Fic: Do Cylons Dream of Chrome Sheep?, Part II
Previous: Part I
24 Hours Ago, New Picon (Formerly Detroit, Michigan)
Eleanor Bartlet sometimes wondered if she would have been happier had she lived a different life. Or rather if her father had lived a different life. Ellie was introverted and introspective, neither particularly useful qualities in a public figure, and much to her annoyance she was a public figure. Her father had won a Nobel Prize when she was in elementary school. He had been elected governor when she was in high school, and president when she was in medical school. At no point in her life had her identity not been dictated by, or at the very least colored by, her father’s shadow. Yet she wasn’t the public figure that Zoey was, nor was she the back room Machiavelli that Liz had turned into. She was the quiet Bartlet daughter.
Something you would never know reading the National Inquirer.
It seemed like at least six times in the last two years she had been featured on the front page of the tabloid, either in an alien love triangle or having an alien baby. It seemed that for the children of former presidents, it wasn’t possible to be friends with a man-especially a man from another planet-without someone assuming there was a romantic relationship. Or a sexual one.
And in truth she wasn’t entirely sure there wasn’t a romantic quality to her friendship with Karl. There was always an unspoken barrier that stopped him, and she thought it best not to push. As one of her colleagues at the World Health Organization liked to put it, ‘psychological problems were a necessary result in the survivors.’ And from what she gathered, Karl’s experience was more horrific than most. She could not imagine the kind of strength that it took to survive for months on your own in the ruins of your civilization.
Helo was separated from his people by an invisible divide that she didn’t think she would ever understand, and it was on that plane of loneliness that they related.
She looked up from her copy of the New England Journal of Medicine when he sat down across from her at the small café near the building site that was the Colonial Government Complex. He was an instructor at the Colonial Fleet Academy, the glorified title given to a former community college until a more appropriate space could be built. That was life in New Picon. Everything was temporary until more appropriate space could be found. It was a little like living in an instant country - just add water - with all the problems of a young country, and many unique ones no one could have imagined. She had left NIH to take a job with the World Health Organization at the New Picon settlement in part to be where the scientific cutting edge was, and in part to be near Helo. Though she didn’t say the latter to her parents.
It only took Ellie a moment to realize that Karl was nervous and she raised an eyebrow, setting aside her medical journal. “What’s wrong?”
“Why do you say something’s wrong?”
She just gave him a look, the look she reserved for her little sister when she lied about something blatantly obvious.
He glanced around to see if anyone was listening. Or taking pictures. They had been surprised a few times by photographers. Part of her wondered when her dating life would stop being newsworthy. Probably when she wasn’t dating a cute guy from another planet. Even unofficially.
“Ellie, I need a favor, a big one.”
Perhaps she should have said something like, ‘Of course’ or ‘Yes’ even before she heard what the favor was. But Ellie wasn’t the sort to do things without carefully considering them. “What sort of favor.”
“A friend of mine is in trouble. Her life is in danger, and I need you to smuggle her out of the city.”
“What?!” she asked in a hushed tone. She wasn’t exactly the sort anyone would ask to do anything illegal.
He made a hushing motion with his hands. “I need you to drive a friend of mine out of the Colonial governing zone. Outside of my government’s reach. I can’t explain why now, but I promise as soon as she’s safe I will.”
“Karl, look at me and tell me what part of my personality makes you think I’d be a good getaway driver?”
“I was thinking more about that tank you drive,” he gave her an easy smile. Her car was the object of a lot of teasing. When her old Saturn had finally given up the ghost her father had bought her a huge SUV-one that used to belong to the secret service. He continued, “I also noticed that the CPA border guards have been waving you through without checking your car.”
“I go back and forth a lot, and they know I’m not one of your citizens. Usually they let the Michigan Troopers just record my license plate.” She said the last bit slowly, unsure that she really wanted to encourage this insanity.
“Ellie, I think they may kill her. Please.”
~~**~~**~~**~~
Helo had been planning how to get Sharon out of her prison since they had brought her down from Galactica. He hadn’t been party to that discussion. He never was. The way decisions were made by the Colonial government was rather incestuous. The people at the top only talked to those that they had a reasonable suspicion would agree with them.
He respected the admiral, and Laura Roslin was a fact of life he at least had accepted; in the same way one accepted that there was evil in the world that you could do nothing about. Either way he wasn’t about to trust either of them with Sharon’s life. At least that was how he had explained it to her.
The two of them moved quickly through the halls to the loading dock where his friend was supposed to meet them. It was the first time she had really had the sense that they were on a planet, and moving along with Helo gave her a pang of nostalgia for the time they had spent together on Caprica. Running from her people as today they were running from his.
She stopped for a moment when they reached the outside and she looked up at the night sky of Earth for the first time, saying a private thanks to God that she had survived to see it.
“We have to go.” He pulled her arm towards the waiting car, whose engine was running and a small blond woman in a turtle neck was behind the wheel. “Ellie, Sharon, Sharon, Ellie.”
“I don’t think this is quite the moment for introductions,” Sharon said wryly. “But nice to meet you,” she added as Helo settled her on the floor board of Ellie’s car, throwing a blanket over her and hoping that in the night no one would notice her.
“Be careful, Ellie.”
“I must have gone temporarily insane.” she mumbled as she pulled away, and watched him for a moment in the rear view mirror, just loudly enough for Sharon to hear.
They drove silently for about half an hour until Sharon spoke, “Are you Helo’s Terran friend? The doctor?”
Elle seemed a little surprised, mostly because she had probably been too worried about looking in the rear view mirror than thinking about this woman on the floor. Or the unsettling questions that had been half formed in the back of her mind about why her life was in danger.
“Yes… I’m a cancer researcher, I’ve been studying genetic differences between Earth-native populations and your people.”
“They aren’t my people.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s a long story.” And not one she really wanted to tell in the middle of her escape. “How long until we are safe?”
“I’m coming up on the CPA check point in about twenty minutes, and then we go through the one manned by the Michigan State Troopers.”
“CPA?”
Now there was more surprise in the driver’s voice, but she didn’t ask why Sharon didn’t know that. “Colonial Provisional Authority, they’re the Colonial police service that guards the borders to make sure people don’t cross out of the city. Part of the terms of the settlement treaty was that all Colonial Citizens had to have primary residence here… so that there isn’t a dilution of culture. I travel in and out enough that the CPA know me and Karl is hoping they wont check my car.”
“And the other?”
“It’s a smuggling check by the Michigan State Police… to make sure Terrans aren’t smuggling weapons or technology out of the city.”
The two women fell silent again, which was probably for the best as Sharon felt the car slow and then stop. Ellie had a brief conversation with the guard, who sounded like he was from Aerelon by his accent, and then they began to drive on, stopping again. The conversation was less friendly and Sharon could hear a radio in the background and snatches of conversation. Her absence had been discovered and the Colonials were locking down the city.
“I don’t think they are going to let us go…” Ellie said quietly under her breath.
“Run for it.”
“I’m not a getaway driver.”
“You are now.”
She heard the order to detain them before Ellie, but she wasn’t far behind. Ellie hesitated for a moment and slammed on the accelerator, breaking through the wooden swing arm. The troopers fired their weapons at the black of the car and as Sharon was getting off the floor she thought she saw Ellie trying to crawl under the steering wheel.
“Watch the frakking road!”
“I’m sorry! The Secret Service always told me to duck when there were bullets…”
“Not when you are driving!”
An ear shattering noise rumbled overhead and Ellie looked at the ceiling as if she could see through it…
“It’s a Raptor… drive!”
“We’re being chased by a dinosaur?!”
“A Raptor, it’s a kind of ship.”
There was a loud wooshing noise as the Raptor’s engines reversed and swung around in front of their path. Ellie swerved wildly and they went into a ditch. Two state troopers' cars skidded to a stop behind them and Sharon could hear a voice ordering them to get out of the car with their hands up. Instead she pulled a pistol from the jacket Helo had given her and looked over at Ellie. “Stay in the car, and now is the time to duck.”
Rushing out of the car she first took aim at the nearest patrol car, firing an explosive round at it and sending the entire vehicle up in a fireball. Like the machine she was she took aim at the next threat and shot another of the policemen before two more Raptors came overhead and she could hear them arm their guns. Slowly she tossed her weapon away and kneeled on the ground with her hands on her head.
She had had ninety minutes of freedom.
Next: Part III