Title: At The World's End Part 3
Author: Athena13
Copyright: 1998-99
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: This is a fiction story based on the series Battlestar 
Galactica and its characters created and owned by Glen A. Larson.  This 
story is not being sold for profit and no infringement of any copyright 
rights are intended.  All unrecognized characters and plot lines are 
mine and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely 
coincidental.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 3 - Chain Reactions

Athena had left Bojay back at the O Club with a promise to see him the 
next morning. Now she stood in the corridor halfway to her quarters, 
she was tired but felt compelled to visit her father before the night 
was through. She turned around and headed back down the corridor.

"Father?" Athena called as she walked into Adama's quarters. She had 
expected to find him alone at this late centar, but was pleasantly 
surprised to find him sharing a drink with Colonel Tigh.  

"Oh, I didn't mean to interrupt," she smiled tiredly at the two men.  

"Come sit down Athena, we were just toasting our escape from the 
Council celebration," Adama stood and waved his daughter into a seat.

"So how did you manage that?" Athena asked as she sat down.

"We exaggerated our pressing military preparations for the entry into 
this  system and the marooning of Baltar," Tigh answered dryly as he 
poured Athena a glass of the Ambrosa the men were drinking.

"Did they give you flack about letting Baltar free?" Athena asked as 
she took the glass proffered by her former supervisor.

"I think we can safely say the feeling of the Council is one of relief.  
They will no longer have to explain to their constituencies why they 
aren't putting him to death during an IFB special broadcast and now 
they have a scapegoat to blame for getting rid of the problem," Adama 
explained realistically. "Of course, most would have preferred we just 
drop him out of an airlock."

Athena joined the cynical laughter of her superior officers and took a 
sip of her drink. "Where did you find this? This is the best Ambrosa 
I've tasted in yahrens!"

"I'm certain it's not _many_ yahrens young lady," her father said 
sternly, reminding her of her tender age of 24 yahrens and the Colonial 
drinking age of 18.

"No, of course not, gross exaggeration," Athena nodded as she smiled 
into her glass.

Adama rolled his eyes and changed the subject. Sometimes ignorance was 
bliss when it came to raising children. "So how come you left the 
celebration early?"  he inquired curiously.

"I was tired of the crowd. Just plain tired, truth be told," she sighed 
and sunk further back into the cushions. "I was heading to sleep right 
now, but I wanted to come and thank you Father for my new assignment."

"Thank me? For your assignment as Starbuck's wingmate?" Adama asked 
surprised. He had been certain that his daughter had gotten over her  
attachment to the other warrior.  

"No, not _that_ part of the assignment. I meant for not standing in the 
way of me becoming a full-fledged warrior. I'm holding my tongue on the 
wingmate part," she said primly.

"A good warrior makes the best of an uncomfortable situation," Tigh 
said sagely, suppressing a smile as Athena shot him a look.

"So what is the strategy planned for our entry into this system and the 
dropping off of Baltar? Bojay tells me he's gotten that plumb 
assignment - who goes with him? Apollo and Starbuck are sure to 
volunteer as well. Along with the rest of the ship," Athena changed the 
subject.

"Sheba is going to go with her wingmate. They can choose another team 
from their squadron to accompany them. Bojay can also choose who will 
man the shuttle taking Baltar down. Council Security will accompany 
him," Tigh informed her.

"Then I got out of shuttle piloting just in time," Athena scrunched her 
face at the thought of having to make another trip with the friendly 
folks from Council Security.

"Ah, but the added bonus of a bona fide warrior flying the shuttle 
might be advantageous for Bojay's team," Tigh teased. "Plus, a rough 
landing probably wouldn't be, uh, frowned upon."

"Well, that would be a plus," Athena agreed. "Still, I don't think 
Bojay could fairly choose me for this mission."

"Why not?"  Adama asked.

Athena blushed and cleared her throat. "We've taken our friendship to 
the next level. Was that a diplomatic way to put it to a father?"

'Now we know she's over Starbuck,' Adama thought with relief. 

"Diplomatic enough and I'm very happy to hear the news. I'm even 
happier I heard it from you rather than a rumor," Adama quipped.

Athena smiled uncomfortably. Her and Bojay were so new as a couple it 
seemed like bad luck to be talking about it, but her father did deserve 
to know from her first. 

"Before this drop-off, however, we need to scout the system for further 
dangers and an appropriate planet. I believe you will be on the mission 
along with your new wingmate. Apollo will lead it," Tigh warned her.

"Thanks for the warning," Athena sighed, she knew their first official 
flight together as wingmates wasn't going to be pleasant. "On that 
news, I think it's time I really do head to sleep." Athena walked over 
and gave each of the men a kiss on the cheek.  

"Good night Athena," they both called as she left the room.

"Athena dating Bojay should make it easier for everyone now," Tigh 
observed over the rim of his glass.

"We'll see, we'll see," Adama answered with a meditative look on his 
face.

~~~~~~~~~~~	
Galactica Mess Hall
The Next Morning

Sheba threw her head back and laughed.  

"It isn't funny Sheba!" Athena protested indignantly.

Sheba gasped for air. "Oh come on, how many of us get to be wingmates 
with our former boyfriends? The famous womanizer Starbuck no less, 
partnered with a woman. I know, I know, he seems to have settled down 
with Cassiopea now, but still, he is _Starbuck_. Add to that the fact 
that you have to be the one to break up his and Apollo's 
'relationship.' He has got to hate this! This is priceless Athena, 
simply priceless. I just can't believe Apollo didn't tell me," Sheba 
resumed laughing.

Athena squirmed in her seat. She didn't think it was all that funny.  
If she knew Starbuck at all, and she knew him pretty well, he wasn't 
going to make this easy for her. "Sheba, he's going to try and make me 
miserable. He definitely resents being split from Apollo and he sure as 
heck doesn't want to be straddled with a novice. Especially not with 
me!"

"Athena, so if he acts resentful, angry and generally immature are you 
going to cry or ask for a transfer?" Sheba asked her.

"I might," Athena mumbled. At Sheba's look she sighed and answered 
honestly. "No, I'm not. That doesn't mean I'm going to like this. You 
have no idea how long Starbuck can hold a grudge.

"This is going be fun to watch, I do know how stubborn _you_ can be," 
Sheba laughed.

"But I thought Cassi was your friend, she might not be so happy about 
this, our recent truce notwithstanding."

Sheba shrugged. "Cassi will deal with it. She's a big girl."

Athena shot her a look that was clearly doubtful.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Cassi's Quarters

Starbuck rolled over and pressed himself against the sleeping woman. He 
lay his head down on her back and absently began to stroke her arm. He 
sighed as he remembered how upset she had been last night when he had 
finally broken the news to her about his new assignment.

'Of course,' he admitted ruefully, 'my timing could have been better.' 
He winced as he remembered just how bad it had been. They had just 
finished making love. He had been holding her on top of him as they 
caught their breaths. In a moment of honesty, which had to have been 
brought on by lack of blood to the brain, he had suddenly blurted out 
his news. Understandably, Cassi hadn't been to thrilled to find his 
post-coital thoughts on Athena, however non-sexual it had been.

Starbuck's heart pounded now as he remembered what had happened next. 

Cassi had been telling him in a miffed voice how much she didn't 
appreciate him talking about Athena as she lay on top of him. 
At her words, an image of Athena laying on top of him flashed through 
his mind and he felt himself get aroused. Of course, Cassi had thought 
it had been inspired by herself and she stopped her lecture and reached 
down and began to make love to him. And then they had made love again. 
And again.

Starbuck could feel himself aroused again as he remembered. 
Unfortunately, it wasn't the lovemaking with Cassi he was remembering. 
It was the image that her words had evoked last night

'Dammit!' he thought angrily as his hand began to stray to Cassi's side 
of the bed and his lips began to nip at the back of her neck. 

If working with Athena was going to be like this, it wasn't going to 
work he told himself as Cassi rolled over and began to kiss him. Then 
again, maybe it would, he thought as began to kiss her.

After all, they hadn't made love this many times in one night before, 
ever.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Starbuck walked into the promotion ceremony and was relieved to see 
that the Council hadn't turned it into a major publicity stunt. 
Luckily, Adama had managed to put off the medal ceremony until after 
Baltar was "dropped off."  

'For once, I get to be a mere spectator,' he thought in relief. 

Starbuck was also secretly relieved that Cassi had to go on duty this 
morning and hadn't accompanied him. He wasn't too sure what his body 
would do when it spotted Athena, even as he was sure it had just been 
an aberration caused by the news and his anger. Both last night and 
this morning.

He walked in and sat down in between Giles and Greenbean who were 
discussing how it would feel to lose Apollo and have Boomer as their 
Captain. 

Then he spotted "Her." 

Athena stood at the end of the aisle in front of him holding hands with 
Bojay as they talked to Sheba, Dietra and Brie. She was wearing her 
warrior outfit. For some reason he thought it looked even better on her 
than her bridge blues which hugged her body and brought out the color 
in her eyes. 

'Stop it!' he ordered himself. He couldn't believe he was thinking 
about Athena's fashion choices.

His heart started pounding as Athena and her friends came walking down 
the row in front of them. The warriors said their good morning's to 
everyone and sat down in front of them. He winced as Bojay slipped his 
hand under Athena's hair and untrapped it from the chair back hitting 
Starbuck in the face.

"Oh sorry," Bojay said to him.

Starbuck saw Athena's shoulders shake with laughter, as were most 
everyone else's around him.

Starbuck crossed his arms. This day was already beginning to grate on 
his nerves.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Starbuck stood in the empty landing bay pacing angrily. 'I can't 
believe this! I can't believe this is happening!' Starbuck was still 
furious at his friend and ex-wingmate for these turn of events.  
'Athena, I have to fly with Athena!  This is ridiculous!  She's a 
novice, I'm going to have to constantly watch her back!'  

"Hi wingmate," Athena sauntered up behind Starbuck.

Starbuck spun around in surprise. "Uh, hi," he didn't know what to how 
to explain away his angry pacing.

"I know you're not thrilled about this Starbuck. Believe it or not, but 
I'm not exactly excited at the prospect of you being assigned to baby-
sit me. I had no say in the matter either."

Starbuck sighed and looked down at his feet. Might as well not start us 
off on a bad note, it'll be over soon enough when she decides she can't 
handle this and goes back to the bridge. 

"I guess we're both going to have to make the best of this. Let's start 
over," Starbuck looked out and stuck out his hand. "Lieutenant 
Starbuck, Ma'am. Your new wingmate. I look forward to flying with you."

Athena gave him a suspicious look before reaching out to clasp 
Starbuck's outstretched forearm. "Lieutenant Athena, Sir. I'm looking 
forward to working with you. I expect to learn a lot from a bona fide 
Fleet hero." A sparkle suddenly sprang to life in Athena's blue eyes 
and she leaned in to whisper in Starbuck's ear. "Don't expect me to be 
scared off Starbuck, I've dealt with you most of my life."

Starbuck felt a chill run down his spine as he felt Athena's breath in 
his ear. He pulled his arm away and cocked his head to the side.  
"We'll see Lieutenant, we'll see," Starbuck acknowledged her 
declaration of war with his trademark smile. 'At least we're both on 
the same page.'

"It might be more interesting than I thought to fly with you," Athena 
smiled at him.

Starbuck tightened his lips, he wasn't so sure why he was so angry, but 
it felt good and he was going to go with it. "On this mission just 
follow my lead all right. You don't know what you're doing out there, I 
do. Don't go getting any crazy ideas that I have time to follow you 
around when you decide to go play."

Athena closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Starbuck, cut the 
felgercarb. This assignment is going to stick. Your temper tantrums are 
not going to change that and trying to piss me off isn't going to do 
our working relationship any good. I don't intend to be insubordinate 
Starbuck, that's your role," she reminded him.

Athena opened her eyes and trapped Starbuck staring at her. "No matter 
what Starbuck, we've always been friends. The last few sectars even 
more than before. I'm sorry that Apollo isn't going to be your wingmate 
any more, but I had nothing to do with it."

Starbuck flushed, he knew his mood wasn't entirely Athena's fault - 
what had happened in Cassi's bed was just an aberration he would have 
to get past. "You're right Athena. I'm not saying that I'm going to 
suddenly be thrilled, but we do have to work together and we are 
friends. I won't take this out on you. Let's start our pre-flight 
checks while we wait for the rest of the team," Starbuck capitulated 
generously.

Athena nodded her acceptance of Starbuck's unspoken apology. 'Still 
can't say the words Bucko' she smiled to herself before turning to the 
viper she had been assigned. 

"Hey Starbuck," Athena called out. When he looked up, she continued.  
"Not too long ago you were supportive of my transfer, you even 
championed my cause," she reminded him of an infamous morning they had 
spent discussing her planned transfer request.

Starbuck sighed. He just really wasn't looking forward to flying with 
her for centars at a time. "I did Athena, I just never expected to lose 
my wingmate in the process. I don't know if we can work together."

"I hope you're wrong Starbuck, because I need you up there covering me 
and the Fleet, not sulking because your best friend isn't out there," 
Athena said in a kind voice.

Starbuck just grimaced and turned his mind back to his pre-flight 
checks.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Starbuck check your scanner!" Athena's voice came booming over 
Starbuck's comm.  

"Calm down 'thena," Starbuck rolled his eyes. 'Antsy novices.'

"Starbuck, I'm serious, check your scanner!" came Athena's agitated 
urging.

Starbuck sighed and looked at his scanner, prepared to tell her it was 
just a meteor or something. "Oh Frak!" Starbuck exclaimed when he saw 
what had gotten Athena so nervous. "It looks like some stray Cylons 
from those baseships. I'll send the code back to the rest of the 
scouting party."

"I did that as soon as I saw it. There's not much else to do now except 
destroy them and hope they are just strays," Athena said in a calmer 
voice. Now that Starbuck was listening and she could talk to him in 
knowing tones she immediately felt better.

"Right," Starbuck agreed grudgingly, but and moved them into battle 
prepared formation. The next micron Starbuck's warning alarm went off 
letting him know he had been scanned. "Frak! They've caught me, move 
down and get behind me and watch your tail," Starbuck ordered in a no-
nonsense voice as he started evasive maneuvers.

'Here goes nothing!' Athena thought to herself as she made her first 
"Boomer-roll" just as shots flew past her wings. She checked her screen 
and smiled slightly when she saw that Starbuck had done his part and 
had taken evasive action before the shots meant for her got him. Her 
face fell back into a frown as she brought her ship into position 
behind the raider which had just fired on her and blew it to 
smithereens. Her exhilaration was short-lived when she saw that the 
other two raiders were pursuing Starbuck. 

'He must have been watching me instead of himself!' Athena was angry 
about her wingmate's sudden over-protectiveness as she flew off to save 
the more experienced pilot's butt.

'Frak!' Starbuck exclaimed as he tried to evade the two raiders on his 
tail. He had been so busy being awed by Athena and his' innate 
choreography on that last move and watching to see if she could clean 
it up that he had missed his own mark. 'I hope she gets her tail over 
here! I can't believe I'm thinking this!' was Starbuck's last coherent 
thought before he put his viper into a dive to get below the raiders on 
his tail. As he looped to get underneath them he saw that they had 
followed him. Before he could panic Athena shot through them and broke 
them apart allowing Starbuck to take advantage of their surprise and 
take one out as Athena got the other one.

Now there was just one more to take care of which Starbuck did in short 
order.

A few centons later the pair were heading away from the battle scene, 
but Starbuck was still smarting from being saved by Athena. "Let's get 
a look at this planet, I'd hate to find out there were more baseships 
in this sector."

Athena didn't respond, she could tell by his voice that he was on edge.  
Ignoring her warnings and then having Athena save him because he was 
too busy worrying about her was probably really making him angry at 
himself.  Athena wasn't planning on making herself a target for that 
anger.  

A few centons later Starbuck sighed heavily. The duo had been flying in 
silence and it was beginning to wear on his nerves.  Starbuck knew that 
_he_ had been the one to screw up. Athena had handled herself more than 
admirably. Besides, he was used to the banter with Apollo after tense 
moments like this.  

"Athena, listen...," Starbuck trailed off. 'This might be harder than I 
thought.' "You did real well out there. Thanks for saving my butt," 
Starbuck finished in a mumble.

'Real well, real well? What am I a trained daggit?' Athena fumed at his 
awkward compliment. "Thanks Starbuck," was all she said out loud.

"I'm sure with some more practice you'll be a good pilot," Starbuck 
continued as if she had never spoken.

Practice? A good pilot? Oh man, was she going to get him for that one. 
But really, it was kind of funny, she realized and began to laugh. 
"Whatever Starbuck, let's just fly all right. This, uh, admiration 
might go to my head."

'This woman is going to cause me premature gray hairs,' Starbuck let 
out a breath. She was mocking his words and he had meant them as a 
compliment. 

"Starbuck, why do I drive you so crazy?" Athena unintentionally picked 
up the thread of Starbuck's thoughts.

"I don't know Athena. I just don't know," Starbuck said honestly. "I 
just can't imagine us working out as wingmates, we didn't as a couple."

"I wish you could just relax. We're not talking about getting sealed 
here, just being wingmates," Athena pointed out.

"Not all that much different," Starbuck grumbled.

"Yeah, but no sex," Athena joked, hiding the twinge of hurt she felt at 
his implicit rejection of her. She was also going beyond frustration 
here. He'd better stop pouting soon or _she_ was going to shoot him.

Starbuck hadn't realized it before now, but it was like he was being 
forced to get sealed to Athena. Being wingmates was a commitment, they 
were forced to spend centars together and build up trust and 
communication. 'Without the sex,' he reminded himself with a sinking 
feeling in his stomach. While his mind was screaming in protest, his 
body had reacted to the thought of being able to make love with her as 
part of this bargain. 

'Get your mind on this mission!' he ordered himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"So how do you think Athena and Starbuck are doing out there?" Sheba 
asked her wingmate, Bojay, as they finished their scans and found the 
planet they had been assigned unsuitable.

"I'm trying to figure out who will shoot who first. I haven't seen 
Starbuck this jumpy since the Academy," Bojay observed. "You'd think 
they had just broken up yesterday and were being forced to fly 
together."

"I see what you mean," Sheba agreed. "I figured he'd be angry about 
losing Apollo as his wingmate, I mean I can understand that, but he's 
acting like Athena is his pesky little sister instead of his friend."

"Well, it all just happened today," Bojay pointed out. "He'll adjust."

"If they don't shoot each other first," Sheba reminded him.

Bojay smiled to himself. When she got a good head of steam Athena could 
be so impulsive. He would love to watch what was going on between those 
wingmates.

END Chapter 3
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