Battlestar Galactica: Devotion

Chapter 5

V

Galactica, After The New Caprica Rescue

Kara stepped off of a Raptor with Kacey, still reeling from the events of the last few hours. She had no clue about the rescue, as Leoben had knocked her unconscious when the first explosions had erupted in New Caprica. Next thing she remembered was being over Sam's shoulders, wondering where Kacey was.

Kara had been through hell, held hostage by Leoben in the Doll House, but despite the psychological torture he had put her through, she came out of it with a daughter, and, Kara felt a new purpose in life.

Galen Tyrol was directing people around the quickly-filling up hangar, when he turned to see Kara holding a little blonde girl coming off of an arriving Raptor.

"Oh, my gods", he said, with surprise, but also with a sense of joy. "Captain? I thought you were dead?"

Kara was laughing happily, holding Kacey in her arms. "Yeah, so did I."

He glanced down at Kacey. "Hey, who is this?" Looking at her, Galen could see a resemblance to Starbuck, and wondered...

Sam Anders had exited the same Raptor. "Yeah, I was gonna ask that myself?"

Kara began introductions. "This is..."

She was interrupted.

"Kacey?"

A new, female voice entered the conversation to Kara's left, the woman, perhaps a year or two older than Kara, looking at Kacey like she had seen a ghost.

"Kacey! Oh, my little girl!" As Kacey turned toward the voice, ad smile lit up her face in recognition. "Oh, mommy missed you so much!"

The little girl crawled from Kara into her mother's arms. At that moment, all the joy Kara Thrace had felt at returning home to Galactica, was pulverized in her mind like a rock to fine dust.

"Thank you", the woman said again, Kara not knowing what to do. "When The Cylons took her, I...I thought..." She couldn't finish the thought. "But you saved her. Gods bless you."

The woman turned with Kacey and raced away, Kara waving at the little girl. Sam and Galen teared up at the reunion of mother and daughter, but didn't notice the devastation that clouded over Kara's eyes.

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Three Days Later

Kara Thrace hadn't talked to nary a soul since Kacey had been taken from her arms by her mother, beyond the military formality of seeing the Admiral again. Adama, upon hearing what she had been through, gave her two weeks off before returning to flight duty, to sort out her emotions.

Kara didn't want to have anything to do with anyone, not even Sam. He had tried to be close to her, and to show her affection, but she pushed him away. The incident with losing Kacey had fracked up Kara Thrace something awful. She knew it, she hated it, but she also didn't want to let go of the anger of not just losing Kacey, but the torture Leoben had put her through. It was a paradox that her mind couldn't work out.

Sam had chosen to chase his own demons away by joining The Circle, a group that was signed into existence by Acting President Tom Zarek, made up of six people, who would have carte Blanche to find evidence against those Human who had betrayed them to The Cylons, and to dish out swift and if needed, capital punishment, to those found guilty. After Sam and Kara had had their latest muted disagreement, Sam left in disgust for the first meeting.

Kara went somewhere on the ship that few people knew existed: it was an old observation bubble that sat almost exactly amidship atop the superstructure. It was put in as a tradition-a relic honored from the past long before Dradis was invented, to plot the course of a ship by dead-reckoning of stars. Most of the time, it sat covered by thick alloy metals, but could be opened up so that thick, very clear glass surrounded a person, and they could look at the Universe unfiltered.