as she could.
On the last step, something wrapped around her leg and pulled. She shoved Maggie forwards and then fell, catching herself on her hands and knees painfully and turning just enough to kick out at whatever had hold of her. She nearly froze when she caught sight of the thing looming over her.
If she'd ever imagined a queen bug, it would have been only a little bigger than the others. Maybe twice or three times as big. Nothing like the giant, monstrous body that hovered over her, filling up the entire stairwell, its pincers clacking and chittering. Kara had time to really get a good look at the thing--probably, if she'd been into insects, she would have found it wonderful and beautiful. Probably she would have described it with raptures to other etymologists. But as it was, Kara was fighting for her life against a gigantic thing that had shot sticky webbing around her legs and was inexorably pulling her closer.
Fire shot out over her head, sending the thing rearing backwards and Maggie's hands grabbed the straps of Kara's tanks and bra, yanking her upwards.
Kara scrambled for all she was worth, cursing as the webbing nearly pulled her back into the thing's grip.
Flaming the thing again, Valerii whooped in glee before she curved the nozzle down to blast the stuff webbing between the creature and Kara's legs.
With nothing clinging to her legs, Kara surged upwards, knocking Maggie out into the corridor. Valerii followed them with one last triumphant rain of fire and Sam slammed the hatch closed.
"No time to breathe--" Kara shoved herself to her feet, got her shoulder under Maggie's and pointed Valerii towards the hatch to auxiliary control. "Move, people!"
Anders reached the hatch first and shouted for Kacey to open up.
It seemed to take an agonizingly long time for the door to move, and when it did, Kara shoved and pushed until they were inside, then whirled around and slammed the hatch closed. "Kacey, last sequence of numbers, now."
There was a separate panel next to the hatch and Kara ripped it open, pulling the lever inside and grabbing onto the frame-work of the doorway as the auxiliary control room was ejected from Pegasus just as the ship tried to execute a jump.
Even with the distance provided, they could all feel a sickening lurch in their stomachs for a second as the great battlestar's engines, over-taxed and pushed to their limits tried to do as they were told. And then failed.
"Grab onto something, this might be a bumpy ride."
Arms wrapped around Kara from behind and then Anders was pulling her down to the deck as the others complied in a similar fashion. Kacey was fine, already strapped in, Kara had time to notice before the tiny capsule began to rock and roll as the battlestar it had just left exploded in a rather spectacular fashion.
-
"Company ain't never gonna forgive you."
It wasn't the first time Agathon had made the observation, and Kara doubted it would be the last time. He and Maggie were 'convalescing' in two chairs apiece, their wounds bandaged and seen to. Maggie might have permanent muscle damage to her lower leg, but there were no sign of infestation. Agathon probably wouldn't get the full use of his arm back, but he was in good spirits. Kara had a few burns on her hands, Anders had damage to his shoulder no one could remember him receiving, and Valerii was just bruised up good.
The control module they'd jettisoned in was homing in on Kobol as the nearest inhabited planet, but it would be another three days before they reached it.
Kara and Maggie had made a thorough search of the surviving Pegasus data records, but there wasn't much about the secret experiments the Company had been conducting. Kara had always wondered just how good they were at covering their tracks, and now she knew. But they had a start on something, at least.
"We'll all be hunted." That wasn't the first time Maggie had said those words, either.
"Always wanted to settle down one day." Valerii hadn't ever expressed any such sentiment before, but she shrugged at the look Kara gave her. "Can't all want to die in a fire-fight, Captain."
"Gonna have to get used to callin' her Kara."
With a groan, Kara buried her head in her hands. "I am not settling down. Neither are the rest of you." She didn't object to being called Kara. No point, really.
"Then what are we going to do, Kara?" Leaning against Valerii's chair, Anders looked oddly smug about something.
"I don't know yet."
Which wasn't true. It seemed obvious that they'd just have to buy themselves a ship of their own and start hunting up evidence about the Company, and keeping the bugs from taking over the galaxy. Maybe they'd need to recruit some help eventually. They still had three days to work it out. But Kara had a feeling that her idea might appeal to the rest of them. Even the kid, though she didn't seem to care where she went, as long as Anders was there. Kara was beginning to get used to having her around (and if she thought about it, she actually respected the kid and appreciated her quick wits).
'Sides, she and Anders still had a date for hot sex. It was pity there weren't any really private places on the tiny little escape capsule.
"But you got an idea," Maggie drawled, a knowing grin on her face.
Kara looked around at them, gaging their faces, and then slowly nodded. "Yes. I've got an idea. You're not gonna like it."
-f-