Steven Harper - Unity

My thanks to the Untitled Writers Group of Ann Arbor (Elizabeth Bartmess,Karen Everson, Anne Harris, Jonathan Jarrard, Erica Schippers, Catherine Shaffer, and Sarah Zettel) for putting up with the unexpected deluge of Battlestar Galactica chapters. Special gratitude is in order for Catherine Shaffer and her knowledge of prions. Thanks also go to Jim Frenkel for letting me do this in the first place.

This novel is set in the time between the events of the episodes The Flightof the Phoenix and Pegasus.

A trio of Cylon raiders dipped and swooped through space like silent bats onrazor wings. Kara Thrace clenched her toesthe only part of her that wasntoccupied with flying her Viperand tried to keep her eye on all three at once.Two of them split off and swooped around to her left and her right in a pincer move while the third one came straight at her. Karas eyes darted back and forthand her heart pounded hard.

Come on, she thought, and goosed her thrusters so the Viper joltedupward. You on the lefta little higher.

Watch yourself, Starbuck, Lee Adama said in her earpiece. His voice washeavily distorted by the radio, but Kara understood him perfectly well. You learned to sort out the words through the distortion, almost like learning a foreign language.

I know what Im doing, Apollo, she snapped. Watch your own ass, notmine.

Apollos watching Starbucks ass? Brandon Hot Dog Constanza saidover his own radio. Can I make a comment about that? Please?

Just do your frakking job, Lieutenant, Lee warned.

All around them, other Vipers rushed at the flock of raiders. The deadly little Cylon ships were sleek, flat, and black, with a protrusion in the front that resembled a head. A single red eye cruised restlessly back and forth,hunting, scanning. Aiming. In stark contrast, the Vipers were battered and battle-worn. Karas had once been white, but scorch marks, scrapes, and otherdamage had weathered it to an uneven gray. It looked like a miniature fighter jet that had crashed once or twice and been knocked back together in a mechanics back yard. Behind Kara and the other Vipers cruised the immense bulkof the Battlestar Galactica. Surrounding it like chicks near a mother hen were the disparate shapes of some seventy-odd shipspassenger ships, cruiseships, work ships. They were all that remained of human civilization. Behind the fleet spun an honest-to-gods blue planet. It had water, it had plant life, and it was the reason why the fleet hadnt simply hit their faster-than-light drivesand Jumped out the moment the Cylons Jumped in.

The two Cylon raiders rushed inward for their pincer move, one to port, one to starboard. Kara caught a gleam of starlight off their forward guns. They fired. With a whoop, Kara yanked the control lever at the side of her seat. Auxiliary jets flashed, and the little fighter blasted straight upward. Bullets crossed the intervening space and both Cylon raiders exploded, torn to pieces by friendly fire. Kara wondered if they felt any pain. The Cylon ships were actually living beings, or as alive as Cylons got, anyway. Not that this fact kept Kara from pressing the trigger. She flicked another lever and her maneuverable little Viper whipped around in time to fire on the third Cylon. It exploded as well, close enough that the blast knocked her sideways a little bit, wrenching her around in her seat.

I cant believe you frakkin did that! Kat shouted as her own guns rakedthe raider in front of her.

Kara grinned without answering. Ahead of her, two more Cylons exploded in bright fireballs beneath her guns. A piece of debris rushed straight at her, and she dived beneath it as if the Viper were an extension of her body. Two raiders skimmed into view ahead of her, straight into her cross-hairs, and she wiped both of them out before they even noticed she was there. Beyond the flock of raiders hovered the malignant, spiky form of a Cylon basestar. The frakking thing had popped into existence a few minutes ago and spat out a swarm of raiders, forcing Kara Thrace, Lee Adama, and the other Viper pilots to scramble into their ships to defend the fleet.

Kara brought her Viper up and around again. In the distance, the brilliant yellow star showered golden light in all directions and Kara made an automatic mental notekeep her tail to the sun and force the raiders to look into itwhenever possible. She had no idea if the Cylons would be blinded by the solar radiation, or even affected by it at all. For all she knew, they had Cylon sunglasses, but it didnt hurt to try. An image of a raider donning a set ofgoggles with a single giant lens in the middle popped into her head and a giggle bubbled at the back of her throat. At that moment, yet another raider bore down on her, guns blazing. Kara yelped and whipped her Viper hard to port. She heard pops and pings as the raiders ammo ricocheted off her wings and tail, thoughher instruments stayed in the green. No real damage. Chief Tyrol would probably chew her out anyway.

Concentrate, she snarled to herself. She spun the Viper around, ignoringthe stomach-wrenching vertigo, and fired on the raider with both guns. The barrels mounted on either side of the tiny flight cabin flashed, and Kara felt the familiar breathy thump of her own gunfire. The raider shredded, and Kara moved on to new targets before the debris had a chance to scatter.

Starbuck, Lee said. Check your ten oclock. A pack of raidersheading for Planet Goop.

Kara glanced to port and saw them. Nine raiders had broken away from the rest of the flock, clearly intent on skirting the Galactica so they could dive-bomb the little blue planetand the Monarch on its surface.

Moving to intercept, Apollo, she shot back. You with me?

All the way. And can the response, Hot Dog.

Did I say anything? Hot Dog protested. One word?

The raiders swooped and dove in perfect unison. Kara, glad the sun was behind her, hit her thrusters hard. The extra g-force pressed her back into her seat and gave her the unnerving feeling that she was flying straight up instead of forward. Space gave few visual cues, and her inner ear was shouting that gravitydownwas directly behind her. She ignored her inner ear and focused onthe fleeing Cylons instead. Hatred flared hot inside her head. These were the frakking bastards who had destroyed her entire world and chased her across countless star systems. How many months had it been since shed felt safe? Howmany months had it been since shed had a nights uninterrupted sleep? How manymonths since the Cylon attack? She had lost count.

The stupid part was that humans had created the Cylons, robots designed for labor too difficult or dangerous for people. And then somewhere along the line the robots had become so sophisticated that they thought they were people too, and they started a rebellion. The resulting war had nearly destroyed the Twelve Colonies and all but wiped out both humans and Cylons. In the end, the Cylons had agreed to take themselves off to another part of space. Peace reigned, and humanity let itself breathe again. Forty-odd years later, the Cylons had reappeared, smarter, angrier, and deadlier than before. They fell on the startled TwelveColonies and killed billions of humans. Fewer than fifty thousand had survived on various ships that had somehow escaped the carnage. Those ships were now informally known as the Fleet, under the command of Commander William Adama and the governorship of President Laura Roslin. The Fleet was looking for Earth, the fabled thirteenth colony, and Kara was sure theyd find it. Eventually. Thathope kept her going. Meanwhile, they had to deal with the Cylons and their living battleships.