We used to wait. (Chapter 20/?)
title: We used to wait. (Chapter 20/?)
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 6,140
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
Heading into battle, the fleet knew it was most likely to be their last. They were out numbered with the amount of basestars and Raiders nearby and their one hope of salvation, jumping to safety, was no longer a possibility as their FTL drives were still in the process of booting back up after the power down. Though the CIC was still awash with a mix of emotions, from fear of their sudden fate to betrayal by the appearance of the Commander they all heard die, the entire crew remained focused in attempt to preserve their lives a moment longer.
Out in space, the Vipers fought off the incoming wave of Raiders, picking them slowly off as they neared the civilian vessels that were left rather unprotected. A few lives had already been lost, and though no on could begin to comprehend what Kara’s reappearance meant, they found comfort in the call of her voice over the open communication lines. She was beside them, taking out the so-called enemy, and watching all of their backs. If she was actually their opposition, she was doing a poor job of showing it.
Sam “Longshot” Anders launched out in his Viper in the last wave of pilots to join the fight. He had been both fearing and waiting for the day they would once again be in a dogfight with the cylons, for he knew that if he made it out of the fight, he would come with serene peace of mind or another nail to the coffin of his proverbial life. It all depended on the circumstances. His ship took off, sticking close to his nearby wingman at first, though once they reached the heart of the fight, all manners of regulation were lost. He took aim at the Raider heading for a Viper in front of him and fired. That newborn nugget panic was no longer with him like it had been months ago during the exodus and all the practice he’d had since then had greatly improved his skill and aim.
He took out another enemy ship and was about to go for a third, when a Raider swooped down over the top of his bird, slowing to the same speed as him. It wasn’t like that first incident when the Raider had merely turned around by itself and made contact. This time it kept as close as possible as it flew backward, almost human in the way it seemed to need to get a better look. He nearly missed the other four Raiders that pulled up along side, flying as if they were guiding him in. The ship leading the pack opened the metal shielding just as it had done the last time, red eye running back and forth as it watched Sam. Though alarmed, he wasn’t as unprepared for it as he had been previously. Going into this fight, he knew what was going to come and welcomed the possible answers it brought, although the implications of it were something else he would have to deal with.
Sam held his ship steady until the familiar process was over, and within seconds, each of the five ships peeled away and off, beginning the retreat. Around him, Sam saw the other Raiders starting to do the same and the calls on the wireless confirmed the phenomenon to he happening again. His chest ached with how close he’d come to death a second time, although now he wondered if death truly wasn’t the end for him anymore. He heard Hot Dog and Apollo speak loud and above all the rest and then he heard a voice he never thought he would hear again. He heard Kara. The first time, he was certain he was doing nothing more than hallucinating her, but the second time confirmed it and washed away his doubts. Kara was here and suddenly Anders wondered if maybe the Final Five weren’t the Final Six after all.
-
Despite the retreat from the cylon forces, the Vipers stayed out until the civilian ships began to jump away and Galactica put in the call for them to return for the battlestar’s own jump. Apollo was the last to land, though he knew that was usually Kara’s tradition. He couldn’t let her be the final one this time, afraid if he turned his head away from her she wouldn’t make it back on board. He watched her ship come in for the combat landing ahead of him, Viper bouncing and scraping along the deck just as his was. Before their ships had even come to a full stop, the landing pods fully closed into its resting state tucked into Galactica’s sides, and the pull of an FTL jump took them away to safety.
The wait for their ships to be lowered down onto the main deck was unbearable for him and as soon as there was any amount of pressure available, he began unsealing his cockpit canopy and pulling his helmet off. Apollo didn’t even wait for a deck crew member to tug a ladder towards his ship, instead sliding down off the wing, hitting the floor and heading down the deck to where he knew Kara’s ship was to have been placed. The crowd thickened as he neared her and Lee forgot all his manners, pushing through with as much force as he could muster up. Despite how long he had imagined her and her ship beside his own, he still feared it would all be a dream. It would have been his longest imagining of her to date, but he wouldn’t believe it until he could touch her, kiss her, breathe her in. His senses need to be consumed by her.
While he was still a few people back, he saw her long blonde hair fall out of her helmet as it was removed, glimpses of her taken between the windows made between the bodies of those in front of him. When he finally made it through, he didn’t stop, not even for a second, instead throwing himself at her. Lee gathered her up in his arms, holding her closer than he ever had, even when they were undressed. His arms slid under both of hers, hand stretched up to cradle the back of her head and neck against his shoulder as his face buried into her hair. He had felt her before in some of the hallucinations, but only for a moment before reality sunk back in. As he held her then, he knew that while all his manifestations of her had been close, it had never been this vibrant. The color of her hair was just right, even under the deck lighting. The weight of her against him was just enough. Even the smell of her was perfect, so unlike anything he had even imagined in the last two months.
Kara’s arms gripped around him in return and she felt the slight shake of his chest, alerting her to the emotion that was wracking through him. She pulled her gloves off and let them fall to the floor without worry, her palms smoothing down his back, even if he was in the flight suit. She had to be near him, had to be touching him. Fingers moved upward and she ran her hands through his hair, though she noted that it felt oddly different than it had the last time they had been there. It felt longer, it looked longer, but she knew it couldn’t be true.
“Lee,” Kara whispered as they held each other close. “It’s okay, but if you don’t let go of me, soon the whole deck’s going to know.” She didn’t say what they would know, but from her whisper Lee would understand what she meant.
He released her only pulling back enough to look at her face. She smelled and felt real, now he needed to look at the face he’d dreamt of for years and make sure that, too, was perfect. “Everyone already knows, Kara.” He said and touched her face, a finger starting at the corner of her eye where her skin creased, tracing down over her cheek bones to the corner of her lips.
“How the frak could they know? I know I was gone for a few hours, but when I left, no one had a clue.” Her volume raised ever so slightly as she addressed the situation, fear in her chest.
“Kara,” Lee started, bewilderment over his face. “You haven’t been gone hours. It’s been two months.”
She froze, then smiled, shaking her head. “Stop frakking around, I’m sorry I made you worry.”
Lee shook his head with conviction, his eyes showing the severity of his words. “Two months. I saw your ship explode. You died.”
A laugh left her again, this time it was less convincing than the rest. “I don’t know what game you’re playing…” Her words were silenced as she noticed a commotion out of the corner of her eye, only to find Sam pushing his own way through. Unlike Lee, he did stop when he saw her.
“Kara,” Sam said with reverence.
Lee released her with great reluctance and stepped aside. He wanted to be selfish, keep her to himself for the rest of their lives, but the past weeks and months had made her two former lovers grow closer in wake of her death. Sam needed this just as much as he did.
All at once, Sam stepped forward and tugged her up in his arms, lifting her from the floor as he did so, his height aiding in the process. He kissed her head and let go of her, smile wide over his features.
“I’m okay, Sam,” Kara said, though her tone wasn’t stiff like it had been in the time following their separation.
The reunion was cut short, however, as the crowd parted and the Admiral appeared, flanked by Tigh and a group of marines. Kara pulled away from Sam to step forward, hands on her hips in the definition of pride. In that minute, she wasn’t just Kara Thrace or Major Thrace, or even Starbuck. She was the Commander all over again.
“I did it, boss. I found Earth,” Kara declared to him, her face alight with her news. “It’s beautiful.”
Across from her, Bill watched her with pain in his eyes. He wanted to believe this was the woman he knew to be his daughter. The ache from her death hadn’t gotten any less or easier to deal with, he had simply grown accustomed to having it be part of his life. Despite how much he wanted it to be her, he knew it could not. It was a trick and a betrayal of the absolute worst kind. “Starbuck is dead. She died two months ago when her Viper exploded. You’re not her.”
Kara recoiled in hurt as she took in what he was saying. She moved back half a step, bumping into Lee as he had stepped forward, looking to protect her. “That’s impossible, my ship’s clock reads six hours and change. I’m alive, I’m here!”
“Put it under arrest and take it to Cottle.” Tigh said, needing to speak for the Old Man and his crumbling sense of self, though Saul’s own ability to deal with such a scenario was shoddy at best. He and Kara hadn’t started off the best of friends, but that had changed since even before New Caprica.
Kara looked back to Lee for support, but she saw the truth on his face as well. He hadn’t been joking half a minute ago. She felt as if she was losing her mind, but she knew what she saw, knew what she remembered.
The marines moved in, guns drawn as they circled around her, and Kara felt Lee step in front of her, arms spread wide as if to use his body as a shield. “Don’t touch her,” he warned without even thinking. Everything had happened so fast, he wasn’t even sure what Kara’s return could have meant or how it was possible. Despite how by the book and based on fact and logic he usually was, nothing mattered now that she had come back.
“Captain! Back away from her,” the marine in charge warned him.
“Lee.” His father said much gentler, as if to encourage him to fall in line.
“No one touches her!” From behind both he and Kara, a marine moved in and grabbed at her, tugging her back and away. Lee spun around, watching the expression Kara wore as she resisted. It wasn’t anger or rage there, but rather the burn of being betrayed by the family she held dear to her. He moved forward to pull her back, but her hands were already cuffed behind her. Despite the guns being pointed at him rather closely, Lee paid them no mind, instead entirely focused on not letting her out of his sight. “Let me go with her.” Lee pleaded to his father from where he stood as a pair of marines stepped between him and Kara. He could hardly see her and that built a panic inside of him. If he wasn’t looking at her, she would disappear.
Though Adama knew better than to show weakness in front of the crew, especially when it came to treating his son favorably, he nodded in concession. “Take him with her,” he ordered, and the troupe of marines led Kara and Lee, separately, off of the deck and towards sickbay. As Lee passed his father, he nodded his head in a small moment of thanks.
-
Kara didn’t fight with Cottle through the lengthy and embarrassing physical she was required to endure, a marine standing guard only a few feet away through the process of it. She had just tugged the front of her gown closed when another guard Let lee into the private room she’d been kept in, not for her comfort, but for the safety of others, or so she presumed. She barely lifted her head to acknowledge him as he came close, her spirits that had once been lifted to new heights with her news from Earth having been trampled down upon by the treatment she received when she came back.
The pair of guards stood a few feet away by the doorway, though it didn’t give the couple even a sliver of privacy. Kara sat perched on the side of the bed, bare legs dangling towards the floor. Rather than sitting next to her, Lee dragged the nearby chair to her bedside and sat on the edge of it, just in front of her. He leaned in, her knees parting barely to cradle his sides as his arms curled around her midsection. Lee hugged himself to her low chest, head resting there against her. Kara, though shaken by the events of the last few hours, wrapped her arms around him loosely, spine arched forward as she kissed the top of his head from above.
“I don’t know what’s going on, Lee,” she confessed and all that confidence from earlier disappeared instantly inside of her.
“It doesn’t matter.” His words were mumbled against the thin fabric of the gown she wore.
She squeezed him tight in response, feeling the tears pool in her eyes. Aside from her memories of Earth, she could recall how things had been left with him earlier in the day. At least, it had been earlier in the day for her. The pain of it was still fresh, though she knew it wasn’t the time to bring it up and apologize again, if there ever would be a right time for that. Kara released him and pried his arms off her and he allowed her without much resistance. His face read of hurt and confusion, but she shook her head and pushed him back into his chair. When he was seated in it fully, she slid off the hospital bed and onto his lap, her body perpendicular across his thighs. She hooked an arm around his shoulders, her other hand stroking over his cheek.
Lee watched her, one arm moving back around her as she settled into position. He couldn’t remember her ever doing something like this with him, something so incredibly intimate without being provocative. His hand mimicked hers, cupping her cheek, content to be lost in her eyes for as long as he could.
“I know-” she paused. “I know when I close my eyes I can see the last few hours. I know what I saw. I know it was real. Then you tell me it’s been months since you last saw me and I don’t know what to think.” Her fingers shifted from his cheek into his hair. “I don’t want to believe it, but Lee I look at-” She choked on her words, clenching her eyes closed as she broke down. When they opened again, tears pooled at the corners. “I look at your hair. I know when I cut it. It was only a few weeks ago. I know how it looked when I last saw you and I know this isn’t it.” Her fingers stroked through his hair, like the touch of its added length would make it real to her.
“We’ll figure it out,” Lee insisted, because he knew they absolutely would. Whatever anyone else decided for her or about her, he would remain loyal. He had lost her once before and now he knew he could never do it again. He wouldn’t survive it. “Kara,” he whispered and she drew herself in closer to hear him, knowing that his words were intended for her and not the prying ears of the guards. “If it comes to it, we can leave. I know some people in the fleet, we can disappear from here. I won’t let anyone take you from me again.”
Kara withdrew from him after he finished, just far enough back to look into his eyes without getting dizzy from the degree of closeness. She knew what they believed had happened to her: she went down into the planet, the pressure crushed her ship, it exploded and took her with it. That wasn’t how she remembered it. For her it had been a couple of hours, though she couldn’t recall exactly how she had gotten from point A to point B. Regardless of it all, looking at him then she could see how much he had suffered with her gone. She hadn’t been gone for a few hours, hadn’t been just missing. She had been dead and he had watched her die. There would never be a way for her to understand that, at least without him dying, and she refused to even consider the notion of it.
“I’m here,” she said to reassure him. Kara took his hand from her cheek and slid it just inside the front of the thin hospital robe until his palm came to rest against the skin just above her breast, but over her heart. “You can feel it. I’m not dead.” She searched his eyes for some recognition of her words, that he understood. Instead she found his eyes heavy with his own tears, the very sight of which broke her through and through. Kara’s hand was replaced on his cheek and she moved in towards him until their mouths met. She was gentle, but firm, lips parting to welcome in the taste of him again. For her it had been hours since they laid in her bunk together after they made love. For him, she knew it had been months and he had genuinely thought he would never experience this again.
His lips responded to hers instantly, hungry and yet restrained. In his dreams, he would kiss her, but never fully taste her. It was like eating without ever enjoying the experience of it. It got you full, but it wasn’t as it should have been. This now, her mouth against his, was like it always was. The sense memory of her mouth reminded him of every moment they’d shared, from her dining room table to the kiss on the Astral Queen, from New Caprica to the night in the CAG’s office before the algae planet. This was real, vivid, and full of color. He didn’t care if the marines were watching or what they were thinking about it, if they were judging him for being in love with the woman presumed to be a cylon. None of it mattered.
Kara pulled back after a moment. She hadn’t wanted to, but knew it was important he understood her intent. “I didn’t die. I didn’t leave you,” she said at full volume. Lee nodded to her just barely and the softest of smiles came over her. “You’re Lee, I’m Kara, and the rest of it isn’t worth a damn. Right?”
“Right.” Lee said and drew her mouth back to his to begin drinking her in again.
-
The Admiral’s quarters were crowded, an increasingly rare sight. Lee sat beside Kara, though giving her the space he knew she needed for the interrogation she was to endure at his father and Roslin’s hands. “Do we really need the marine guard?” He questioned, an eye on his father.
Bill shot him a look in response and Lee, wisely, chose not to challenge him on it.
“What’s Cottle’s verdict?” Kara asked.
Adama was silent as he set the folder with her latest medical report down on the coffee table. “Everything checks out.” Though the chief medical doctor had given her the all clear, he couldn’t begin to wrap his mind around it.
“So I’m not a cylon, that is why you had me tested, right?”
“Kara, nobody said you were a cylon,” Lee started from next to her.
“They were thinking it.” Her head turned to him from where he sat on the same couch they shared. Had she not been in the hospital room with him an hour earlier, she would have questioned him as well. Lee had come with her, though, defied his father and risked his life to not be broken apart from her. “Do you want to see every scar I have?” She put her attention back on Laura, Bill, and Tory, her mood slowly becoming unhinged at the accusation. “Every tattoo?” Her hands began to untuck her shirt rapidly, pulling up the fabric. Lee reached over to still her fingers and it was enough to cause her movements to cease. She took a steady breath and released her shirt, hands restless in her lap.
Bill watched from his own seat next to Laura. All he wanted to do since she returned was to hug her as a father would to his daughter, but images of Boomer and the raise of her gun flashed through his eyes at each moment. He loved her and he was scared of her at the same time, and for that he felt guilt. “We had to be sure, Kara.”
Roslin remained the only one standing and it had the effect of showing her dominance over the others. “Let’s go over it again until it makes sense. Tell me everything that happened.”
The words spilled out of Kara, letting her anger take over her. “I flew into the storm, took some hits and passed out. When I came to, I was orbiting this planet. Its yellow moon and star matched the description in Pythia. I took these pictures in orbit,” she said and gestured to the pile of captures take from the camera on her Viper. “The star patterns match what we saw in the tomb of Athena.”
Skeptical, Laura kept up her act. “How did you get here?”
This time, Kara was subdued. “I told you, I don’t know exactly. I remember taking the photos. Turning my ship in a reciprocal heading. And then… I’m not sure. I must’ve blacked out again. Then I was back with the fleet.”
“And for you, all of this took six hours?”
She looked to Lee to summon the strength from him that she needed to get the words out. “I do not understand this time discrepancy either. All I know is I took the pictures, I was there, I didn’t imagine it.”
Lee reached to her and took Kara’s hand. She didn’t fight it, instead looped her fingers into his own.
-
“So it’s not the same ship?” Laura asked, arms crossed. Around her, Bill, Lee, Saul and Sam circled the Viper Kara had rode in on.
“Unless she found a hell of a body shop out there, no Ma’am it’s not.” Tyrol said with great reluctance. He didn’t know what Kara was or what had happened out there, but more than anything he wanted to give the President a reason not to doubt the pilot. It wasn’t something he would have been able to cover up, not with all the differences that were plain as day in the ship. It may have had her name on it and number on the tail, but the metal of it was brand new. The paint was clean, crisp, and not a single scratch made to it. Even he hadn’t seen one looking this new when they were mere museum pieces.
“Admiral, it’s not just the outside either. This is the data from the nav computer.” He turned on the nearby machine, displaying the information that should have been downloaded from the ship’s hard drive. “There isn’t any. It’s just blank. There’s no record of where this ship has been.” Galen paused, waiting to deliver the next news. “I opened her up myself, sir. The ship’s been outfitted with what I’d say looks like an FTL drive.”
Everyone’s eyes looked up from wherever they were.
“Viper’s don’t have FTL drives, Chief, certainly not Mark IIs,” Tigh said from the back, though it was common knowledge to the rest of them, aside from the President. The blackbird, or the ‘Laura’ as it had been named, had been unique in that regard.
Tyrol nodded with a sigh and hit a button on the deck computer until a new series of numbers was brought up. “It isn’t Colonial, I know that much. I tested the fuel in the ship as well, it’s tyllium based, but not exactly the same as the kind we use. To put it straight, it isn’t what we fueled her up with when she left, so even if this was the ship she left in, it would mean she fueled up somewhere else.”
“Put her in the brig,” Laura declared, making the decision so Bill didn’t have to.
Lee came barreling down the ladder of the Viper, accusation in his posture. “What? So things don’t add up and we’re back to thinking she’s a cylon? What about Cottle’s test?”
“Cottle’s test doesn’t prove anything,” Tigh said with regret.
Laura looked out onto the deck, a far away look haunting her. “She could have been a cylon from the very beginning.”
The XO’s voice resounded again, “Baltar’s test was a crock, it failed to ID boomer.”
“I know how you feel about her, Lee,” the President directed her attention to the younger Adama. “But that is exactly what the cylons could be counting on here. What if she was placed here years ago and she sought you out?” Her eyes lifted to Bill. “She got the Admiral to think of her as a daughter, the Admiral’s son to fall in love with her. Don’t you understand how much control she has over both of you?”
“Enough!” Lee’s temper flared as the words continued on out of Roslin. “She rescued you from that Gods forsaken planet too. You were happy that she came back for you when she and my father should have left us behind for dead. You were here when we mourned her death! And now this is how you talk about her? Like she just schemed up the last what, six years? Are you going to tell me my brother dying was some part of it now too?” He burned with the anger he felt inside of him. “If Kara Thrace wasn’t part of this fleet, we all would have died that first day on our own. You don’t understand a frakking thing about her.”
Sam stayed quiet, feeling the odd man out in the situation. While the rest of them were the fleet’s top officers, as well as the President of the Colonies, he was there merely as someone who had been close to her and perhaps could provide any insight into Kara. He had the feeling that by insight, they actually meant for him to share any moments in their relationship when her behavior could have suggested she not be on their team. With his own secrets, Sam had been wary of volunteering a single speck of information.
“That’s enough, Lee,” Bill’s voice ordered and his son backed down.
The President paid Lee no mind outwardly, though inwardly she felt remorse for what her own logic was drawing her towards. “That cylon fleet had enough fire power to blow us out of the sky again, but instead they ran and jumped. And there’s Kara Thrace suddenly back from the dead, having found Earth. Bill, she was in Command of Pegasus when the Raiders pulled back last time, and here she was again, the first time we’ve really fought them since the exodus. That can’t be coincidence.”
Sam’s eyes raised, his skin burning with his own quietly kept knowledge. It was a coincidence, of that he was certain, at least regarding Kara. For himself, and what he’d witnessed during both of the fights, he knew the guilty party lay in him. He couldn’t let Kara take the fall for what he was.
“If she could lead us off our course,” Roslin started again.
Accusingly, Lee cut in. “Course? What course? The nebula was supposed to be another clue on the way to Earth.”
“The nebula-” Laura interrupted. “-Was only a road sign along the way to Earth. We need to continue to follow it’s path.”
With his head shaking, Lee stepped away, pacing. “What if Kara is the clue we were supposed to find?” His atheism was well known to those who knew him, but after witnessing Kara’s return, he had begun to doubt his lack of faith.
“What if she’s playing you? And all of us?”
While the rest of the group stayed still in contemplation, Lee headed towards the nearest hatch that would lead him off the deck floor. “She’s not.”
-
Elsewhere on the ship, Laura had D’Anna pulled from her holding cell, away from Leoben, and brought to a nearby storage unit. The door was left open and a marine stood guard inside with the President, a few more waiting outside.
“I want to talk about the other cylons, the ones I know you refer to as the Final Five.”
D’Anna walked back and forth across the enclosed space, enjoying the slight increase in freedom when compared to her cell. Though her hands were cuffed along with her feet as a precaution to prevent her escape, she moved like she was unhindered. Looking for a place to sit, she settled for leaning against the large and intricate metal cylindrical item that had come to be stored there months ago, once it was pulled out of space. It had seemed amazingly important at the time, but the beacon had come to be abandoned and forgotten in the storage locker.
“What you’re really asking is if Kara Thrace is a cylon.” She idly picked a speck of dust off her clothing, playing up her feigned disinterest.
“I heard you were seeing images of the Final Five inbetween downloads.” Though as of late, their interrogation of the cylons had fallen to the wayside, they had gleaned some information out of the two of them and Baltar after their initial capture. Baltar, of course, had been the weakest link and had the loosest tongue.
“You already know I don’t know who they are.” A single eyebrow rose. “Though even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Do you think we’re stupid, D’Anna?” Laura took her glasses off, folding the arms in and held them between her hands. “You and Leoben could have killed yourselves at any time and resurrected somewhere else. There’s a chance you’d be out of range, but it’s not much of one. I think you’re staying here for a reason. You’re afraid what will happen when you go back.”
Though she tried to keep her face steeled, she knew was behaving more like human than cylon when it came to shielding her emotions.
“I also know we just sentenced Baltar to death for the things you made him do on New Caprica and I don’t think you want to see him go out the airlock.”
D’Anna’s mind wandered to the time she had shared with Baltar, although she had split him with Caprica Six. He’d taken her side when they went to that algae planet, though it had been selfishly to discover if he was in fact cylon. Even that small amount of loyalty was something she hadn’t felt from anyone but her fellow Threes.
“Why did your people recall the Raiders today?”
The cylon thought of Baltar and what the President seemed to be implying in her words.
“As the President of the Colonies, D’Anna, I’m the only one who can offer a full pardon.”
“How do I know you won’t just kill him anyway after you get what you want,” she said.
“He’s guaranteed to die if you don’t talk, maybe he’ll have a small chance if you do.” Laura resorted to the harder version of herself that she’d grown into since the end of the worlds. This hadn’t been very much like the school teacher she was all those years before.
“Your word is all I have then,” said D’Anna. “On New Caprica, when Galactica and Pegasus returned for you, we found that the Raiders turned back to our ships, despite orders. We weren’t able to figure out why until one of our hybrids made mention a few weeks later about one of the Five being found. Our theory became that a Raider had located one of the Five, realized who they were, and sent a message to the rest to pull back.”
Laura listened intently, trying to absorb and commit to memory all the details the cylon was sharing with her. “Why would the Raiders do that?”
“They’re not like centurions or the rest of the models. The Raiders have free will, where as the centurions have theirs inhibited. And us, we’re just completely different. We have free will, but we aren’t tapped into whatever the Raiders are able to sense. We’ve been programmed not to think of the Final Five, but for some reason they haven’t. We assumed they found one of the Five and made the decision that harm to them was not worth the risk of it all and pulled back.” Her shoulders shrugged. “That was the theory at least, although it happening again is confirmation enough.”
“But how would a Raider find one of the Five?”
D’Anna pulled a wry smile over her face. “The longer I’ve been here, the more I could feel it. I don’t know what it is, if it’s the call of cylon to cylon inside of me, but I can feel it. When they didn’t show their faces to me in the temple, I thought I’d been abandoned, but I realized a long time ago that I was meant to be brought here to be closer. The Final Five are in your fleet, and the one that’s been turning the Raiders away is one of your pilots. A pilot that fought at New Caprica and fought again today.”
The President’s jaw hung open just barely, trying to contemplate the wealth of information. The Final Five were in the fleet, at least according to D’Anna. Were they aware of who they were, were they sleepers, were they sabotaging the fleet all along? “Who is it?”
The cylon moved to shake her head. She wasn’t sure who it was, but she had a guess at it, a strong guess at that. Before her head could signal her lack of an answer, a knock sounded at the nearby open hatchway. Both the cylon and President turned towards the doorway. A marine poked his head in.
“Madame President, there’s someone here that says he needs to talk to you. Regarding the cylons, sir.”
Apprehensive, Laura nodded her head and the door pulled open wider. The culprit stepped inside.
“It’s me,” Sam said, having overheard the conversation from outside the door as he passed. “And I know who the others are.”
author:
apodixis
spoilers: Through all seasons, though this takes place in an AU starting at the very end of season 2.
pairings: kara/lee, kara/sam
overall fic rating: R/NC-17
word count: 6,140
notes: See http://apodixis.livejournal.com/685.html for more information.
summary: If God isn't leading the fleet to Earth, can they ever find it?
Heading into battle, the fleet knew it was most likely to be their last. They were out numbered with the amount of basestars and Raiders nearby and their one hope of salvation, jumping to safety, was no longer a possibility as their FTL drives were still in the process of booting back up after the power down. Though the CIC was still awash with a mix of emotions, from fear of their sudden fate to betrayal by the appearance of the Commander they all heard die, the entire crew remained focused in attempt to preserve their lives a moment longer.
Out in space, the Vipers fought off the incoming wave of Raiders, picking them slowly off as they neared the civilian vessels that were left rather unprotected. A few lives had already been lost, and though no on could begin to comprehend what Kara’s reappearance meant, they found comfort in the call of her voice over the open communication lines. She was beside them, taking out the so-called enemy, and watching all of their backs. If she was actually their opposition, she was doing a poor job of showing it.
Sam “Longshot” Anders launched out in his Viper in the last wave of pilots to join the fight. He had been both fearing and waiting for the day they would once again be in a dogfight with the cylons, for he knew that if he made it out of the fight, he would come with serene peace of mind or another nail to the coffin of his proverbial life. It all depended on the circumstances. His ship took off, sticking close to his nearby wingman at first, though once they reached the heart of the fight, all manners of regulation were lost. He took aim at the Raider heading for a Viper in front of him and fired. That newborn nugget panic was no longer with him like it had been months ago during the exodus and all the practice he’d had since then had greatly improved his skill and aim.
He took out another enemy ship and was about to go for a third, when a Raider swooped down over the top of his bird, slowing to the same speed as him. It wasn’t like that first incident when the Raider had merely turned around by itself and made contact. This time it kept as close as possible as it flew backward, almost human in the way it seemed to need to get a better look. He nearly missed the other four Raiders that pulled up along side, flying as if they were guiding him in. The ship leading the pack opened the metal shielding just as it had done the last time, red eye running back and forth as it watched Sam. Though alarmed, he wasn’t as unprepared for it as he had been previously. Going into this fight, he knew what was going to come and welcomed the possible answers it brought, although the implications of it were something else he would have to deal with.
Sam held his ship steady until the familiar process was over, and within seconds, each of the five ships peeled away and off, beginning the retreat. Around him, Sam saw the other Raiders starting to do the same and the calls on the wireless confirmed the phenomenon to he happening again. His chest ached with how close he’d come to death a second time, although now he wondered if death truly wasn’t the end for him anymore. He heard Hot Dog and Apollo speak loud and above all the rest and then he heard a voice he never thought he would hear again. He heard Kara. The first time, he was certain he was doing nothing more than hallucinating her, but the second time confirmed it and washed away his doubts. Kara was here and suddenly Anders wondered if maybe the Final Five weren’t the Final Six after all.
-
Despite the retreat from the cylon forces, the Vipers stayed out until the civilian ships began to jump away and Galactica put in the call for them to return for the battlestar’s own jump. Apollo was the last to land, though he knew that was usually Kara’s tradition. He couldn’t let her be the final one this time, afraid if he turned his head away from her she wouldn’t make it back on board. He watched her ship come in for the combat landing ahead of him, Viper bouncing and scraping along the deck just as his was. Before their ships had even come to a full stop, the landing pods fully closed into its resting state tucked into Galactica’s sides, and the pull of an FTL jump took them away to safety.
The wait for their ships to be lowered down onto the main deck was unbearable for him and as soon as there was any amount of pressure available, he began unsealing his cockpit canopy and pulling his helmet off. Apollo didn’t even wait for a deck crew member to tug a ladder towards his ship, instead sliding down off the wing, hitting the floor and heading down the deck to where he knew Kara’s ship was to have been placed. The crowd thickened as he neared her and Lee forgot all his manners, pushing through with as much force as he could muster up. Despite how long he had imagined her and her ship beside his own, he still feared it would all be a dream. It would have been his longest imagining of her to date, but he wouldn’t believe it until he could touch her, kiss her, breathe her in. His senses need to be consumed by her.
While he was still a few people back, he saw her long blonde hair fall out of her helmet as it was removed, glimpses of her taken between the windows made between the bodies of those in front of him. When he finally made it through, he didn’t stop, not even for a second, instead throwing himself at her. Lee gathered her up in his arms, holding her closer than he ever had, even when they were undressed. His arms slid under both of hers, hand stretched up to cradle the back of her head and neck against his shoulder as his face buried into her hair. He had felt her before in some of the hallucinations, but only for a moment before reality sunk back in. As he held her then, he knew that while all his manifestations of her had been close, it had never been this vibrant. The color of her hair was just right, even under the deck lighting. The weight of her against him was just enough. Even the smell of her was perfect, so unlike anything he had even imagined in the last two months.
Kara’s arms gripped around him in return and she felt the slight shake of his chest, alerting her to the emotion that was wracking through him. She pulled her gloves off and let them fall to the floor without worry, her palms smoothing down his back, even if he was in the flight suit. She had to be near him, had to be touching him. Fingers moved upward and she ran her hands through his hair, though she noted that it felt oddly different than it had the last time they had been there. It felt longer, it looked longer, but she knew it couldn’t be true.
“Lee,” Kara whispered as they held each other close. “It’s okay, but if you don’t let go of me, soon the whole deck’s going to know.” She didn’t say what they would know, but from her whisper Lee would understand what she meant.
He released her only pulling back enough to look at her face. She smelled and felt real, now he needed to look at the face he’d dreamt of for years and make sure that, too, was perfect. “Everyone already knows, Kara.” He said and touched her face, a finger starting at the corner of her eye where her skin creased, tracing down over her cheek bones to the corner of her lips.
“How the frak could they know? I know I was gone for a few hours, but when I left, no one had a clue.” Her volume raised ever so slightly as she addressed the situation, fear in her chest.
“Kara,” Lee started, bewilderment over his face. “You haven’t been gone hours. It’s been two months.”
She froze, then smiled, shaking her head. “Stop frakking around, I’m sorry I made you worry.”
Lee shook his head with conviction, his eyes showing the severity of his words. “Two months. I saw your ship explode. You died.”
A laugh left her again, this time it was less convincing than the rest. “I don’t know what game you’re playing…” Her words were silenced as she noticed a commotion out of the corner of her eye, only to find Sam pushing his own way through. Unlike Lee, he did stop when he saw her.
“Kara,” Sam said with reverence.
Lee released her with great reluctance and stepped aside. He wanted to be selfish, keep her to himself for the rest of their lives, but the past weeks and months had made her two former lovers grow closer in wake of her death. Sam needed this just as much as he did.
All at once, Sam stepped forward and tugged her up in his arms, lifting her from the floor as he did so, his height aiding in the process. He kissed her head and let go of her, smile wide over his features.
“I’m okay, Sam,” Kara said, though her tone wasn’t stiff like it had been in the time following their separation.
The reunion was cut short, however, as the crowd parted and the Admiral appeared, flanked by Tigh and a group of marines. Kara pulled away from Sam to step forward, hands on her hips in the definition of pride. In that minute, she wasn’t just Kara Thrace or Major Thrace, or even Starbuck. She was the Commander all over again.
“I did it, boss. I found Earth,” Kara declared to him, her face alight with her news. “It’s beautiful.”
Across from her, Bill watched her with pain in his eyes. He wanted to believe this was the woman he knew to be his daughter. The ache from her death hadn’t gotten any less or easier to deal with, he had simply grown accustomed to having it be part of his life. Despite how much he wanted it to be her, he knew it could not. It was a trick and a betrayal of the absolute worst kind. “Starbuck is dead. She died two months ago when her Viper exploded. You’re not her.”
Kara recoiled in hurt as she took in what he was saying. She moved back half a step, bumping into Lee as he had stepped forward, looking to protect her. “That’s impossible, my ship’s clock reads six hours and change. I’m alive, I’m here!”
“Put it under arrest and take it to Cottle.” Tigh said, needing to speak for the Old Man and his crumbling sense of self, though Saul’s own ability to deal with such a scenario was shoddy at best. He and Kara hadn’t started off the best of friends, but that had changed since even before New Caprica.
Kara looked back to Lee for support, but she saw the truth on his face as well. He hadn’t been joking half a minute ago. She felt as if she was losing her mind, but she knew what she saw, knew what she remembered.
The marines moved in, guns drawn as they circled around her, and Kara felt Lee step in front of her, arms spread wide as if to use his body as a shield. “Don’t touch her,” he warned without even thinking. Everything had happened so fast, he wasn’t even sure what Kara’s return could have meant or how it was possible. Despite how by the book and based on fact and logic he usually was, nothing mattered now that she had come back.
“Captain! Back away from her,” the marine in charge warned him.
“Lee.” His father said much gentler, as if to encourage him to fall in line.
“No one touches her!” From behind both he and Kara, a marine moved in and grabbed at her, tugging her back and away. Lee spun around, watching the expression Kara wore as she resisted. It wasn’t anger or rage there, but rather the burn of being betrayed by the family she held dear to her. He moved forward to pull her back, but her hands were already cuffed behind her. Despite the guns being pointed at him rather closely, Lee paid them no mind, instead entirely focused on not letting her out of his sight. “Let me go with her.” Lee pleaded to his father from where he stood as a pair of marines stepped between him and Kara. He could hardly see her and that built a panic inside of him. If he wasn’t looking at her, she would disappear.
Though Adama knew better than to show weakness in front of the crew, especially when it came to treating his son favorably, he nodded in concession. “Take him with her,” he ordered, and the troupe of marines led Kara and Lee, separately, off of the deck and towards sickbay. As Lee passed his father, he nodded his head in a small moment of thanks.
-
Kara didn’t fight with Cottle through the lengthy and embarrassing physical she was required to endure, a marine standing guard only a few feet away through the process of it. She had just tugged the front of her gown closed when another guard Let lee into the private room she’d been kept in, not for her comfort, but for the safety of others, or so she presumed. She barely lifted her head to acknowledge him as he came close, her spirits that had once been lifted to new heights with her news from Earth having been trampled down upon by the treatment she received when she came back.
The pair of guards stood a few feet away by the doorway, though it didn’t give the couple even a sliver of privacy. Kara sat perched on the side of the bed, bare legs dangling towards the floor. Rather than sitting next to her, Lee dragged the nearby chair to her bedside and sat on the edge of it, just in front of her. He leaned in, her knees parting barely to cradle his sides as his arms curled around her midsection. Lee hugged himself to her low chest, head resting there against her. Kara, though shaken by the events of the last few hours, wrapped her arms around him loosely, spine arched forward as she kissed the top of his head from above.
“I don’t know what’s going on, Lee,” she confessed and all that confidence from earlier disappeared instantly inside of her.
“It doesn’t matter.” His words were mumbled against the thin fabric of the gown she wore.
She squeezed him tight in response, feeling the tears pool in her eyes. Aside from her memories of Earth, she could recall how things had been left with him earlier in the day. At least, it had been earlier in the day for her. The pain of it was still fresh, though she knew it wasn’t the time to bring it up and apologize again, if there ever would be a right time for that. Kara released him and pried his arms off her and he allowed her without much resistance. His face read of hurt and confusion, but she shook her head and pushed him back into his chair. When he was seated in it fully, she slid off the hospital bed and onto his lap, her body perpendicular across his thighs. She hooked an arm around his shoulders, her other hand stroking over his cheek.
Lee watched her, one arm moving back around her as she settled into position. He couldn’t remember her ever doing something like this with him, something so incredibly intimate without being provocative. His hand mimicked hers, cupping her cheek, content to be lost in her eyes for as long as he could.
“I know-” she paused. “I know when I close my eyes I can see the last few hours. I know what I saw. I know it was real. Then you tell me it’s been months since you last saw me and I don’t know what to think.” Her fingers shifted from his cheek into his hair. “I don’t want to believe it, but Lee I look at-” She choked on her words, clenching her eyes closed as she broke down. When they opened again, tears pooled at the corners. “I look at your hair. I know when I cut it. It was only a few weeks ago. I know how it looked when I last saw you and I know this isn’t it.” Her fingers stroked through his hair, like the touch of its added length would make it real to her.
“We’ll figure it out,” Lee insisted, because he knew they absolutely would. Whatever anyone else decided for her or about her, he would remain loyal. He had lost her once before and now he knew he could never do it again. He wouldn’t survive it. “Kara,” he whispered and she drew herself in closer to hear him, knowing that his words were intended for her and not the prying ears of the guards. “If it comes to it, we can leave. I know some people in the fleet, we can disappear from here. I won’t let anyone take you from me again.”
Kara withdrew from him after he finished, just far enough back to look into his eyes without getting dizzy from the degree of closeness. She knew what they believed had happened to her: she went down into the planet, the pressure crushed her ship, it exploded and took her with it. That wasn’t how she remembered it. For her it had been a couple of hours, though she couldn’t recall exactly how she had gotten from point A to point B. Regardless of it all, looking at him then she could see how much he had suffered with her gone. She hadn’t been gone for a few hours, hadn’t been just missing. She had been dead and he had watched her die. There would never be a way for her to understand that, at least without him dying, and she refused to even consider the notion of it.
“I’m here,” she said to reassure him. Kara took his hand from her cheek and slid it just inside the front of the thin hospital robe until his palm came to rest against the skin just above her breast, but over her heart. “You can feel it. I’m not dead.” She searched his eyes for some recognition of her words, that he understood. Instead she found his eyes heavy with his own tears, the very sight of which broke her through and through. Kara’s hand was replaced on his cheek and she moved in towards him until their mouths met. She was gentle, but firm, lips parting to welcome in the taste of him again. For her it had been hours since they laid in her bunk together after they made love. For him, she knew it had been months and he had genuinely thought he would never experience this again.
His lips responded to hers instantly, hungry and yet restrained. In his dreams, he would kiss her, but never fully taste her. It was like eating without ever enjoying the experience of it. It got you full, but it wasn’t as it should have been. This now, her mouth against his, was like it always was. The sense memory of her mouth reminded him of every moment they’d shared, from her dining room table to the kiss on the Astral Queen, from New Caprica to the night in the CAG’s office before the algae planet. This was real, vivid, and full of color. He didn’t care if the marines were watching or what they were thinking about it, if they were judging him for being in love with the woman presumed to be a cylon. None of it mattered.
Kara pulled back after a moment. She hadn’t wanted to, but knew it was important he understood her intent. “I didn’t die. I didn’t leave you,” she said at full volume. Lee nodded to her just barely and the softest of smiles came over her. “You’re Lee, I’m Kara, and the rest of it isn’t worth a damn. Right?”
“Right.” Lee said and drew her mouth back to his to begin drinking her in again.
-
The Admiral’s quarters were crowded, an increasingly rare sight. Lee sat beside Kara, though giving her the space he knew she needed for the interrogation she was to endure at his father and Roslin’s hands. “Do we really need the marine guard?” He questioned, an eye on his father.
Bill shot him a look in response and Lee, wisely, chose not to challenge him on it.
“What’s Cottle’s verdict?” Kara asked.
Adama was silent as he set the folder with her latest medical report down on the coffee table. “Everything checks out.” Though the chief medical doctor had given her the all clear, he couldn’t begin to wrap his mind around it.
“So I’m not a cylon, that is why you had me tested, right?”
“Kara, nobody said you were a cylon,” Lee started from next to her.
“They were thinking it.” Her head turned to him from where he sat on the same couch they shared. Had she not been in the hospital room with him an hour earlier, she would have questioned him as well. Lee had come with her, though, defied his father and risked his life to not be broken apart from her. “Do you want to see every scar I have?” She put her attention back on Laura, Bill, and Tory, her mood slowly becoming unhinged at the accusation. “Every tattoo?” Her hands began to untuck her shirt rapidly, pulling up the fabric. Lee reached over to still her fingers and it was enough to cause her movements to cease. She took a steady breath and released her shirt, hands restless in her lap.
Bill watched from his own seat next to Laura. All he wanted to do since she returned was to hug her as a father would to his daughter, but images of Boomer and the raise of her gun flashed through his eyes at each moment. He loved her and he was scared of her at the same time, and for that he felt guilt. “We had to be sure, Kara.”
Roslin remained the only one standing and it had the effect of showing her dominance over the others. “Let’s go over it again until it makes sense. Tell me everything that happened.”
The words spilled out of Kara, letting her anger take over her. “I flew into the storm, took some hits and passed out. When I came to, I was orbiting this planet. Its yellow moon and star matched the description in Pythia. I took these pictures in orbit,” she said and gestured to the pile of captures take from the camera on her Viper. “The star patterns match what we saw in the tomb of Athena.”
Skeptical, Laura kept up her act. “How did you get here?”
This time, Kara was subdued. “I told you, I don’t know exactly. I remember taking the photos. Turning my ship in a reciprocal heading. And then… I’m not sure. I must’ve blacked out again. Then I was back with the fleet.”
“And for you, all of this took six hours?”
She looked to Lee to summon the strength from him that she needed to get the words out. “I do not understand this time discrepancy either. All I know is I took the pictures, I was there, I didn’t imagine it.”
Lee reached to her and took Kara’s hand. She didn’t fight it, instead looped her fingers into his own.
-
“So it’s not the same ship?” Laura asked, arms crossed. Around her, Bill, Lee, Saul and Sam circled the Viper Kara had rode in on.
“Unless she found a hell of a body shop out there, no Ma’am it’s not.” Tyrol said with great reluctance. He didn’t know what Kara was or what had happened out there, but more than anything he wanted to give the President a reason not to doubt the pilot. It wasn’t something he would have been able to cover up, not with all the differences that were plain as day in the ship. It may have had her name on it and number on the tail, but the metal of it was brand new. The paint was clean, crisp, and not a single scratch made to it. Even he hadn’t seen one looking this new when they were mere museum pieces.
“Admiral, it’s not just the outside either. This is the data from the nav computer.” He turned on the nearby machine, displaying the information that should have been downloaded from the ship’s hard drive. “There isn’t any. It’s just blank. There’s no record of where this ship has been.” Galen paused, waiting to deliver the next news. “I opened her up myself, sir. The ship’s been outfitted with what I’d say looks like an FTL drive.”
Everyone’s eyes looked up from wherever they were.
“Viper’s don’t have FTL drives, Chief, certainly not Mark IIs,” Tigh said from the back, though it was common knowledge to the rest of them, aside from the President. The blackbird, or the ‘Laura’ as it had been named, had been unique in that regard.
Tyrol nodded with a sigh and hit a button on the deck computer until a new series of numbers was brought up. “It isn’t Colonial, I know that much. I tested the fuel in the ship as well, it’s tyllium based, but not exactly the same as the kind we use. To put it straight, it isn’t what we fueled her up with when she left, so even if this was the ship she left in, it would mean she fueled up somewhere else.”
“Put her in the brig,” Laura declared, making the decision so Bill didn’t have to.
Lee came barreling down the ladder of the Viper, accusation in his posture. “What? So things don’t add up and we’re back to thinking she’s a cylon? What about Cottle’s test?”
“Cottle’s test doesn’t prove anything,” Tigh said with regret.
Laura looked out onto the deck, a far away look haunting her. “She could have been a cylon from the very beginning.”
The XO’s voice resounded again, “Baltar’s test was a crock, it failed to ID boomer.”
“I know how you feel about her, Lee,” the President directed her attention to the younger Adama. “But that is exactly what the cylons could be counting on here. What if she was placed here years ago and she sought you out?” Her eyes lifted to Bill. “She got the Admiral to think of her as a daughter, the Admiral’s son to fall in love with her. Don’t you understand how much control she has over both of you?”
“Enough!” Lee’s temper flared as the words continued on out of Roslin. “She rescued you from that Gods forsaken planet too. You were happy that she came back for you when she and my father should have left us behind for dead. You were here when we mourned her death! And now this is how you talk about her? Like she just schemed up the last what, six years? Are you going to tell me my brother dying was some part of it now too?” He burned with the anger he felt inside of him. “If Kara Thrace wasn’t part of this fleet, we all would have died that first day on our own. You don’t understand a frakking thing about her.”
Sam stayed quiet, feeling the odd man out in the situation. While the rest of them were the fleet’s top officers, as well as the President of the Colonies, he was there merely as someone who had been close to her and perhaps could provide any insight into Kara. He had the feeling that by insight, they actually meant for him to share any moments in their relationship when her behavior could have suggested she not be on their team. With his own secrets, Sam had been wary of volunteering a single speck of information.
“That’s enough, Lee,” Bill’s voice ordered and his son backed down.
The President paid Lee no mind outwardly, though inwardly she felt remorse for what her own logic was drawing her towards. “That cylon fleet had enough fire power to blow us out of the sky again, but instead they ran and jumped. And there’s Kara Thrace suddenly back from the dead, having found Earth. Bill, she was in Command of Pegasus when the Raiders pulled back last time, and here she was again, the first time we’ve really fought them since the exodus. That can’t be coincidence.”
Sam’s eyes raised, his skin burning with his own quietly kept knowledge. It was a coincidence, of that he was certain, at least regarding Kara. For himself, and what he’d witnessed during both of the fights, he knew the guilty party lay in him. He couldn’t let Kara take the fall for what he was.
“If she could lead us off our course,” Roslin started again.
Accusingly, Lee cut in. “Course? What course? The nebula was supposed to be another clue on the way to Earth.”
“The nebula-” Laura interrupted. “-Was only a road sign along the way to Earth. We need to continue to follow it’s path.”
With his head shaking, Lee stepped away, pacing. “What if Kara is the clue we were supposed to find?” His atheism was well known to those who knew him, but after witnessing Kara’s return, he had begun to doubt his lack of faith.
“What if she’s playing you? And all of us?”
While the rest of the group stayed still in contemplation, Lee headed towards the nearest hatch that would lead him off the deck floor. “She’s not.”
-
Elsewhere on the ship, Laura had D’Anna pulled from her holding cell, away from Leoben, and brought to a nearby storage unit. The door was left open and a marine stood guard inside with the President, a few more waiting outside.
“I want to talk about the other cylons, the ones I know you refer to as the Final Five.”
D’Anna walked back and forth across the enclosed space, enjoying the slight increase in freedom when compared to her cell. Though her hands were cuffed along with her feet as a precaution to prevent her escape, she moved like she was unhindered. Looking for a place to sit, she settled for leaning against the large and intricate metal cylindrical item that had come to be stored there months ago, once it was pulled out of space. It had seemed amazingly important at the time, but the beacon had come to be abandoned and forgotten in the storage locker.
“What you’re really asking is if Kara Thrace is a cylon.” She idly picked a speck of dust off her clothing, playing up her feigned disinterest.
“I heard you were seeing images of the Final Five inbetween downloads.” Though as of late, their interrogation of the cylons had fallen to the wayside, they had gleaned some information out of the two of them and Baltar after their initial capture. Baltar, of course, had been the weakest link and had the loosest tongue.
“You already know I don’t know who they are.” A single eyebrow rose. “Though even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”
“Do you think we’re stupid, D’Anna?” Laura took her glasses off, folding the arms in and held them between her hands. “You and Leoben could have killed yourselves at any time and resurrected somewhere else. There’s a chance you’d be out of range, but it’s not much of one. I think you’re staying here for a reason. You’re afraid what will happen when you go back.”
Though she tried to keep her face steeled, she knew was behaving more like human than cylon when it came to shielding her emotions.
“I also know we just sentenced Baltar to death for the things you made him do on New Caprica and I don’t think you want to see him go out the airlock.”
D’Anna’s mind wandered to the time she had shared with Baltar, although she had split him with Caprica Six. He’d taken her side when they went to that algae planet, though it had been selfishly to discover if he was in fact cylon. Even that small amount of loyalty was something she hadn’t felt from anyone but her fellow Threes.
“Why did your people recall the Raiders today?”
The cylon thought of Baltar and what the President seemed to be implying in her words.
“As the President of the Colonies, D’Anna, I’m the only one who can offer a full pardon.”
“How do I know you won’t just kill him anyway after you get what you want,” she said.
“He’s guaranteed to die if you don’t talk, maybe he’ll have a small chance if you do.” Laura resorted to the harder version of herself that she’d grown into since the end of the worlds. This hadn’t been very much like the school teacher she was all those years before.
“Your word is all I have then,” said D’Anna. “On New Caprica, when Galactica and Pegasus returned for you, we found that the Raiders turned back to our ships, despite orders. We weren’t able to figure out why until one of our hybrids made mention a few weeks later about one of the Five being found. Our theory became that a Raider had located one of the Five, realized who they were, and sent a message to the rest to pull back.”
Laura listened intently, trying to absorb and commit to memory all the details the cylon was sharing with her. “Why would the Raiders do that?”
“They’re not like centurions or the rest of the models. The Raiders have free will, where as the centurions have theirs inhibited. And us, we’re just completely different. We have free will, but we aren’t tapped into whatever the Raiders are able to sense. We’ve been programmed not to think of the Final Five, but for some reason they haven’t. We assumed they found one of the Five and made the decision that harm to them was not worth the risk of it all and pulled back.” Her shoulders shrugged. “That was the theory at least, although it happening again is confirmation enough.”
“But how would a Raider find one of the Five?”
D’Anna pulled a wry smile over her face. “The longer I’ve been here, the more I could feel it. I don’t know what it is, if it’s the call of cylon to cylon inside of me, but I can feel it. When they didn’t show their faces to me in the temple, I thought I’d been abandoned, but I realized a long time ago that I was meant to be brought here to be closer. The Final Five are in your fleet, and the one that’s been turning the Raiders away is one of your pilots. A pilot that fought at New Caprica and fought again today.”
The President’s jaw hung open just barely, trying to contemplate the wealth of information. The Final Five were in the fleet, at least according to D’Anna. Were they aware of who they were, were they sleepers, were they sabotaging the fleet all along? “Who is it?”
The cylon moved to shake her head. She wasn’t sure who it was, but she had a guess at it, a strong guess at that. Before her head could signal her lack of an answer, a knock sounded at the nearby open hatchway. Both the cylon and President turned towards the doorway. A marine poked his head in.
“Madame President, there’s someone here that says he needs to talk to you. Regarding the cylons, sir.”
Apprehensive, Laura nodded her head and the door pulled open wider. The culprit stepped inside.
“It’s me,” Sam said, having overheard the conversation from outside the door as he passed. “And I know who the others are.”