25 Quartus 6490
The Officers Club, Battlestar Galactica

"The end of next sectar, I heard."

Starbuck looked up from the spread of cards in his hand to meet Boomer's stoic gaze. "Sim?"

"Yeah."

"Shit," said Starbuck, sorry.

Simonitz maybe wasn't the brightest, but he'd been a good captain and he'd had faith in Starbuck, enough faith to fight the Lieutenant's corner when Starbuck's first tour of duty on the Galactica was coming to an end. If it hadn't been for Simonitz, Starbuck would never had convinced the Commander and Colonel Tigh that he was fit to serve on the best Battlestar in the Fleet. Starbuck thought that the two still had the occasional moment of doubt, but on the whole he'd proved Simonitz right. He hadn't let Sim down, and that wasn't something he could say about everyone in his life.

"I didn't think he'd last this long," said Kyle.

"What grounds?" asked Jillia.

"Other than him being a drunk, of course," muttered Lange, only half under his breath.

"Other than that," said Boomer. "Medical retirement."

Starbuck grimaced. "He'll hate that."

Lange merely snorted. "He'll hate a court martial even more."

"I'm surprised that in the circumstances, they haven't got him straight off the ship," said Jillia.

"Non-flying duties until he goes." Boomer scratched thoughtfully at his nose. "This is going to be a horrible few sectons. They should have shipped him straight out. What the hell are we going to say to him?"

"Cheers?" suggested Lange.

Boomer choked and shook his head. "What have you got against poor old Sim?"

"Having an abusive alco for a father saps your sympathy, believe me." Lange shrugged and focused on his cards.

The others exchanged a look and Starbuck, shrugging, grinned at Kyle. "You're senior. You get to be in charge, I guess."

"Oh joy." Kyle rolled his eyes, but he looked pleased.

Lange was evidently going out of his way to make friends that day. All it would need was for him to have a hand that would beat Starbuck's Queen's-Pyramid-with-subsidiary-tomb-complex, and Lange could count Starbuck in the ranks of his un-friends. Starbuck, though, was pretty sure that Lange didn't have the cards to beat him. So Lange did the next best thing. He grinned at Kyle.

"Until we get a replacement."