Those Who Lift Each Other, Chapter 1, part 1
Title: Those Who Lift Each Other, Chapter 1: It's the End of the World As We Know It
Author: lls_mutant
Fandom: Glee/Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Rating: R, for adult themes and violence
Pairing(s): BSG: canon pairings, plus Gaeta/Baltar. Glee: Burt/Carole and Tina/Mike. Cross-fandom: Puck/Ellen, Kurt/Baltar, Santana/various pilots, Sam/Rya Kibby.
Warning(s): War-related violence, abortion issues, BSG-canon suicide, torture, PTSD, character deaths. (Character deaths are both canon BSG deaths and Glee deaths.)
Fic Summary: When the Cylons attacked, the kids of New Directions were on board the Cybele, on their way to the All-Colony Show Choir Competition. Now they're members of the Fleet, being chased by the Cylons and trying to deal with the day-to-day struggles of a life after the worlds end.
Chapter Summary: After the dust starts to settle, Will realizes he no longer has a glee club on his hands, but twelve kids, ten of whom are now orphans.
Notes: This is a 16 part story. Each chapter is from the POV of a Glee character, working through the BSG canon. BSG canon does not change; this ends up being an "average people in the Fleet" story. More information about the series and what I'm planning can be found here. Also, huge thanks to kappamaki33, who is betaing this monster.
They had their tickets, they had checked their luggage, and they had gone through security. They were just about to approach gate Epsilon Seven when Rachel stopped them all.
"Mr. Schue? I think we just need to take a moment… right here and right now, for us to consider just how far we've come in three years." Rachel pulled in a deep breath, her eyes shining and her excitement palpable. "This is the moment we will be able to tell our children about." There was a murmuring of agreement, and Rachel smiled wider. "The moment when you were on stage with me."
And, yet again, Rachel put her foot in it. Will wondered why he even bothered to be surprised about that at this point. Seriously, people vastly underestimated the skill teachers required in diplomacy.
"Rachel's right," he jumped in before the others could attack her. "Well, mostly. This is a big deal, guys! The All-Colony Show Choir Championships! And let me just say, I am so proud of each and every one of you. You have all worked so hard, and you all deserve this."
The kids were grinning back at him. "I've got an idea," Will said suddenly. "Line up." He pulled a camera out of his bag. "Come on, guys. Let's mark the moment!" The kids all grouped together, arms around each others' shoulders and smiles on their faces. "Say cheese," Will said lightly, then snapped the picture.
Predictably, as soon as the shutter clicked, the kids started squabbling.
"We should practice on the ship," Rachel declared. "We can't rest. If we're going to win-"
"Yeah, I'm sure that listening to us singing for the whole time won't make the entire cabin want to space themselves," Mercedes said, rolling her eyes.
"But we're awesome," Brittany answered. "You can't get that in the vacuum of space."
Mercedes stared at her, probably just amazed that Brittany knew the word vacuum in relation to space, but Finn picked the argument up. "It's a two hour flight, Rachel. Two hours isn't going to make a difference."
"Every second could make a difference," Rachel insisted. "We can't afford to get sloppy."
"With that sweater?" Kurt piped up. "I think it's too late."
Will tuned them out and checked the itinerary in his hand one more time. Twelve kids, four adults… he could do this.
"Well, William, I must say. This is going to go better than I expected."
Will eyed Sue warily. "Just get to the punch line, will you, Sue? I'm not in the mood for the big set up right now."
"Who said there was a punch line?" Sue asked, radiating clearly fake innocence. "I'm seriously impressed that you managed to get twelve kids to the spaceport and not have any of them run off to the nearest opium den just to get away from the sight of that ravine that divides your chin in two. Gods know I sure considered it."
Will rolled his eyes. Off to the side, he noticed Carole and Burt smirking, but he couldn't tell if they were laughing at them or at the kids. "You didn't have to come," he reminded her.
"On the contrary, William, I did. Old Figgins was so worried about you and Ricky and Lucy here taking all these kids off-world without ever having been yourself that he had to send someone who has actually been out of the backwaters of Gemenon and knows their way around Caprican society. And since the Bieste there was already busy shuttling her steroid-addled wrestle-monkeys and her dapper little bebopping manager to that championship on Caprica, the only one he could rely on to keep your asses out of trouble was me."
"Lucky for us," Burt muttered from the sidelines. Carole snickered and then winked at Will. He smiled back.
"Whatever. Come on, Sue. Let's herd them all into the waiting area."
The waiting area was small and shabby; Gemenon Argonaut Airlines was a bargain company. They carried cargo and passengers, and in that order of priority. Outside the window Will could see their ship waiting. The Cybele was distinctly shabby, with four huge cargo compartments making up the bulk of the craft, and a small passenger cabin perched high above them. Will didn't want to admit it, but Sue was right about one thing- he was nervous. He hadn't been off-world since his own club had gone to the All-Colony Show Choir Competition his senior year of high school, and the prospect of being off-world with twelve excited, hyper, and prone-to-romantic-geometry teenager was a little daunting.
The kids sprawled across the waiting area. Mercedes, Brittany, and Santana were working on runs together, Finn and Puck were arguing about pyramid, Artie and Sam were playing some sort of electronic game, Kurt was on his phone to Blaine if the glowing expression was any indication, Rachel was pacing and glaring at her music, Quinn was reading a guidebook, and Mike and Tina were getting a little too close for Will's comfort. Fortunately, Burt grabbed Mike by the scruff of his neck and cleared his throat loudly, and the two of them backed off each other for a moment. Will wanted to laugh, but he realized hotel arrangements were really going to get fun on this trip, especially once Blaine and Lauren met up with them from the wrestling tournament.
Fortunately, that train of thought was interrupted by the flight attendant calling for passengers to begin boarding. Will jumped to his feet, excitement edging out nerves. "All right, let's go!" Will called out, standing by the gate. The kids stood up, tossing carryon bags over their shoulders or tucking them under their arms. Rachel immediately took her place at the front of the line, a smug, excited smile on her face.
There was a huge bang, and the spaceport shook.
"What was that?" Santana asked, but no one answered.
Will looked at the flight attendant, a portly man with thinning brown hair and a sweaty face, who shrugged. But he could see the furrow of worry between the man's brows. "Start the boarding process!" he shouted. "Everyone in line, please! No shoving. Let's get-"
He was cut off by a sound that was distinctly an explosion. It was clearly happening in the distance, but it was an explosion nonetheless.
"Should we get on?" Will asked the flight attendant.
"Sir, I don't think that's wise," the flight attendant said. There was panic in the spaceport now. People were gravitating towards television screens and checking their phones for alerts. Whatever the news was, it wasn't good. Automatically, Will looked over his shoulder at the kids. They all looked confused and worried.
The flight attendant's walkie talkie buzzed. "Robert," a woman's scared, firm voice said, "get everyone on. Now. As many people as you can. Even if they don't have tickets."
"Why?" Will asked, fear blooming in his stomach and coursing through his muscles. "What's going on?" But the captain wasn't there to answer.
"Get on," Robert ordered. Will wanted to press for more details, but there was another explosion and out the window, he could see the previously blue sky was turning dark. He nodded, the fear sharpening. Whatever was happening was not good.
"Come on," he shouted at the kids. "Let's go. Rachel, Finn, Puck, Santana, Brittany, Quinn…" he put a hand on each kid's back as he counted them. "Mike, Sam, give Artie a hand and speed us up, will you?" he shouted. There was more commotion now in the spaceport, the anxious talk becoming louder and more urgent in tone. Finn and Puck obeyed without argument. "Tina, Mercedes, Kurt…" he looked around frantically.
He wished he could find some sort of comfort in the faces around him, but there was none. People were running to spaceships now, and the tide was picking up.
"Come on." Sue grabbed Will's collar and yanked him into the gate. Burt and Carole followed, both of them hustling and looking over their shoulders. Another explosion resounded, and this one shook the ship.
"Move it!" someone yelled from behind them, and Will could feel the press of people desperate to get on this ship. He half ran and was half shoved through the short corridors and into the passenger cabin. The seats were tightly packed and arranged in a three-six-three arrangement, although the row Artie was sitting in only had two seats, and a spot where his wheelchair was strapped down. New Directions was scattered in blocks in two rows.
The kids were already buckled in when he made it into the cabin. Will tried to count them once more, but Sue forced him down into his seat and disappeared. Carole slid into the seat next to him. "Get your straps done," she hissed at him. Her face was pale, and she leaned over him. Will finally realized he had a window seat and looked out. One glance made him he wished he hadn't, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from the sight outside.
From this height, he could see beyond the spaceport. A mushroom cloud bloomed in the distance, the stem of smoke coursing up to the dark sky. The winds whipped the trees and the sky was dark, and he could see darker, sootier smoke rising from several spots on the horizon.
"Oh my gods," he heard Finn say. He turned to look- Finn was seated across the cabin. Will couldn't see out the window from where he sat, but Rachel leaned over Finn and then drew back with a strangled cry. He had the terrible feeling the view was the same from both sides.
"Mr. Schue?" Artie turned around in his seat. "What's happening?"
"I don't know," Will said. And that was the worst truth of all- he had no idea. Absolutely no idea. "But it looks bad."
The engines roared to life, and Robert, the frantic flight attendant, appeared in the front. "Everyone make sure you're strapped in!" he yelled. "We're filled up and we're running for it!"
"Filled up?" Burt asked from the other side of Carole. "That doesn't sound good."
"Neither does 'we're running for it'," Carole agreed. She grasped Burt's hand. The Cybele began to lift off, and Will's own hands tightened around the armrests on his seat.
As they lifted off, Will looked out the window again. To his horror, he could see not one, not two, but three thick columns of smoke. Fires raged beneath them, wrecked cars blocked the freeway, and buildings collapsed. Ships like Will had never seen whizzed through the sky, criss-crossing and dropping bombs. And an army marched down the freeway and onto the smaller roads, immense and precise and… and…
Mechanical?
He strained his eyes, but he couldn't make his brain make sense of what he was seeing. The Cybele was rising so fast that he didn't have time to examine or evaluate the scenes on the ground; just time for the images to burn into his retinas. He swallowed hard against the changing pressure as they soared out of the atmosphere, and then his eyes widened as he saw hundreds- no, thousands- of ships against the backdrop of space. People in the cabin started screaming, but Will could only stare in stupefied silence. Huge ships that looked like giant spurs or thistles launched thousands of tiny crescent-shaped crafts. He wasn't an expert, but he was positive there was nothing like those on the Colonies.
Ships veered down towards the surface of Gemenon in startlingly perfect formation. All of Gemenon, from what he could tell. The entire colony was under attack. Will strained to look down again. He'd seen pictures of Gemenon from space, landmasses and mountains and oceans… now he could see nothing but flame, destruction, and death.
How many people was he watching die right now?
People screamed on the other side of the cabin, and he instinctively balled up on himself, covering his head. Then the world jerked as they jumped to faster-than-light speed, but it barely registered. He braced himself, waiting for whatever would hit them, for one of those ships to blow them all to smithereens.
Nothing.
He looked out the window again. They were floating in space, the stars looking serene and peaceful.
His breath came in short spurts, and he couldn't control his shaking. They were alive. His heart was pounding so hard that Will thought it might explode, and his veins ached with the speed of the blood pulsing through them.
"What the frak just happened?"
He couldn't identify the speaker, but really, whoever it was spoke for everyone. Will had seen the horrible images for himself, and yet he couldn't make his mind understand.
"It's the Capricans," someone shouted. "The Capricans have declared war on us!"
"Why would the Capricans declare war on us?" a woman responded. "We've never been at war with the Capricans! If it's anyone, it's the Taurons. There was that article just last week about the Taurons' secret military ships, and I sure as hell have never seen anything like those!"
"An uprising?" a man suggested. "The monotheistic worshippers have a penchant for terror attacks."
"This wasn't a terrorist attack," Robert said. "There's no terrorist organization in the Colonies that has that kind of financing and military power. In fact, I-" he tapped his headset and paled. "Excuse me," he said, and ducked out of the passenger cabin.
In front of Will, Quinn turned around. "Do you have any idea what's going on, Mr. Schuester?"
Will shook his head and had to swallow a few times before he could speak. "I don't have the first idea, Quinn. I just… I just know what I saw."
"Well, what happened to everyone else?" Artie asked. "It was just Oranu that was attacked, right? I mean, Lima should be okay."
"Yeah," Sam leaned over the aisle and added in. "Who would drop a bomb on Lima?"
"It would be one hell of a waste of a bomb," Puck muttered.
Will looked around helplessly. People were arguing, crying, trying to soothe each other, just sitting silently, ashen and lost.
He opened his mouth to tell them that Lima was safe, then shut it again. He knew nothing, and they knew he knew nothing.
Will instinctively reached for his phone, then sighed tossed it into the pouch on the back of the seat in front of him. He heard Kurt trying his phone even though they were too far out of range now that they'd jumped, trying to get through to Blaine on Caprica, but judging by the frantic pitch of his voice he was unsuccessful. Will rested his forehead on his knuckles and looked out the window again.
He had no idea how much time had passed when the loudspeaker crackled into life. "This is Captain Xu. I need your attention."
There was an explosion of conversation, followed by people hushing each other. Robert entered the cabin and yelled for people to quiet down, and the babble died away quickly. The captain spoke into the silence.
"Right now, we do not know exactly what has happened on Gemenon. However, we are getting reports that all of the other Colonies are under attack as well. Several ships have reported that the attacks are coming from the Cylons.
"We don't know how many people have escaped the Colonies. We don't know anything about the fate of the Colonies themselves. We do know that the destruction is widespread, and that the number dead must be in the millions. We don't know what will happen next.
"I ask that, right now, we take a few moments of silence to pray for the victims of this holocaust." The cabin was silent, except for the cackle of static from the address system. Will bowed his head, but he couldn't shut his eyes. His entire body was numb, and he imagined he could hear the people on Gemenon screaming. Whatever was happening was probably still going on.
"I don't know what is going to happen," Captain Xu said finally, "but we will keep you posted. Please do not attempt to come to the control room in an effort to find out more; I assure you that I will pass on any information I have."
The intercom went quiet, and the cabin exploded into talk again. Will sat back in his seat, hands gripping the armrests.
He wanted to tell the kids- to tell himself- that everything was all right, but it would only be a lie. Nothing was right, and nothing ever would be right again.
***
"Cylons," Santana said. "How the frak can it be Cylons?"
The kids had rearranged themselves a little so they were sitting in the same two rows. "The Cylons are gone," Santana continued. "They can't just, like, come back and destroy twelve planets. That's ridiculous. They're robots."
"Robots made for killing," Artie pointed out. "And the Cylon War lasted for twelve and a half years before the Cimtar Peace Accord was signed."
"I didn't think anyone used scimitars anymore," Brittany said quietly. Everyone looked at her for a moment in silence.
"Whatever," Mercedes said. "I saw those ships that were attacking Gemenon, and they didn't look anything like the ones in the history- would you stop doing that?" she demanded, snatching Kurt's phone from his hands. "We're out in deep space. You're not going to get through to Caprica!"
"You never know," Kurt said desperately, on the verge of tears and trying to take the phone back from Mercedes. "There's always a chance-"
"There's not," Artie said quietly. "There's nothing to boost the signal. To any of the Colonies."
Sam sighed and tossed his own phone down. "Artie's right. I'm not getting anything from Gemenon, either. Not that I expected to on this cheap piece of shit, but…."
"Excuse me," Quinn interrupted, "but can it really be Cylons? I'm inclined to agree with Santana. The Cylons haven't been heard from in decades."
"What do you think, Mr. Schue?" Finn turned around to ask.
Will had been listening as quietly as he could, playing with his own phone and trying every contact number that he had. He'd tried earlier to go up and ask the flight attendant for more information, but had been firmly sent back to his seat and told to stay there. Truth be told, he was kind of hoping the kids would forget he was there. He mopped a hand over his face.
"I don't know, guys," he said finally. They all looked so desperate, staring at him like he could give answers. It irritated him a little, because they knew he didn't know any more than they did. "But the captain's getting her information from somewhere, so I assume-"
"Wait," Mercedes said, looking up anxiously, "if the Cylons are still out there, does that mean they'll find us again?"
"And where are we going to go?" Sam asked. "If they've attacked Gemenon-"
"What about our parents?" Tina asked, shrinking back against Mike, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "What about-"
"What about the All-Colony Show Choir Championships?" Rachel demanded. "We'll still get there in time, right Mr. Schuester?"
"Guys, guys, GUYS!" Will shouted, holding his hands up. "I don’t know, all right? I don't know anything! All I know is what we saw and what they've told us, and it looks bad! I don't know what to tell you guys right now, all right?"
Silence swept over the New Directions group as they all stared at him. Will struggled to rein in his temper.
"Look. They're working up there," he said. "They're getting in touch with other ships, and we'll know more soon. We just have to sit tight, okay?"
It wasn't the answer that they wanted to hear, but it was the only answer he could give them.
***
"Mr. Schue! Look!" It was Artie who called out.
Will jerked awake from an uneasy sleep to peer out the window. "Oh my Gods," he said, pressing his open palm to the window and looking out eagerly.
Carole leaned over his shoulder. "How many do you think there are?"
"I heard about sixty," Burt said from the other side of her.
"Sixty ships," Will said, lighting up. But Burt didn't smile. "What?" Will asked. "What's wrong?"
Burt shrugged. "I'm not that big on ships," he said. "I'm better with cars. But see that one over there?" He pointed at a ship with a huge lighted dome. Will nodded. "That's a botanical cruiser. They're used for vacations."
"So?"
"They don't have FTL drives."
For a moment, Will just wanted to shrug. But then he remembered that fleet of ships that they'd seen when they broke atmo over Gemenon. Precise, high-tech, and fast. Without the means to go faster than light, any ship happened on by those Cylons was going to be dead in the water, no matter how fast it could go otherwise.
"But space is a big place," Will said. "Finding a ship in space is… the odds…."
"Yeah," Burt muttered. "We can hope. I mean, what're the chances they'll be looking for us?" Burt didn't sound like he meant it.
The ships outside looked so serene, floating like this. Will took one deep breath, and then another. "We should say something to the kids," he murmured.
Carole patted his hand. "Like what?" she asked kindly. "Unless you were communicating with the gods in your sleep, you don’t know any more than the kids do right now."
"Yeah, but I should able to say something," Will said, frustrated. "I mean, I'm responsible for them. I'm their teacher." The thought made him look around suddenly for Sue, because damn, he needed help. But her seat was empty. Where she could have gone right now was beyond him, but he thought bitterly that he shouldn't be surprised.
That responsibility was starting to dawn on him. Before, when he'd taken the kids on trips, he'd always been safe in the knowledge that this was a temporary thing. The kids would all go home to their parents at the end of the day or the end of the weekend. The worst things he'd worried about were them sneaking into each other's rooms or getting lost or maybe even injured or… okay, there were some things he worried about that were more severe. But this….
This trip wasn't ending. If the rumors were right, they weren't going back to Gemenon, and every kid in New Directions except for Finn and Kurt were orphans now.
Hell, he was an orphan now, although the term didn't really apply. But his parents were dead, too.
"Oh my Gods," he whispered. "Everyone…."
"Don't think about it right now," Carole advised, but now that Will had started, he couldn't stop. It wasn't just his parents, but everyone. All the kids at school, all the teachers, Figgins, Emma- oh gods, Emma, Shannon… his parents, his friends… Terri. Terri was dead. He wasn't in love with her anymore, but for some reason, that was the one that Will's mind settled on. For some reason, that was the one that made this all real.
"You okay?" Burt asked, and his voice sounded very far away.
"Yeah. Yeah… just… give me a minute."
He closed his eyes again, and inside him a gulf threatened to open up. He felt like he was hanging on by his fingertips, ready to fall. If he did, it would only be grief and rage and loss… he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else. And right now, he had twelve kids who were going through the same sorts of losses. He couldn't fall apart. He simply did not have that luxury right now.
"All right," he said, opening his eyes. "I'm okay."
"You sure?" Carole said, her hand covering his.
"Yeah. I just… yeah." Will nodded. "So I shouldn't say anything to the-"
"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats." Captain Xu's voice over the announcement system interrupted him, and she sounded strained. "We will be jumping in less than a minute."
"Jumping?" Will looked out the window again. "I don't…." But he trailed off, because he saw it. One of those strange, pointy ships that looked like a thistle or a spur. "They found us?"
He wasn't the only one who realized what was going on. There were screams from other parts of the cabin, and Burt put his arm around Carole and pulled her close as she buried her face in his shoulder. The kids hustled back to seats and strapped in, and he saw them clinging to each other's hands. They were all tense, and Will realized that they all- that everyone on the Cybele- thought they were going to die.
They probably were. Gemenon lay in his memory, covered over with a thick layer of nuclear smoke. He tensed, waiting for them all to be blown to bits.
The cabin lurched again, and Will's stomach lurched with it. This was the second time in his life he'd felt an FTL jump, and the first time he'd been too occupied for the physical experience to register. It was not pleasant. He felt like he was being sucked into a black hole, quickly taken apart and reassembled and then stretched back out to his normal size. The experience left him nauseous and not quite convinced that he was exactly the same as he'd been before the jump. He swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and then looked out the window. Space, again, but one by one, ships were appearing. He couldn't see how many out the small portal, but ships were appearing. He laughed, falling back against the seat.
The engines wound down. The vibrations eased, and the jump was done. The kids were all still belted in their seats, clinging to the armrests, to their belts, to each other. Will looked over them all anxiously, counting them just out of habit. All there.
Rachel Berry opened one eye, her hands still clenched around her armrest. "Are we alive?" she asked cautiously.
"We're alive," Will said, his voice sounding strange in his own ears. "We're alive."
The survivors in the cabin cheered.
***
The people in the cabin had shifted around again. Will heard that there were people down in the cargo holds, too, and he remembered the orders to get as many people on as they could.
"How are you doing?" Will asked, leaning over the back of the seat in front of him to where Artie was sitting with Sam. They were both staring out the window and started at his question.
"You know where we are, Mr. Schue?" Artie asked, and he sounded incredulous. He gestured out the window. The very first thing that Will noticed was the blue-green glow instead of the black of space. In the near distance, Will could see what looked like a space station. It was a long, cylindrical structure arranged vertically relative to their position, and it had three large rings around the top end. It looked something like a child's top, hanging there in space.
Will shook his head. "Not a clue. Where are we?"
"That's the Ragnar Anchorage," Artie said breathlessly.
"What's that?" Will asked blankly.
"It's pretty awesome, Mr. Schuester," Sam explained. "It's, like, the armory that's the furthest out in space. Do you have any idea how far from Gemenon we are right now?"
"Great," Will said, not wanting to think about that. "So why are we here?"
"Look right over there," Artie said, craning his neck. "On the left side of the station. You see it?"
Will's eyes widened. "A battlestar," he breathed, and both boys nodded.
Will had seen pictures of the great battlestars, of course. Everyone had. They were on the news, they were in history books when you learned about the Cylon War. The long, half-oval ship was docked at the space station. Two bulges on either side of the flat ship extended out, and a much smaller ship flew out of the end of the nearest one. Retractable flight pods, Will remembered.
Battlestars were more than just ships; they were spacefaring military bases. Each one could hold a crew of up to five thousand soldiers, as well as few squadrons of single-piloted Vipers and a large number of Raptors. The pictures didn't do it justice, Will decided. He had not really been able to understand until now just how massive these battlestars were.
"Wow," he said.
"I know, right?" Sam laughed. "If nothing else, we get to see a battlestar in person before we die." His voice was so bitter on the last words.
"Yeah," Artie agreed, trying to keep a brave face. "How many people on the Colonies could say that? It's pretty amazing."
"Which battlestar is it?" Will said.
"Not sure yet," Artie answered. "We've been trying to figure it out, but we aren't close enough to see what's on the side."
Will wasn't sure it mattered. The sight of a battlestar, something that big and that powerful, made his heart lift. "A battlestar," he repeated, smiling. He clapped Sam and then Artie on their shoulders, and then crossed the aisle to see how some of the other kids were doing.
"How many are you counting?" he heard Finn ask as he approached.
"I can see thirteen," Quinn said with a frown. "But I keep telling you, we can't see everything from this stupid little window."
Tina was making her way over. "I saw another two when I looked out the back."
"What's going on?" Will asked.
Finn looked up. "Oh, hey, Mr. Schue. We're just trying to count the ships out there."
"The ships? Burt said there were about sixty," Will answered.
"There were," Quinn agreed. "But it seems like there are less now."
"And I keep saying how are we supposed to tell that?" Puck asked, from the seat in front of her. He was on his knees, leaning his elbows on the back of the seat he was sitting in. "I mean, there could be a whole shitload of ships above us. Or below us."
"Puck's right, guys," Will said. "And did you hear what's outside the other window? A battlestar."
"No way." Puck was immediately off his seat and headed over to look out the other side.
"So cheer up, guys," Will continued. "It looks like things are getting better."
***
Gemenon was gone. Will still couldn't wrap his mind around it. He managed to slip into a tiny alcove and stood staring out a window at the collection of ships that had survived. It was frustrating not to be able to see that many.
"Well, well, well. Thought I might find you here."
Will sighed. "What do you want, Sue?"
"You have always been a complete and utter loser. Why, back on Gemenon, the only reason your little glee club even made it to the All-Colony song and dance competition is because the Waffletoots tried to do the Caprican anthem as a jive number. You are a failure, William. At marriage, at your pathetic little glee club, and at life. Although I must say I am impressed that you have managed to maintain such a terrible hairstyle at the end of the world."
"This isn't the time for this, Sue," Will shot back.
Sue raised an eyebrow. "No? Then what is it the time for? Standing here sulking?"
"I'm not sulking!"
"Sure you are. You probably heard about those twenty ships that we lost."
"What are you talking about?"
"Those sixty ships we were with?" Sue asked, her arms crossed. "Only forty or so of them were capable of faster than light speed."
Will was going to say something, and then it hit him. "Wait, so what happened to the ones that weren't?"
Sue shrugged. "Cylons got them, Will. What do you think?"
"Oh, Gods."
"It's run or be killed any more. Sink or swim, pretty literally."
Twenty ships lost that time? How many people? Will didn't even want to know. And then who had made that call? "Why didn't we do something?" he asked.
"Like?"
"Like fight back! Like… because we're a transport ship," Will realized. "This ship doesn't have guns. None of them do, except for that battlestar out there."
"Wow. I'm impressed, William. And you got that far all by yourself." Sue smacked him on the arm, hard. "Well, keep hiding in here," she said, backing off. "That's what you're good at." And with that parting shot, she headed… somewhere. Will didn't know. He didn't really care.
Whatever population they'd managed to put together, it had just decreased by… how many? And somewhere in this group of ships, someone had made that call. Someone had had to say, "whoever can needs to run."
That someone had saved their lives, but the thought still made Will sick.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cool, thick polymer window, forcing the thought from his mind. He needed to get back to the kids, and he didn't want to tell them about this. Maybe they'd find out, but not from him. They needed to have faith in something still, and this fleet of ships was all they had left.
***
News came in slowly, filtered down from Captain Xu's control room. The Colonies were utterly destroyed. The Colonial Fleet was destroyed, except for the one battlestar they had found, which was called the Galactica. It was one of the original battlestars built back during the Cylon War. Its commander, William Adama, had been about to retire. The government was destroyed, except for the Secretary of Education Laura Roslin, who had been sworn in as President. Over forty ships had banded together, and the current estimate was around fifty thousand people. The tatters of humanity was a fitting phrase.
Ragnar Anchorage continued to float outside their window. Will wondered how much longer they would be here, and where they would go. Those were questions no one seemed to be able to answer.
And then the Cylons found them again.
Will was halfway down the ladder that led from the passenger cabin to the intent cargo pods, intending on seeing what sort of space was really down there. But he froze on the ladder, listening to the screams from the cabin and the frantic, "Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down!" over the intercom. Will clung to the rungs, his face pressed against the cold metal as he tried to calm down and force himself to climb back up. He had just taken a deep breath and started when the ship jumped again.
The feeling of the FTL jump still turned his stomach, and now he had to hold on to the rungs for a different reason as his limbs trembled and nausea threatened to overtake him. He swallowed hard, and after a minute, his stomach stopped threatening to rebel, and he was able to climb.
"What happened?" he asked the nearest passenger once he was out of the cargo pods.
"They found us and we jumped," the woman said. Her eyes looked wild, terrified. "I don't know… I think we're away…."
Will nodded and struggled to get to a window. It was difficult, since everyone else had the same idea. When he finally was able to look out, he saw two other ships from his vantage point, floating serenely against the backdrop of space.
And then the Galactica winked into view. Will drew back, startled, because the Galactica was huge. Even when he'd seen it at Ragnar Anchorage with Artie and Sam, he hadn't realized the sheer size of the ship like he did now. He couldn't see all of it- just enough to know what he was looking at, and it was… Will had never seen a building so large, even when he'd gone to Delphi.
A ragged cheer went up at the sight of the battlestar. There was no acknowledgement from the Galactica, of course. It was just a hunk of metal, without a single human face to be seen. But it was still the most comforting thing Will had ever seen in his life.
The Cylons had found them twice already, and both times, they'd escaped. Will was starting to think that their deaths might not be so imminent after all.
***
It was night, at least according to the clocks. Will found it hard to think of it as anything but. His body was exhausted, but he was restless. He explored the Cybele a little more, trying to get a feel for the ship. People were beginning to spread out down the narrow stairs and into the cargo pods, the docking area that allowed for a small shuttle to dock in an emergency, and the small maintenance bay. The kids had all stayed in the passenger cabin, which was a little less crowded now that some people had moved into other parts of the ship. Will spotted them immediately when he returned.
They had spread out a little, but they were still close together. Quinn, Mercedes and Rachel were talking quietly, but Kurt had fallen asleep with his head in Mercedes' lap. Brittany and Santana were also asleep, their heads together and shoulder to shoulder. Mike and Artie were playing a travel chess game. Puck and Finn were engrossed in what was obviously deep conversation, and Tina was listening to Sam, who was obviously trying not to break down and cry in the middle of whatever he was saying. Burt and Carole were talking quietly to a few other passengers.
Sue was sitting in a seat, her reading light on and frowning fiercely as she contemplated the book in front of her. Will swallowed hard and approached.
"How you holding up, Sue?" he asked.
Sue didn't look up. "What's it to you, William?"
Will shrugged. "It's been a rough day for everyone." He hesitated, and then dove. "I know you've lost all of your Cheerios, and I imagine you had family on Gemenon."
Sue looked up and took off her glasses. For a moment, raw grief flitted across her face, but she struggled for composure fast. "You think I'm sitting here mourning that?" she shot back. "Let me break it down for you, William. Those kids were all lucky. They're dead. It's over. We might have gotten away for now, but if you think those toasters aren't going to hunt us down and slaughter us one by one, then you're even more delusional than I ever gave you credit for, and that's really saying something. You ever heard of the Galactica? Of course not- it doesn't produce hair gel. It's a relic. It's older than the songs you have your glee kids sing, and that's all we've got. So those kids we left back on Gemenon? They were the lucky ones. We're the ones that are screwed."
"No. That's not true, Sue," Will said, shaking his head and thinking of the Galactica hovering outside, of the way they'd escaped two Cylon attacks already. "We’re still alive. We still have a chance."
"You call a million to one a chance?" Sue demanded.
Will smiled grimly. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah, I do."
***
On to Chapter 1, part 2
Author: lls_mutant
Fandom: Glee/Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Rating: R, for adult themes and violence
Pairing(s): BSG: canon pairings, plus Gaeta/Baltar. Glee: Burt/Carole and Tina/Mike. Cross-fandom: Puck/Ellen, Kurt/Baltar, Santana/various pilots, Sam/Rya Kibby.
Warning(s): War-related violence, abortion issues, BSG-canon suicide, torture, PTSD, character deaths. (Character deaths are both canon BSG deaths and Glee deaths.)
Fic Summary: When the Cylons attacked, the kids of New Directions were on board the Cybele, on their way to the All-Colony Show Choir Competition. Now they're members of the Fleet, being chased by the Cylons and trying to deal with the day-to-day struggles of a life after the worlds end.
Chapter Summary: After the dust starts to settle, Will realizes he no longer has a glee club on his hands, but twelve kids, ten of whom are now orphans.
Notes: This is a 16 part story. Each chapter is from the POV of a Glee character, working through the BSG canon. BSG canon does not change; this ends up being an "average people in the Fleet" story. More information about the series and what I'm planning can be found here. Also, huge thanks to kappamaki33, who is betaing this monster.
They had their tickets, they had checked their luggage, and they had gone through security. They were just about to approach gate Epsilon Seven when Rachel stopped them all.
"Mr. Schue? I think we just need to take a moment… right here and right now, for us to consider just how far we've come in three years." Rachel pulled in a deep breath, her eyes shining and her excitement palpable. "This is the moment we will be able to tell our children about." There was a murmuring of agreement, and Rachel smiled wider. "The moment when you were on stage with me."
And, yet again, Rachel put her foot in it. Will wondered why he even bothered to be surprised about that at this point. Seriously, people vastly underestimated the skill teachers required in diplomacy.
"Rachel's right," he jumped in before the others could attack her. "Well, mostly. This is a big deal, guys! The All-Colony Show Choir Championships! And let me just say, I am so proud of each and every one of you. You have all worked so hard, and you all deserve this."
The kids were grinning back at him. "I've got an idea," Will said suddenly. "Line up." He pulled a camera out of his bag. "Come on, guys. Let's mark the moment!" The kids all grouped together, arms around each others' shoulders and smiles on their faces. "Say cheese," Will said lightly, then snapped the picture.
Predictably, as soon as the shutter clicked, the kids started squabbling.
"We should practice on the ship," Rachel declared. "We can't rest. If we're going to win-"
"Yeah, I'm sure that listening to us singing for the whole time won't make the entire cabin want to space themselves," Mercedes said, rolling her eyes.
"But we're awesome," Brittany answered. "You can't get that in the vacuum of space."
Mercedes stared at her, probably just amazed that Brittany knew the word vacuum in relation to space, but Finn picked the argument up. "It's a two hour flight, Rachel. Two hours isn't going to make a difference."
"Every second could make a difference," Rachel insisted. "We can't afford to get sloppy."
"With that sweater?" Kurt piped up. "I think it's too late."
Will tuned them out and checked the itinerary in his hand one more time. Twelve kids, four adults… he could do this.
"Well, William, I must say. This is going to go better than I expected."
Will eyed Sue warily. "Just get to the punch line, will you, Sue? I'm not in the mood for the big set up right now."
"Who said there was a punch line?" Sue asked, radiating clearly fake innocence. "I'm seriously impressed that you managed to get twelve kids to the spaceport and not have any of them run off to the nearest opium den just to get away from the sight of that ravine that divides your chin in two. Gods know I sure considered it."
Will rolled his eyes. Off to the side, he noticed Carole and Burt smirking, but he couldn't tell if they were laughing at them or at the kids. "You didn't have to come," he reminded her.
"On the contrary, William, I did. Old Figgins was so worried about you and Ricky and Lucy here taking all these kids off-world without ever having been yourself that he had to send someone who has actually been out of the backwaters of Gemenon and knows their way around Caprican society. And since the Bieste there was already busy shuttling her steroid-addled wrestle-monkeys and her dapper little bebopping manager to that championship on Caprica, the only one he could rely on to keep your asses out of trouble was me."
"Lucky for us," Burt muttered from the sidelines. Carole snickered and then winked at Will. He smiled back.
"Whatever. Come on, Sue. Let's herd them all into the waiting area."
The waiting area was small and shabby; Gemenon Argonaut Airlines was a bargain company. They carried cargo and passengers, and in that order of priority. Outside the window Will could see their ship waiting. The Cybele was distinctly shabby, with four huge cargo compartments making up the bulk of the craft, and a small passenger cabin perched high above them. Will didn't want to admit it, but Sue was right about one thing- he was nervous. He hadn't been off-world since his own club had gone to the All-Colony Show Choir Competition his senior year of high school, and the prospect of being off-world with twelve excited, hyper, and prone-to-romantic-geometry teenager was a little daunting.
The kids sprawled across the waiting area. Mercedes, Brittany, and Santana were working on runs together, Finn and Puck were arguing about pyramid, Artie and Sam were playing some sort of electronic game, Kurt was on his phone to Blaine if the glowing expression was any indication, Rachel was pacing and glaring at her music, Quinn was reading a guidebook, and Mike and Tina were getting a little too close for Will's comfort. Fortunately, Burt grabbed Mike by the scruff of his neck and cleared his throat loudly, and the two of them backed off each other for a moment. Will wanted to laugh, but he realized hotel arrangements were really going to get fun on this trip, especially once Blaine and Lauren met up with them from the wrestling tournament.
Fortunately, that train of thought was interrupted by the flight attendant calling for passengers to begin boarding. Will jumped to his feet, excitement edging out nerves. "All right, let's go!" Will called out, standing by the gate. The kids stood up, tossing carryon bags over their shoulders or tucking them under their arms. Rachel immediately took her place at the front of the line, a smug, excited smile on her face.
There was a huge bang, and the spaceport shook.
"What was that?" Santana asked, but no one answered.
Will looked at the flight attendant, a portly man with thinning brown hair and a sweaty face, who shrugged. But he could see the furrow of worry between the man's brows. "Start the boarding process!" he shouted. "Everyone in line, please! No shoving. Let's get-"
He was cut off by a sound that was distinctly an explosion. It was clearly happening in the distance, but it was an explosion nonetheless.
"Should we get on?" Will asked the flight attendant.
"Sir, I don't think that's wise," the flight attendant said. There was panic in the spaceport now. People were gravitating towards television screens and checking their phones for alerts. Whatever the news was, it wasn't good. Automatically, Will looked over his shoulder at the kids. They all looked confused and worried.
The flight attendant's walkie talkie buzzed. "Robert," a woman's scared, firm voice said, "get everyone on. Now. As many people as you can. Even if they don't have tickets."
"Why?" Will asked, fear blooming in his stomach and coursing through his muscles. "What's going on?" But the captain wasn't there to answer.
"Get on," Robert ordered. Will wanted to press for more details, but there was another explosion and out the window, he could see the previously blue sky was turning dark. He nodded, the fear sharpening. Whatever was happening was not good.
"Come on," he shouted at the kids. "Let's go. Rachel, Finn, Puck, Santana, Brittany, Quinn…" he put a hand on each kid's back as he counted them. "Mike, Sam, give Artie a hand and speed us up, will you?" he shouted. There was more commotion now in the spaceport, the anxious talk becoming louder and more urgent in tone. Finn and Puck obeyed without argument. "Tina, Mercedes, Kurt…" he looked around frantically.
He wished he could find some sort of comfort in the faces around him, but there was none. People were running to spaceships now, and the tide was picking up.
"Come on." Sue grabbed Will's collar and yanked him into the gate. Burt and Carole followed, both of them hustling and looking over their shoulders. Another explosion resounded, and this one shook the ship.
"Move it!" someone yelled from behind them, and Will could feel the press of people desperate to get on this ship. He half ran and was half shoved through the short corridors and into the passenger cabin. The seats were tightly packed and arranged in a three-six-three arrangement, although the row Artie was sitting in only had two seats, and a spot where his wheelchair was strapped down. New Directions was scattered in blocks in two rows.
The kids were already buckled in when he made it into the cabin. Will tried to count them once more, but Sue forced him down into his seat and disappeared. Carole slid into the seat next to him. "Get your straps done," she hissed at him. Her face was pale, and she leaned over him. Will finally realized he had a window seat and looked out. One glance made him he wished he hadn't, but he couldn't tear his gaze away from the sight outside.
From this height, he could see beyond the spaceport. A mushroom cloud bloomed in the distance, the stem of smoke coursing up to the dark sky. The winds whipped the trees and the sky was dark, and he could see darker, sootier smoke rising from several spots on the horizon.
"Oh my gods," he heard Finn say. He turned to look- Finn was seated across the cabin. Will couldn't see out the window from where he sat, but Rachel leaned over Finn and then drew back with a strangled cry. He had the terrible feeling the view was the same from both sides.
"Mr. Schue?" Artie turned around in his seat. "What's happening?"
"I don't know," Will said. And that was the worst truth of all- he had no idea. Absolutely no idea. "But it looks bad."
The engines roared to life, and Robert, the frantic flight attendant, appeared in the front. "Everyone make sure you're strapped in!" he yelled. "We're filled up and we're running for it!"
"Filled up?" Burt asked from the other side of Carole. "That doesn't sound good."
"Neither does 'we're running for it'," Carole agreed. She grasped Burt's hand. The Cybele began to lift off, and Will's own hands tightened around the armrests on his seat.
As they lifted off, Will looked out the window again. To his horror, he could see not one, not two, but three thick columns of smoke. Fires raged beneath them, wrecked cars blocked the freeway, and buildings collapsed. Ships like Will had never seen whizzed through the sky, criss-crossing and dropping bombs. And an army marched down the freeway and onto the smaller roads, immense and precise and… and…
Mechanical?
He strained his eyes, but he couldn't make his brain make sense of what he was seeing. The Cybele was rising so fast that he didn't have time to examine or evaluate the scenes on the ground; just time for the images to burn into his retinas. He swallowed hard against the changing pressure as they soared out of the atmosphere, and then his eyes widened as he saw hundreds- no, thousands- of ships against the backdrop of space. People in the cabin started screaming, but Will could only stare in stupefied silence. Huge ships that looked like giant spurs or thistles launched thousands of tiny crescent-shaped crafts. He wasn't an expert, but he was positive there was nothing like those on the Colonies.
Ships veered down towards the surface of Gemenon in startlingly perfect formation. All of Gemenon, from what he could tell. The entire colony was under attack. Will strained to look down again. He'd seen pictures of Gemenon from space, landmasses and mountains and oceans… now he could see nothing but flame, destruction, and death.
How many people was he watching die right now?
People screamed on the other side of the cabin, and he instinctively balled up on himself, covering his head. Then the world jerked as they jumped to faster-than-light speed, but it barely registered. He braced himself, waiting for whatever would hit them, for one of those ships to blow them all to smithereens.
Nothing.
He looked out the window again. They were floating in space, the stars looking serene and peaceful.
His breath came in short spurts, and he couldn't control his shaking. They were alive. His heart was pounding so hard that Will thought it might explode, and his veins ached with the speed of the blood pulsing through them.
"What the frak just happened?"
He couldn't identify the speaker, but really, whoever it was spoke for everyone. Will had seen the horrible images for himself, and yet he couldn't make his mind understand.
"It's the Capricans," someone shouted. "The Capricans have declared war on us!"
"Why would the Capricans declare war on us?" a woman responded. "We've never been at war with the Capricans! If it's anyone, it's the Taurons. There was that article just last week about the Taurons' secret military ships, and I sure as hell have never seen anything like those!"
"An uprising?" a man suggested. "The monotheistic worshippers have a penchant for terror attacks."
"This wasn't a terrorist attack," Robert said. "There's no terrorist organization in the Colonies that has that kind of financing and military power. In fact, I-" he tapped his headset and paled. "Excuse me," he said, and ducked out of the passenger cabin.
In front of Will, Quinn turned around. "Do you have any idea what's going on, Mr. Schuester?"
Will shook his head and had to swallow a few times before he could speak. "I don't have the first idea, Quinn. I just… I just know what I saw."
"Well, what happened to everyone else?" Artie asked. "It was just Oranu that was attacked, right? I mean, Lima should be okay."
"Yeah," Sam leaned over the aisle and added in. "Who would drop a bomb on Lima?"
"It would be one hell of a waste of a bomb," Puck muttered.
Will looked around helplessly. People were arguing, crying, trying to soothe each other, just sitting silently, ashen and lost.
He opened his mouth to tell them that Lima was safe, then shut it again. He knew nothing, and they knew he knew nothing.
Will instinctively reached for his phone, then sighed tossed it into the pouch on the back of the seat in front of him. He heard Kurt trying his phone even though they were too far out of range now that they'd jumped, trying to get through to Blaine on Caprica, but judging by the frantic pitch of his voice he was unsuccessful. Will rested his forehead on his knuckles and looked out the window again.
He had no idea how much time had passed when the loudspeaker crackled into life. "This is Captain Xu. I need your attention."
There was an explosion of conversation, followed by people hushing each other. Robert entered the cabin and yelled for people to quiet down, and the babble died away quickly. The captain spoke into the silence.
"Right now, we do not know exactly what has happened on Gemenon. However, we are getting reports that all of the other Colonies are under attack as well. Several ships have reported that the attacks are coming from the Cylons.
"We don't know how many people have escaped the Colonies. We don't know anything about the fate of the Colonies themselves. We do know that the destruction is widespread, and that the number dead must be in the millions. We don't know what will happen next.
"I ask that, right now, we take a few moments of silence to pray for the victims of this holocaust." The cabin was silent, except for the cackle of static from the address system. Will bowed his head, but he couldn't shut his eyes. His entire body was numb, and he imagined he could hear the people on Gemenon screaming. Whatever was happening was probably still going on.
"I don't know what is going to happen," Captain Xu said finally, "but we will keep you posted. Please do not attempt to come to the control room in an effort to find out more; I assure you that I will pass on any information I have."
The intercom went quiet, and the cabin exploded into talk again. Will sat back in his seat, hands gripping the armrests.
He wanted to tell the kids- to tell himself- that everything was all right, but it would only be a lie. Nothing was right, and nothing ever would be right again.
***
"Cylons," Santana said. "How the frak can it be Cylons?"
The kids had rearranged themselves a little so they were sitting in the same two rows. "The Cylons are gone," Santana continued. "They can't just, like, come back and destroy twelve planets. That's ridiculous. They're robots."
"Robots made for killing," Artie pointed out. "And the Cylon War lasted for twelve and a half years before the Cimtar Peace Accord was signed."
"I didn't think anyone used scimitars anymore," Brittany said quietly. Everyone looked at her for a moment in silence.
"Whatever," Mercedes said. "I saw those ships that were attacking Gemenon, and they didn't look anything like the ones in the history- would you stop doing that?" she demanded, snatching Kurt's phone from his hands. "We're out in deep space. You're not going to get through to Caprica!"
"You never know," Kurt said desperately, on the verge of tears and trying to take the phone back from Mercedes. "There's always a chance-"
"There's not," Artie said quietly. "There's nothing to boost the signal. To any of the Colonies."
Sam sighed and tossed his own phone down. "Artie's right. I'm not getting anything from Gemenon, either. Not that I expected to on this cheap piece of shit, but…."
"Excuse me," Quinn interrupted, "but can it really be Cylons? I'm inclined to agree with Santana. The Cylons haven't been heard from in decades."
"What do you think, Mr. Schue?" Finn turned around to ask.
Will had been listening as quietly as he could, playing with his own phone and trying every contact number that he had. He'd tried earlier to go up and ask the flight attendant for more information, but had been firmly sent back to his seat and told to stay there. Truth be told, he was kind of hoping the kids would forget he was there. He mopped a hand over his face.
"I don't know, guys," he said finally. They all looked so desperate, staring at him like he could give answers. It irritated him a little, because they knew he didn't know any more than they did. "But the captain's getting her information from somewhere, so I assume-"
"Wait," Mercedes said, looking up anxiously, "if the Cylons are still out there, does that mean they'll find us again?"
"And where are we going to go?" Sam asked. "If they've attacked Gemenon-"
"What about our parents?" Tina asked, shrinking back against Mike, who wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "What about-"
"What about the All-Colony Show Choir Championships?" Rachel demanded. "We'll still get there in time, right Mr. Schuester?"
"Guys, guys, GUYS!" Will shouted, holding his hands up. "I don’t know, all right? I don't know anything! All I know is what we saw and what they've told us, and it looks bad! I don't know what to tell you guys right now, all right?"
Silence swept over the New Directions group as they all stared at him. Will struggled to rein in his temper.
"Look. They're working up there," he said. "They're getting in touch with other ships, and we'll know more soon. We just have to sit tight, okay?"
It wasn't the answer that they wanted to hear, but it was the only answer he could give them.
***
"Mr. Schue! Look!" It was Artie who called out.
Will jerked awake from an uneasy sleep to peer out the window. "Oh my Gods," he said, pressing his open palm to the window and looking out eagerly.
Carole leaned over his shoulder. "How many do you think there are?"
"I heard about sixty," Burt said from the other side of her.
"Sixty ships," Will said, lighting up. But Burt didn't smile. "What?" Will asked. "What's wrong?"
Burt shrugged. "I'm not that big on ships," he said. "I'm better with cars. But see that one over there?" He pointed at a ship with a huge lighted dome. Will nodded. "That's a botanical cruiser. They're used for vacations."
"So?"
"They don't have FTL drives."
For a moment, Will just wanted to shrug. But then he remembered that fleet of ships that they'd seen when they broke atmo over Gemenon. Precise, high-tech, and fast. Without the means to go faster than light, any ship happened on by those Cylons was going to be dead in the water, no matter how fast it could go otherwise.
"But space is a big place," Will said. "Finding a ship in space is… the odds…."
"Yeah," Burt muttered. "We can hope. I mean, what're the chances they'll be looking for us?" Burt didn't sound like he meant it.
The ships outside looked so serene, floating like this. Will took one deep breath, and then another. "We should say something to the kids," he murmured.
Carole patted his hand. "Like what?" she asked kindly. "Unless you were communicating with the gods in your sleep, you don’t know any more than the kids do right now."
"Yeah, but I should able to say something," Will said, frustrated. "I mean, I'm responsible for them. I'm their teacher." The thought made him look around suddenly for Sue, because damn, he needed help. But her seat was empty. Where she could have gone right now was beyond him, but he thought bitterly that he shouldn't be surprised.
That responsibility was starting to dawn on him. Before, when he'd taken the kids on trips, he'd always been safe in the knowledge that this was a temporary thing. The kids would all go home to their parents at the end of the day or the end of the weekend. The worst things he'd worried about were them sneaking into each other's rooms or getting lost or maybe even injured or… okay, there were some things he worried about that were more severe. But this….
This trip wasn't ending. If the rumors were right, they weren't going back to Gemenon, and every kid in New Directions except for Finn and Kurt were orphans now.
Hell, he was an orphan now, although the term didn't really apply. But his parents were dead, too.
"Oh my Gods," he whispered. "Everyone…."
"Don't think about it right now," Carole advised, but now that Will had started, he couldn't stop. It wasn't just his parents, but everyone. All the kids at school, all the teachers, Figgins, Emma- oh gods, Emma, Shannon… his parents, his friends… Terri. Terri was dead. He wasn't in love with her anymore, but for some reason, that was the one that Will's mind settled on. For some reason, that was the one that made this all real.
"You okay?" Burt asked, and his voice sounded very far away.
"Yeah. Yeah… just… give me a minute."
He closed his eyes again, and inside him a gulf threatened to open up. He felt like he was hanging on by his fingertips, ready to fall. If he did, it would only be grief and rage and loss… he wouldn't be able to focus on anything else. And right now, he had twelve kids who were going through the same sorts of losses. He couldn't fall apart. He simply did not have that luxury right now.
"All right," he said, opening his eyes. "I'm okay."
"You sure?" Carole said, her hand covering his.
"Yeah. I just… yeah." Will nodded. "So I shouldn't say anything to the-"
"Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats." Captain Xu's voice over the announcement system interrupted him, and she sounded strained. "We will be jumping in less than a minute."
"Jumping?" Will looked out the window again. "I don't…." But he trailed off, because he saw it. One of those strange, pointy ships that looked like a thistle or a spur. "They found us?"
He wasn't the only one who realized what was going on. There were screams from other parts of the cabin, and Burt put his arm around Carole and pulled her close as she buried her face in his shoulder. The kids hustled back to seats and strapped in, and he saw them clinging to each other's hands. They were all tense, and Will realized that they all- that everyone on the Cybele- thought they were going to die.
They probably were. Gemenon lay in his memory, covered over with a thick layer of nuclear smoke. He tensed, waiting for them all to be blown to bits.
The cabin lurched again, and Will's stomach lurched with it. This was the second time in his life he'd felt an FTL jump, and the first time he'd been too occupied for the physical experience to register. It was not pleasant. He felt like he was being sucked into a black hole, quickly taken apart and reassembled and then stretched back out to his normal size. The experience left him nauseous and not quite convinced that he was exactly the same as he'd been before the jump. He swallowed the bile that rose in his throat and then looked out the window. Space, again, but one by one, ships were appearing. He couldn't see how many out the small portal, but ships were appearing. He laughed, falling back against the seat.
The engines wound down. The vibrations eased, and the jump was done. The kids were all still belted in their seats, clinging to the armrests, to their belts, to each other. Will looked over them all anxiously, counting them just out of habit. All there.
Rachel Berry opened one eye, her hands still clenched around her armrest. "Are we alive?" she asked cautiously.
"We're alive," Will said, his voice sounding strange in his own ears. "We're alive."
The survivors in the cabin cheered.
***
The people in the cabin had shifted around again. Will heard that there were people down in the cargo holds, too, and he remembered the orders to get as many people on as they could.
"How are you doing?" Will asked, leaning over the back of the seat in front of him to where Artie was sitting with Sam. They were both staring out the window and started at his question.
"You know where we are, Mr. Schue?" Artie asked, and he sounded incredulous. He gestured out the window. The very first thing that Will noticed was the blue-green glow instead of the black of space. In the near distance, Will could see what looked like a space station. It was a long, cylindrical structure arranged vertically relative to their position, and it had three large rings around the top end. It looked something like a child's top, hanging there in space.
Will shook his head. "Not a clue. Where are we?"
"That's the Ragnar Anchorage," Artie said breathlessly.
"What's that?" Will asked blankly.
"It's pretty awesome, Mr. Schuester," Sam explained. "It's, like, the armory that's the furthest out in space. Do you have any idea how far from Gemenon we are right now?"
"Great," Will said, not wanting to think about that. "So why are we here?"
"Look right over there," Artie said, craning his neck. "On the left side of the station. You see it?"
Will's eyes widened. "A battlestar," he breathed, and both boys nodded.
Will had seen pictures of the great battlestars, of course. Everyone had. They were on the news, they were in history books when you learned about the Cylon War. The long, half-oval ship was docked at the space station. Two bulges on either side of the flat ship extended out, and a much smaller ship flew out of the end of the nearest one. Retractable flight pods, Will remembered.
Battlestars were more than just ships; they were spacefaring military bases. Each one could hold a crew of up to five thousand soldiers, as well as few squadrons of single-piloted Vipers and a large number of Raptors. The pictures didn't do it justice, Will decided. He had not really been able to understand until now just how massive these battlestars were.
"Wow," he said.
"I know, right?" Sam laughed. "If nothing else, we get to see a battlestar in person before we die." His voice was so bitter on the last words.
"Yeah," Artie agreed, trying to keep a brave face. "How many people on the Colonies could say that? It's pretty amazing."
"Which battlestar is it?" Will said.
"Not sure yet," Artie answered. "We've been trying to figure it out, but we aren't close enough to see what's on the side."
Will wasn't sure it mattered. The sight of a battlestar, something that big and that powerful, made his heart lift. "A battlestar," he repeated, smiling. He clapped Sam and then Artie on their shoulders, and then crossed the aisle to see how some of the other kids were doing.
"How many are you counting?" he heard Finn ask as he approached.
"I can see thirteen," Quinn said with a frown. "But I keep telling you, we can't see everything from this stupid little window."
Tina was making her way over. "I saw another two when I looked out the back."
"What's going on?" Will asked.
Finn looked up. "Oh, hey, Mr. Schue. We're just trying to count the ships out there."
"The ships? Burt said there were about sixty," Will answered.
"There were," Quinn agreed. "But it seems like there are less now."
"And I keep saying how are we supposed to tell that?" Puck asked, from the seat in front of her. He was on his knees, leaning his elbows on the back of the seat he was sitting in. "I mean, there could be a whole shitload of ships above us. Or below us."
"Puck's right, guys," Will said. "And did you hear what's outside the other window? A battlestar."
"No way." Puck was immediately off his seat and headed over to look out the other side.
"So cheer up, guys," Will continued. "It looks like things are getting better."
***
Gemenon was gone. Will still couldn't wrap his mind around it. He managed to slip into a tiny alcove and stood staring out a window at the collection of ships that had survived. It was frustrating not to be able to see that many.
"Well, well, well. Thought I might find you here."
Will sighed. "What do you want, Sue?"
"You have always been a complete and utter loser. Why, back on Gemenon, the only reason your little glee club even made it to the All-Colony song and dance competition is because the Waffletoots tried to do the Caprican anthem as a jive number. You are a failure, William. At marriage, at your pathetic little glee club, and at life. Although I must say I am impressed that you have managed to maintain such a terrible hairstyle at the end of the world."
"This isn't the time for this, Sue," Will shot back.
Sue raised an eyebrow. "No? Then what is it the time for? Standing here sulking?"
"I'm not sulking!"
"Sure you are. You probably heard about those twenty ships that we lost."
"What are you talking about?"
"Those sixty ships we were with?" Sue asked, her arms crossed. "Only forty or so of them were capable of faster than light speed."
Will was going to say something, and then it hit him. "Wait, so what happened to the ones that weren't?"
Sue shrugged. "Cylons got them, Will. What do you think?"
"Oh, Gods."
"It's run or be killed any more. Sink or swim, pretty literally."
Twenty ships lost that time? How many people? Will didn't even want to know. And then who had made that call? "Why didn't we do something?" he asked.
"Like?"
"Like fight back! Like… because we're a transport ship," Will realized. "This ship doesn't have guns. None of them do, except for that battlestar out there."
"Wow. I'm impressed, William. And you got that far all by yourself." Sue smacked him on the arm, hard. "Well, keep hiding in here," she said, backing off. "That's what you're good at." And with that parting shot, she headed… somewhere. Will didn't know. He didn't really care.
Whatever population they'd managed to put together, it had just decreased by… how many? And somewhere in this group of ships, someone had made that call. Someone had had to say, "whoever can needs to run."
That someone had saved their lives, but the thought still made Will sick.
He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the cool, thick polymer window, forcing the thought from his mind. He needed to get back to the kids, and he didn't want to tell them about this. Maybe they'd find out, but not from him. They needed to have faith in something still, and this fleet of ships was all they had left.
***
News came in slowly, filtered down from Captain Xu's control room. The Colonies were utterly destroyed. The Colonial Fleet was destroyed, except for the one battlestar they had found, which was called the Galactica. It was one of the original battlestars built back during the Cylon War. Its commander, William Adama, had been about to retire. The government was destroyed, except for the Secretary of Education Laura Roslin, who had been sworn in as President. Over forty ships had banded together, and the current estimate was around fifty thousand people. The tatters of humanity was a fitting phrase.
Ragnar Anchorage continued to float outside their window. Will wondered how much longer they would be here, and where they would go. Those were questions no one seemed to be able to answer.
And then the Cylons found them again.
Will was halfway down the ladder that led from the passenger cabin to the intent cargo pods, intending on seeing what sort of space was really down there. But he froze on the ladder, listening to the screams from the cabin and the frantic, "Ladies and gentlemen, please calm down!" over the intercom. Will clung to the rungs, his face pressed against the cold metal as he tried to calm down and force himself to climb back up. He had just taken a deep breath and started when the ship jumped again.
The feeling of the FTL jump still turned his stomach, and now he had to hold on to the rungs for a different reason as his limbs trembled and nausea threatened to overtake him. He swallowed hard, and after a minute, his stomach stopped threatening to rebel, and he was able to climb.
"What happened?" he asked the nearest passenger once he was out of the cargo pods.
"They found us and we jumped," the woman said. Her eyes looked wild, terrified. "I don't know… I think we're away…."
Will nodded and struggled to get to a window. It was difficult, since everyone else had the same idea. When he finally was able to look out, he saw two other ships from his vantage point, floating serenely against the backdrop of space.
And then the Galactica winked into view. Will drew back, startled, because the Galactica was huge. Even when he'd seen it at Ragnar Anchorage with Artie and Sam, he hadn't realized the sheer size of the ship like he did now. He couldn't see all of it- just enough to know what he was looking at, and it was… Will had never seen a building so large, even when he'd gone to Delphi.
A ragged cheer went up at the sight of the battlestar. There was no acknowledgement from the Galactica, of course. It was just a hunk of metal, without a single human face to be seen. But it was still the most comforting thing Will had ever seen in his life.
The Cylons had found them twice already, and both times, they'd escaped. Will was starting to think that their deaths might not be so imminent after all.
***
It was night, at least according to the clocks. Will found it hard to think of it as anything but. His body was exhausted, but he was restless. He explored the Cybele a little more, trying to get a feel for the ship. People were beginning to spread out down the narrow stairs and into the cargo pods, the docking area that allowed for a small shuttle to dock in an emergency, and the small maintenance bay. The kids had all stayed in the passenger cabin, which was a little less crowded now that some people had moved into other parts of the ship. Will spotted them immediately when he returned.
They had spread out a little, but they were still close together. Quinn, Mercedes and Rachel were talking quietly, but Kurt had fallen asleep with his head in Mercedes' lap. Brittany and Santana were also asleep, their heads together and shoulder to shoulder. Mike and Artie were playing a travel chess game. Puck and Finn were engrossed in what was obviously deep conversation, and Tina was listening to Sam, who was obviously trying not to break down and cry in the middle of whatever he was saying. Burt and Carole were talking quietly to a few other passengers.
Sue was sitting in a seat, her reading light on and frowning fiercely as she contemplated the book in front of her. Will swallowed hard and approached.
"How you holding up, Sue?" he asked.
Sue didn't look up. "What's it to you, William?"
Will shrugged. "It's been a rough day for everyone." He hesitated, and then dove. "I know you've lost all of your Cheerios, and I imagine you had family on Gemenon."
Sue looked up and took off her glasses. For a moment, raw grief flitted across her face, but she struggled for composure fast. "You think I'm sitting here mourning that?" she shot back. "Let me break it down for you, William. Those kids were all lucky. They're dead. It's over. We might have gotten away for now, but if you think those toasters aren't going to hunt us down and slaughter us one by one, then you're even more delusional than I ever gave you credit for, and that's really saying something. You ever heard of the Galactica? Of course not- it doesn't produce hair gel. It's a relic. It's older than the songs you have your glee kids sing, and that's all we've got. So those kids we left back on Gemenon? They were the lucky ones. We're the ones that are screwed."
"No. That's not true, Sue," Will said, shaking his head and thinking of the Galactica hovering outside, of the way they'd escaped two Cylon attacks already. "We’re still alive. We still have a chance."
"You call a million to one a chance?" Sue demanded.
Will smiled grimly. "Yeah," he said slowly. "Yeah, I do."
***
On to Chapter 1, part 2