THE JOURNEY CONTINUES: FINDING KOBOL

          "So," Thorin began as they relaxed in his quarters later, after Rodolphus and Evan had finished their reports on how their training of their shuttle pilots into combat ready viper pilots, "care to tell us what Roark's long term goal is, if not to be a Commander?"

          "Family, of course.  He's made it clear he wants several more children, and if we ever find Earth, or another livable planet to settle on, a house, with a large garden."

          "That wouldn't prevent him from being a Commander."

          "No," he sipped his drink, a smile curving his lips, "that it wouldn't, but Roark wants to be a stay at home parent,"  Evan finished his drink, set the empty glass on the end table beside him.  "And as we all know well, Roark is just as happy doing absolutely nothing as he is working."

          "Where is he by the way?"

          "Life Center."

                                                                                cccVccc

          "How bad is it?" he croaked from inside his life pod, his face flushed with high fever, his breathing irregular at best.

          Roark ran a hand through his hair with a deep sigh.  "It's bad, Dac.  Boomer and Jolly, thinking they were running late for the party you all had planned for Dolph, Evan, and me, skipped decon, which is why we are where we are."

          "They know better,"

          "They do.  Severus is working almost night and day to find a cure for this thing but hasn't had much luck.  No sooner does he think he has something than the damn thing mutates,"

          His eyes drooped.  "Deaths?"

          "Six.  None of the family, though they're in as bad a shape as you are.  Roan has lost the baby."

          "Damn.  He and Bill were really looking forward to being parents too."

          "Roark, I'm sorry, but he needs to sleep now."  Robin joined them, looking at the readings on the pod scanner, marking them in the file he held.  

          Roark nodded.  "Get some rest, Dacian, and don't worry about Severus,  We're making sure, as hard as it is, he gets some rest.  Sleep now."

         From one breath to the next his eldest brother was asleep.  Roark sighed again, looking at Robin.  "This is not going to end, is it?" he asked quietly.

                                            cccVccc

         They were once again in the conference room, the silence heavy in the room after Severus had said, "We need to go back to the planet they landed on."

          "That won't be possible--" Adama began, only to be interrupted.

          "Possible or not, there is no choice.  We have to go back or we will never find a cure stable enough to cure our pilots or any of the others.  Every time I have a cure, the damn virus has mutated, and the cure doesn't work.  We lost three more today, and if we don't act, we're going to lose Colten, Dylan, Charlie, Roan, and Bill."

          "If you leave the void, you may never find us--"

          "Stop the fleet," Harry spoke up.  "Give us a set time to get there and back.  Roark and I have been working on a way to find you as soon as we realized this was likely going to be the course that was going to have to be taken."

          Admiral Roark, Commander Thorin, and Commander Adama all looked at him, then all three looked at each other.  "Of COURSE, you have.  Severus, Sebastien, do you have a time limit set?"

          "As long as everything goes well, and we don't wake that Cylon listening Post, we should only need five centars.  One to get there, three to hopefully get what we need, one to back."

          "Rodolphus, Evan, are your ladies combat ready?"

          "Nowhere near, but if we have no choice..."

          "We don't, Dolph."

          He nodded.  "Then they'll have to be ready, won't they?"