After being hit by an enemy plane, the Galactica sets about finding Kara. A shaken Costanza, one of the young pilot trainees on his first flight, is interviewed by Adama, Sharon, and Lee. Lee decides that he will take a viper out himself and search for signs of Kara or her spacecraft.
Kara awakens to find herself hanging upside down from a cliff on a deserted moon. She struggles for a moment with her harness, then falls 100 feet to the ground, seriously injuring her leg. Still, she takes off in search of help.
Adama consults with Gaeta, who tells him that if Kara survived, she would have been taken in by the gravitational pull of either a deadly ball of gas or a moon. If she landed on the moon, Gaeta says, Kara could survive for 55 hours before running out of oxygen. Adama decides he will send all of the other ships out to help Lee search for Kara.
Baltar is visited by Number Six, who points out the Galactica and neighbouring civilian ships will be vulnerable to a Cylon attack if all fighter ships are away searching for Kara. Baltar repeats this concern to Laura, who starts to get worried.
On Caprica, Sharon and Helo are holed up in the fallout shelter in the diner. Helo can see staying there until they get rescued; they have plenty of food and supplies. Two Cylons burst in and start shooting at him. He ducks as a gunfight erupts. After the shootout at the fallout shelter, Helo discovers that the Cylons have abducted Sharon. He's devastated and takes off looking for her.
Kara discovers a crashed Cylon spacecraft called a "Raider"; it's one she shot down herself. She goes through the craft to see if she can salvage enough to use it to escape the moon. When she opens the "hood" of the spaceship, she makes a discovery - the Cylon ship is half-mechanical/half-biological - as if it was once a living thing.
Adama insists that all ships stay on search duty, even though Laura and Tigh are nervous about this decision. Lee has to return from the search when he runs out of fuel. Tigh challenges Lee and Adama's decision to keep the search going; they're using up too much valuable fuel to find just one pilot. Tigh insists that even "Starbuck would be the first to tell you not to do this." Tigh suspects that Adama is letting his personal attachment to Kara get in the way of reasonable strategy. Things get tenser when Adama insists to Laura that the search continue.
Kara realises that since the spacecraft was part living thing, it must have needed oxygen. She discovers an organic tube coming from the guts of the creature. She sucks the air from it and is relieved to discover it contains oxygen.
On the Galactica, though, they only see the 55 hours of estimated oxygen time that Kara had has run out. Laura calls Adama to offer condolences, but Adama STILL insists on keeping the rescue operation alive. Laura decides to go to the Galactica herself. On her way there, Tigh tells her that the Adamas are letting their personal feelings cloud their judgment. Laura tells Adama that the operation must be called off. Adama is resistant until Laura says what Tigh told her - that he is trying to save Kara because she is his only link to his dead son Zak. Adama calls off the search.
Kara gets the Cylon Raider running. It's wonky at best; but she gets it in the air and begins flying it back to the home base.
Adama decides the Galactica must jump to a different galaxy. They have been sitting ducks for too long, and a Cylon invasion could be imminent. Adama considers that Kara is most likely dead by now. Right before the Galactica jumps, Lee and Adama spot an incoming Cylon Raider spacecraft.
Kara prays that they don't fire on her right away without considering it might be her…
…but the tense Galactica crew fires anyway. Kara manages to dodge the shots and flies her craft perpendicularly by the crew's window, where they see that she has written "STARBUCK" in tape on the underside of the ship. They bring her back on board before they jump.
|
