Battlestar Galactica by Glen A. Larson & Robert Thurston

Author:Glen A. Larson & Robert Thurston [Larson, Glen A. & Thurston, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-06-09T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Starbuck stole a cigar from Boomer and slipped away from the work party to his special hideaway—by his ship in the Galactica’s launching bay. Fitting himself into a dark wall niche, he lit the cigar and leaned his head back against the metal wall. Almost immediately he felt himself dozing off and a cautious part of his mind wondered if he should do something about the cigar. Then he couldn’t think straight. What cigar? he almost said aloud. Visions of a starving mob coming in and out of light initiated a dream that never developed into a full-fledged nightmare because the sound of Cassiopeia’s voice startled him awake.

“Starbuck,” she said, “what’re you doing, crouched in that hole?”

He realized that the cigar was about to fall out of his hand, and he tightened his grip on it. Moving out of the niche, he put the cigar to his mouth and took a long puff. The smoke that lingered in his nostrils had a faintly narcotic feeling to it, the result no doubt of one of Boomer’s extra special blends. Cassiopeia had bathed and put on fresh clothes—a one-piece clinging outfit that threatened to become transparent in the right light—since Starbuck had left her at the nurses’ quarters. By all conventional measurements of beauty, she was quite stunning now, but Starbuck briefly wondered if he did not prefer the look of her in her previous smudged and disheveled state. There’d been a vulnerability about her then, a need to be helped that he had enjoyed responding to. Now she stood before him, tall and attractive and strong. Another strong woman, like Athena. He always found himself attracted to strong women, but there were times—moments of false nostalgia—when he almost wished for one of the weak, submissive maidens of intergalactic legend. A foolish thought, maybe—he knew he would be bored by such a maiden in less than a day, and the only real benefit obtained for someone like Starbuck would be a much needed rest.

“How’d you find me?” he asked.

“Followed you partway. Lost you here, then I saw the light of that sweet-smelling cigar. Can I have a puff?”

“Sure.”

She took a heavy drag on the slim cigar and appeared to savor its taste.

“Ooooh, thank you! That joystick’s been efficiently doctored.”

“My friend’s an expert at the chemical alteration of cell composition.”

“My compliments to the botanist, then.”

She took a couple of steps backward and looked up at Starbuck’s ship. Jenny and the rest of Starbuck’s flight crew had done an excellent job of repair work on it, replacing the parts that had been destroyed by his crash landing and generally tuning up all its systems. As always, they had superbly polished its surface and the pinpoints of light that seemed to spring out from its high gloss gave the impression that the viper ship was performing its own strange abstract little dance. Cassiopeia stared at it a long time before speaking again.

“It’s somehow beautiful, suspended up there like it’s in permanent flight. A perfect machine, born to dance with joy, curve in and out of constellations….

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