Chapter 64 – Destiny's Call

"Spool her the frak up" screamed Kara as she came running across the dark hanger, "we've gotta get the frak out of here!" Racetrack nodded, turned on her heels and sprinted up the wing of the raptor.

From behind Kara the gunfire echoed. She spun round, crouched down and aimed her gun, firing round after round. The toaster approaching dropped down, followed closely by another that ran towards her, its gun already aimed. Kara quickly raised her gun to meet it, nearly falling back off her feet as it exploded sending debris across the deck. Through the smoke she saw Helo come running, jumping over the remains of the downed toasters, his gun raised followed quickly by Sharon.

"Come on, we need to get moving," shouted Kara as she pushed herself up, her breath suddenly catching as no-one else emerged through the smog, "where's Lee?"

"He was right behind us," replied Helo looking round as he reached Kara. Sweat was dripping down his face and he was out of breath. "We were divided by that last group of cylons."

"Frak! Get ready to launch, I'll be back."

"We can't stay here Kara, it's set to blow any minute!"

"I'm not going to leave Lee behind," shouted Kara, already turning and sprinting back across the hanger, her gun raised. "Make sure they wait as long as possible," she called over her shoulder to Sharon.

Kara took out another toaster as she entered the narrow corridor. It was dark and filling with smoke, with various debris littering the floors and hanging off the walls. There wasn't much time left, if they were going to get away from the blast safely then they should have already taken off by now. Kara breathed heavily, knowing she was taking a big risk, but she'd be damned if she was going to leave Lee behind without trying to find him.

Kara was thrown into the wall as a large explosion rocked the ship. Something had hit, the rumble echoing down the corridor.

"Frak," said Kara. She silently prayed to the Gods that he was okay and stepped forwards, her foot suddenly connecting with a fallen toaster making her fall to the deck. She was about to cuss but then she saw him, lying underneath the fallen toaster, unmoving.

"Frak, Lee," she screamed, trying to move the toaster that entrapped him. She heard him moan slightly as she pulled with all her strength.

"Kara?" he said weakly, trying to push his way out. "Get the frak out of here now, she's going to blow."

"I'm not going to leave you."

"I'm finished, just get yourself out. Tell the kids I love them."

"Shut the frak up Lee," Kara wept, continuing to pull on the cylon. She jammed her gun underneath, trying to lever it, but she wasn't strong enough. Her desperation gripped at her heart, and some tears started flowing down her cheeks.

She heard her name yelled down the corridor, seeing Helo and Sharon emerge through the smoke. Without a word, all three of them took hold of the toaster, heaving it off Lee who rolled out from underneath. Kara and Helo hooked his arms over their shoulders and they lifted him up, rushing him back down the corridor and into the hanger.

Racetrack had spooled up the raptor and it was already hovering, the hatch still wide open. Skulls looked down from the wing and shouted "come on!"

Sharon jumped on board first, turning to help Skulls pull up Lee, followed by Helo. Kara was the last to jump up as she pulled the clip out of a grenade with her teeth, throwing it behind her.

"Let's get out of here," she yelled.

"Strap yourselves down" said Racetrack flipping some switches, "this is going to get really rough."

Lee had already flung himself into the nearest seat as Kara came through the closing hatch. The raptor punched forwards quickly, throwing Kara hard into his lap. She cursed as the raptor lurched again, this time sending her sprawling to the floor, the others landing in a heap about her.

"Everyone okay back there?" shouted Racetrack.

"Frakking fantastic," replied Kara as she pushed Skulls off her legs. Her main concern was Lee who looked dazed, his head bowed over into his hands. "Just get us out of here stat, we're out of time." Ignoring the others and the violent lurches of the raptor, Kara reached out for Lee, scooping him into her arms. "Are you okay, speak to me?" she said just as they heard the hub explode around them. The raptor was thrown forwards out of control as the shock wave hit them. Kara held tightly onto Lee as they were thrown about the raptor violently, the occupants all bundling together on the floor as the vibrations finally ended.

Blue eyes met hers, but not with their usual intensity, they were unfocused as he pulled a small smile. "I'm okay, my head just hit the deck hard when that toaster came down."

Kara placed a kiss to his head, "you've probably got a concussion. Does anywhere else hurt?" she tried to hide the concern in her voice, those toasters weighed a tonne and she knew it was a miracle that he hadn't been killed.

"I'm fine, really, it's not the first time I've been crushed by a toaster."

He looked ashen and Kara knew he was playing down his injury, but she didn't have time to argue. The raptor was bouncing all over the place as Racetrack swerved some raiders. She helped him back into his seat and pulled his harness on before quickly taking the seat next to him. Sharon and Helo had scrambled into the seats opposite, their hands held tightly together.

From the ECO chair Skulls stared at the dradis, "we've got three raiders on our tail, spin her over now, now!"

Kara had to give Racetrack some credit for her chops as a pilot as she launched the raider hard over, spinning the ship away from raider's fire. Lee turned his head to the side and vomited down the side of the hatch. Kara patted him gently on the back, pausing when as she heard Racetrack shouting out "frak, frak, frak," from the front. The raptor spun over again and then shook violently as it took a hit. The panel next to Skulls exploded out making him scream out in pain as shards of metal embedded into his legs. He gripped them, spinning his chair away from the panel.

"What's happened?!" screamed Racetrack from the front. "We're not gonna make it back to the beast, we need to jump the frak out of here now, where's my FTL jump Skulls?"

Kara rolled her eyes as she unfastened her harness, ignoring the shouts from the others. She pulled herself over to the ECO panel, wedging herself between it and Skull's chair and started to spool up the FTL drive. She knew it was risky to try and jump when the ship was out of control but if they didn't they were frakked. Kara cursed as she struggled to engage the drive, the explosion had rebooted the system and she couldn't find the jump co-ordinates. Kara could feel the sweat mottling her brow as she tried to call the Pegasus, but she could barely hear Shaw on the other end.

She could hear Racetrack shout, "we need to jump now, I can't hold them off any longer."

They were out of time.

Kara knew their only chance was to jump blind and hope that she could transmit their coordinates to the Pegasus. Kara said a silent prayer to the Gods and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. Despite the noise and the rumble of the ship, she could hear nothing, her mind clearing as she opened her eyes and stared down at the controls. Her hand trembling, she entered the numbers into the drive, somehow knowing that these were the right ones to choose and then she engaged the FTL. She felt the pull in her stomach and then everything went black.

Silence permeated through the ship.

The rumblings and explosions had stopped and the raptor was dead. Kara could only hear her breath as she started to come round. She was no longer staring at the ECO panel, but was slumped on the floor up against Skull's limp legs. She couldn't quite work out what had happened. She knew the jump had worked and they hadn't ended up inside a rock, but she had no idea why she had blacked out. Time seemed to slow down as she tried to work out what had happened, it felt like an eternity before anyone made a noise. It came from Racetrack at the front.

"Where's the beast?" she asked groggily as she peered through the front window of the raptor. "Frak Skulls, what happened, where did you jump us to? I've got no control, the raptor's dead."

"It wasn't Skulls" replied Helo looking down at Kara from his seat. The others turned their heads towards her, their looks of concern evident.

Racetrack squeezed out of her seat into the rear slightly unsteadily, just as Skulls started to moan again. Sharon unbuckled her harness and knelt in front of him, applying pressure to the deepest wound with a makeshift tourniquet from her belt. He screamed briefly but then nodded his thanks. Everyone else was focused on Kara who was still slumped silently next to him, seemingly staring into nothingness.

"Kara?" came Lee's voice, "are you okay, what happened, where are we?"

His voice seemed to bring Kara out of her trance, she looked up at him suddenly, but "I don't know," was all she could reply, although something in her soul told her where they were.

Racetrack neared her, "what do you mean you don't know, did you jump frakking blind?"

"I had to."

"Are you frakking crazy?"

Kara shrugged, making Racetrack curse as she looked at the ECO panel. The dradis was flickering and various buttons flashed off and on. "You jumped us way beyond the red line, you're lucky we didn't vaporise inside a rock!"

"Take it easy Track," said Helo. He had unbuckled his harness and had an arm on Lee's shoulder as he threw up again down the side of the chair. Lee patted his hand firmly and nodded he was okay.

Voices then crossed each other as various arguments erupted in the small ship. Kara pushed herself up to standing, facing off Racetrack. It was only the static on the dradis clearing as the raptor started to come partially back to life that brought their attention back. Silence permeated around the ship again as the dradis revealed the outline of a planet right on top of them and various unknown blips.

"Frak me," said Kara now alert as she looked up at the dradis. At the same time Racetrack spun back to the pilot's seat.

"You jumped us into a frakking cylon pit!"

"Toasters are going to be the least of our troubles if we get pulled into that planet's gravity," replied Kara as she frantically began flipping switches on the ECO panel. "The atmos will crush us if we don't get some control, we need to get away from the gravitational pull."

"I've got nothing, no thrusters," said Racetrack desperately pulling at the controls, "frak and no yaw. That jump must've knocked everything out, we had control before we jumped."

"She just needs a reboot then," replied Kara, she flipped a large switch plunging the raptor into darkness apart from the partial light coming from the windows.

"What if she doesn't restart?" asked Racetrack with panic etched in her voice.

"Then we'll be in the same frakked up position we were in before." Kara waited a few agonising seconds before flipping the switch back. The raptor spluttered slowly back to life, the lights flashing intermittently.

"Would it help if I got out and pushed?" asked Helo.

"Not helping Helo," replied Kara as she made her way to the front of the raptor and took the seat next to Racetrack. "Try the thrusters again."

"Frakking nothing," replied Racetrack as she pulled the levers feeling the raptor spin slightly. "Yes! we've got partial yaw, but it's stiff." The raptor jolted as they felt the pull from the planet's gravity.

"Frak me," said Kara, "we can't escape the gravity without thrusters, we're going to have to enter the atmos. Turn us towards the planet." Racetrack struggled with the controls as she tried to yaw the raptor over, Kara leant over to help her, both women desperate to gain control. "Athena, get the frak up here."

Sharon quickly unbuckled her harness and grabbed at the control. They could feel the ship start to turn agonisingly slowly. Their concentration focused on pulling at the controls, only breaking when they heard Helo say "oh my gods."

Kara turned her head to see that the rear four occupants were looking out of the small window in the hatch. With her hands still pulling on the controls, she turned to her window and suddenly saw the object that had appeared into view next to them. It looked to be some sort of rudimentary ship with numerous reflective panels coming out of it.

And then the blue oceans of the planet came into view. Kara's eyes widened slightly, her breaths slowing as she took in the beauty of the planet.

"You did it Kara," said Lee, his voice sounding clearer. "You've found Earth."

Kara was half in awe half panicked as she continued to pull at the controls. "We're going to explode and be scattered all over Earth, we're still too shallow." The raptor continued to shake as it passed the ship, hurtling towards the planet. Kara thought as quickly as she could for a solution, all they needed to do was line her up and quickly. And then it came to her, she shouted to the back. "blow the starboard oxygen reserve now," she demanded.

Helo turned from the hatch to the ECO panel, "won't we need the O2?"

"Worry about that later, just do it."

Helo pressed some buttons on the ECO panel, ignoring the small alarm that sounded and then flipped a switch. The raptor jerked violently to port, send him flying into a heap by the chairs.

Kara grinned at the Earth as it now centred itself in front of them, it had worked. Relaxing her hands off the controls slightly, she admired the beauty of the large oceans surrounding vast green land which she had only imagined in her dreams. They were approaching it fast. "Now comes the tricky part," she said dryly.

"But you know how to land a bird without juice don't you Starbuck?" asked Racetrack. "I've heard you boasting how you landed a dead bird once."

"Nope, that was a viper without yaw, and I was landing onto a battlestar," replied Kara biting her lip, wishing she had thought of the training scenario for landing a raptor onto a planet without thrusters and partial yaw. "Everyone strap yourselves down hard, this is going to get really rough."

Sharon returned to the back and Kara could hear the sound of harnesses being engaged behind her. The raptor started to shake violently as they entered the atmosphere and the fires raged around them. Kara kept her head back firmly in her seat and made a silent prayer to the Gods to keep the ship together.

"I can't do this Starbuck," said Racetrack obviously afraid as she pinned herself back in her seat, "I can't land her, not like this. I…"

"I've spent my entire life finding Earth, I'm not planning on being smeared across its landscape. When we're through the atmos we'll become one big glider, just keep the nose up. I'll try to get us some thrusters and then I will land us."

"Great, what could possibly go wrong," replied Racetrack rhetorically.

"The people of Earth could shoot us down before we have a chance to be a smear on the landscape."

"If we live, I'm going to kick your ass for this Starbuck." Kara smiled in response despite her apprehension. "How'd you land that viper?"

"Pointed it at the deck until I stopped. If we glide her in like I said, then the drag should slow us down."

"And if it doesn't?"

"You won't get the chance to kick my ass."

Racetrack cursed under her breath, her hands shaking on the controls as she tried to keep their position steady. It seemed to take forever for the raptor to stop shaking as they entered the inner atmosphere and bluer skies surrounded them. Kara guided Racetrack hands on the controls, pulling up the nose slightly.

She turned in her seat to look in the back. Skulls was still in the ECO chair, his eyes tight shut, Helo and Sharon were holding hands tightly and Lee was looking straight at her. He looked ashen but more alert now. He smiled a small smile at her and then mouthed "I love you." Kara longed to be with him, to give him one last kiss, but all she could do was mouth "I love you" back.

Kara turned back to the front. Racetrack was clenching the controls tightly, her arm shaking slightly from the effort of keeping the nose of the raptor up, her eyes staring resolutely ahead. Kara focused on trying to boot up the thrusters, but the raptor didn't respond.

The Earth gradually came into more focus as they descended through the atmosphere. "We're nearly at the clouds, this could get bumpy," said Kara as she tried the thrusters yet again. The raptor lurched violently from the turbulence. Kara's eyes widened as they emerged through the first cloud cover, seeing the green land below them. "Pull that nose up some more, we're going too fast, I'll try and create some drag."

The land beneath them came more into focus as the clouds thinned slightly revealing what appeared to be settlements everywhere. "Frak me," said Racetrack. "This place could be Caprica." She flexed her hand on the controls, trying to loosen her shoulder.

"You want me to take over now?" asked Kara.

Racetrack nodded, "you promise to look after my bird?"

"You just focus on those thrusters, you know your ship better than me," replied Kara as she took over the controls, pushing the nose up slightly higher.

The ground came closer and closer until they hit more cloud coverage that bounced them around. Kara felt her stomach lurch as they dropped suddenly. When the clouds cleared the land disappeared, replaced with glorious ocean.

"Starbuck," warned Racetrack. "We ran out of land."

Kara didn't respond, her gaze focused ahead, her arm shaking on the controls. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the flash of an object. She glanced to the side, "I think we've got company."

"What?" replied Racetrack slightly panicked. "We're frakked."

"It's okay Track, there's more land ahead of us," replied Kara peering ahead. "You just concentrate on waking up this bird." Kara cursed as her arms rattled on the controls as she tried to keep control. She was in awe of the scenery beneath them as they passed over what looked like glowing white cliffs where the ocean met land. However, despite this beauty, she was all too aware that they were being flanked on either side.

"What the frak are they waiting for?" squeaked Racetrack looking out to the side.

"Just keep working on those thrusters," replied Kara stoically. She then turned to the side, also wondering why they weren't firing, hoping they could see that they were in distress and on the way down anyway. Pain echoed through her shoulder as she struggled to keep the raptor steady, "we're still going way too fast," she said as they passed by what looked to be built up areas, the shape of them coming into focus.

"We're coming in a little hot don't you think?!" came Lee's voice from the rear.

"No, not really," replied Kara biting her lip before saying to Racetrack, "open up all the missile hatches, frak, open anything that'll open, we need more drag."

They passed more settlements, the ground nearing and nearing as Kara desperately tried to guide the raptor towards what she hoped was flat ground. She had no idea how long she had been fighting to keep control. She breathed heavily, they were only minutes away from impact, "come on, don't blow up on me," she said to herself and then shouted, "brace yourselves!"

The other occupants buried their heads in their arms, but Kara kept looking ahead trying to keep the raptor level with the partial yaw. With a few metres to go, Kara, still holding the raptor steady, buried her head into her arms.

They hit the ground violently, rebounding hard before crashing back down again, momentum keeping them going forwards. Numerous sparks and small explosions echoed through the hull and then the raptor appeared to spring to life.

"I think the thrusters are back," struggled Racetrack.

"Bit frakking late!" shouted Kara.

The raptor then hit something hard, cutting the power and making them spin almost 180 degrees and into the side of a tree. They dipped sharply to starboard as the raptor lurched down a hill, coming to an abrupt halt at an angle, making Kara smack hard into Racetrack's helmet, and then everything went silent.

She slowly loosened her grip from the controls, her heart still hammering in her chest. She raised her head whilst making a mental note of her faculties. Out of the front window she could see the long trail of damaged ground that their raptor had left, and a small animal that stood staring at them. It was on all fours and was covered in thick white fluffy fur.

Kara felt Racetrack moving next to her, "you okay Track?"

"Frakking fantastic…I think."

"Everyone okay in the back?" She turned and saw all of the occupants moving, Lee looked up at her and smiled. Kara uncoupled her harness making her fall against Racetrack's seat. Propping her foot up on the chair, she carefully made her way into rear by walking along the hull. Desire struck through her as she saw Lee unclasp his harness and step down onto ECO panel.

"Nice landing," he said with a smile.

"I think Laird's gonna have my ass," smiled Kara looking into his eyes and then at his head, "are you okay?"

"Just have a raptor sized headache," he smiled, and then looked out of the front. The small animal was now closer, blissfully munching on some grass. "You found it, I knew you would."

Kara smiled and stroked her hand down his arm, "did you see that we had company?"

Lee nodded, "we need to lock out the computer now." He knelt down on the ECO panel and inputted some numbers, followed by flipping some switches. After a moment a small device popped out from the panel, which Kara pulled out and placed in her pocket.

Helo looked up at the hatch which was now angled above them, "think it will open?"

From his seat, Skulls reached up and pulled the emergency handle and the hatch door opened reluctantly with a groan. Cold air filled the raptor, but it felt clearer compared to the recycled air on the Pegasus.

Kara looked up and closed her eyes at the sun that shone down, it was crisply cold but the sky was beautiful. "Frak, I was hoping it'd be warm."

"We need to be careful" said Lee, "from what I saw on the way down they aren't technologically advanced, that ship in space looked like something from a museum. They may not care for our landing, let's not give them an excuse to shoot us as hostiles." He glanced at Kara, "remember your training, we don't know how they'll react to us, and..." he paused, and then looked over at Sharon making the others turn to her too. "I'm guessing that they've never met a cylon before, I don't know what they'll do."

"I'll be fine sir."

Helo started towards the hatch, "We should try and get away."

"And then what?" asked Lee, "we'll be stuck here with no way of getting home or communicating with the Pegasus."

"I agree with Helo," said Racetrack, "the Pegasus may never find us."

"I sent over our jump co-ordinates before we jumped," said Kara.

"Jump co-ordinates that were way beyond the redline remember, how do we know they can even track that?"

Kara rolled her eyes, "give it a rest Racetrack."

"Give it a rest? We're in this frakking mess because of you!?"

"Hey come on," said Lee, "we need…"

He was interrupted by the rattle of metal as a small object was thrown into the hull followed immediately by a blinding flash and a deafening bang. They covered their ears from the disorientation, dropping to their knees. They didn't hear the second object enter the hull, this one filled with gas which made everything turn to black.