Rebirth (3/2)
Rebirth (3/2)
Authors: SabaceanBabe and Un4scene
Word count: 4,015
Date: July 12, 2005
Rating: PG-13
Characters and pairings: Helo/Sharon, Starbuck, Leoben, and others
Summary: Sharon is in the hands of the Cylons and Helo finds that it’s up to him to rescue her before the Cylons take their child.
Spoilers: all of season 1, a few from the rumors we’ve heard of season two
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica belongs to lots of people, but none of them are me. Not making a profit - please don’t sue.
Authors’ notes: You may have noticed that this is part 3 of 2. Um, yeah. And, erm, you may remember that I said part 3 would finish it? Well, yeah. It’s like this: It kinda, sorta got away from me, again. *blushes* Please don’t hurt me. I’m working feverishly (just ask Dani) on the conclusion and have every intention of posting it no later than Friday, July 15, 2005. Gack!
***
Sharon shifted restlessly, unable to get comfortable. The shelf/bed on which she lay seemed to be alive, possessing an internal warmth all its own. Like the walls, the floor, the chair, the entire room - all had been grown from the semi-organic material of the basestar as needed by its inhabitants. If she ever escaped this place, Sharon never wanted to see dark pink again.
Her back ached abominably and she wanted to stand, to walk a bit to ease the strain, but she couldn’t. Her pregnancy had progressed at an alarming rate, her child growing in a matter of days to the point where Sharon thought he or she must be born at any time. She felt as though she were the size of a Raptor, but she was so weak.
For the dozenth time since she had been brought aboard the basestar, Sharon felt despair threaten to overwhelm her, felt tears begin to seep from the corners of her eyes. She blinked rapidly in an attempt stop them, but they wouldn’t be swayed.
“Sharon?” There was concern in Helo’s voice as he wiped away the tears with his thumb. She felt his touch on her face, but she knew he wasn’t there. “Sharon, I am here; you’re keeping me here.”
She couldn’t fight it anymore. Hallucination or not, she was terrified and as alone as she had ever been. She needed Helo more than she had thought possible, needed him to lend her some of his strength. Opening her eyes, she focused on his face, reached out to stroke his cheek and was surprised when she felt light stubble there.
“You’ve got to let me go, Sharon. I’m only here because of you.”
“No, you can’t be here - I left you on Kobol. I left so you could escape, so you’d be safe.”
He drew her hand away from his face and pressed it against his chest - she felt the fabric of his tanks, the beat of his heart. “I know you did. But I’m not safe, Sharon, and I won’t be until you let me go.”
“I only wanted to protect you.” She heard the childish whine in her voice and hated it.
“Hush. I know.” Helo brought her hand up to his mouth, kissed her fingertips. “The best way for you to protect me, if that’s really what you want, is to let me go home, back to Galactica. I can’t stay with you, Sharon. You’re a Cylon. You and I, we don’t belong together. Even if I wanted to settle down with just one woman, it’d be someone like me, someone human.” Even as she closed her eyes against his words, words that cut, she couldn’t stop the sensations that ran through her when he laid his hand on their baby. Nor could she stop the baby from kicking at that hand. “I never wanted this responsibility. I’m not cut out to be a father, Sharon.”
Ready to deny his words, Sharon opened her eyes to look at him. Instead of Helo, the man whose hand rested on her stomach, who felt the kick of her child, was another of her own kind. A Cylon male, blond hair and gray eyes. She had seen him before, but not for a very long time.
He smiled at her. “Call me Leoben.” He watched reverently as a ripple flowed under his palm through the muscles of her stomach. His eyes met hers as he continued, “I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
His smile widened. “I know you don’t, Sharon. But that doesn’t change what will be. Your Helo will be here soon. He’ll take you away to a place that’s being prepared for you among the humans. A place where you and this child will be safe.”
She tried to brush him away, but her efforts were so weak that a fly wouldn’t have felt threatened, let alone a healthy Cylon. “Go away,” she whispered, and then, louder, “You can’t make me believe this, Six, anymore than I believe Helo has been here or that he’s coming.”
Leoben looked sorrowful as he pulled up the coverlet, tucking her into the living bed as though she were a child. But he wasn’t really there, just as Helo had never really been there. Nothing was real, except the fact that her baby would be coming soon and that she couldn’t stop the Cylons from taking it.
“Number Six has nothing to do with my presence here, Sharon. I’m here for you, the mother of the next generation, and for your child. You must be strong, for this child…” The one who called himself Leoben gently stroked her stomach. “…and for the future of us all.”
***
“Try it now!” Helo called to Private Mondav as he made a new connection between two wires. The Marine was in the cockpit of the heavy Raider, helping Helo to recalibrate the communications system to Colonial specifications, having volunteered to help from sheer boredom - and maybe more than just a passing interest in Kara. The man wasn’t much on the technical side of things, but he made a decent enough assistant, following Helo’s or Kara’s direction.
Several of the Raider’s systems had been damaged during their escape from Caprica and then from Kobol. Helo grinned as he thought about just how hard he and Kara seemed to be on vehicles, recalling a transport that had belonged to the Caprican resistance. They had smashed it up pretty thoroughly.
“It sounds like it’s working, Lieutenant!” Mondav’s reply was muffled by distance and insulated bulkheads.
Helo reached up to wipe sweat from his forehead, preventing a trickle from reaching his eye. Slipping a wire stripper into a pocket, he secured the new connection by twisting a plastic nut onto the ragged ends. As he pushed the newly connected wires back into their compartment, someone kicked the sole of his left boot, the only part of him that extended from beneath the console on which he worked.
Thinking it was either Mondav or Kara - the only other two inside the Raider - he ordered, “Cut it out, man.” Grabbing hold of a support, he pulled himself out from the tangle of wires.
“Sorry, sir,” Chief Tyrol said, “but we’re closing up shop. Shift’s over.” There was a glint in Tyrol’s eye beyond the bruising and puffiness; Helo couldn’t decide whether it was genuine humor or subtle mockery. Today he’d gotten both in about equal measure from the Chief, which was a distinct improvement over the previous cool courtesy that had concealed contempt.
Helo and Tyrol had, he thought, come to an understanding over the roles they had played in Boomer’s subversive activities and her subsequent destruction. An understanding evidenced by Helo’s sore jaw and knuckles and the Chief’s black eye. They would never be friends, exactly, but at least they could work together now without sniping at each other.
Levering himself up onto his elbows, Helo said, “If it’s all right with you, Chief, I’m on a roll here.” Tyrol was technically in charge of all work done on the Raider, even though Helo outranked him. “I’d like to stay and continue working on the comms system.” And, if the Gods were smiling on him, Kara would also be staying behind to work on the navigation system, as she had been doing for the past several hours, and they would get a chance to work out the wrinkles in their plan.
Tyrol frowned. “Sure, Lieutenant.” His gaze drifted toward the cockpit, where Kara and Mondav had been working on their separate projects. “We got the engines back on line, but Lieutenant Thrace is still working on the nav comp. The sooner we can get this bird in the air, the better off we’ll be.” He sketched a salute, then wheeled around to leave as soon as Helo half-heartedly returned it.
A moment later, Helo heard someone outside the heavy Raider say, “You’re just leaving him in there, Chief? Don’t you think he’ll…?”
“Don’t I think he’ll what, Purcell?”
The Chief’s tone should have warned Purcell to stop there, but he didn’t pick up on it. “Do something to alert the Cylons to our location.”
“And why would he do that, Purcell?”
“You’ve said it yourself, Chief. He’s a Cylon sympathizer.”
Quite interested in what Tyrol might have to say on that subject, Helo maneuvered a little closer to the entryway. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kara and Mondav, too, had heard the exchange and were listening just as intently.
“Deckhand Purcell, you’re speaking of an officer in the Colonial Fleet. I may have said some things in anger that shouldn’t have been said, but that’s between me and Lieutenant Agathon.” From the angle of Tyrol’s head, Helo thought he might be playing more to his audience inside the Raider than to the deckhand. “Don’t you have anything better to do, Purcell?”
“No, Chief. I mean yes, Chief.”
“Get outta here.” Tyrol waved him off and then took his own advice, heading out of the hangar toward the galley.
“What a load of shit.” The sentiment didn’t surprise Helo nearly as much as the source. He more or less expected it from Kara, but it was Mondav who had said it. Helo looked over his shoulder at Mondav, standing close to Kara, who also looked at the Marine curiously. Mondav shrugged. “You’re about as much a Cylon sympathizer as Commander Adama, sir.”
Helo snorted. “Thanks.” He rapped on the bulkhead twice, lightly, with his fist. “No, I’m not a sympathizer.” Not unless being in love with a particular Cylon qualifies me as one. He turned back to the comm console, didn’t notice when Kara and Mondav returned to the cockpit.
***
As he snapped a cover back into place, Helo sensed a presence nearby and looked up to see Mondav standing next to him. He realized that he had been working on tweaking the system for a good half hour and had become completely absorbed in the work. “What’s up?”
“Kara asked me to bring her something to drink - ‘something interesting,’ as she put it.” The Marine smiled. “You want anything?”
Helo sat back, leaning his shoulders against the bulkhead. So it’s Kara now… “Aren’t you afraid to leave a couple of desperate characters like us alone?”
Mondav laughed. “I probably should be. Do you give me your word you won’t steal the ship?”
If you only knew, Helo thought. Aloud he said, “Absolutely. I have no immediate plans to steal this ship.”
Mondav’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave you and Lieutenant Thrace alone.”
“That reminds me, where’s Hicks?” As the days passed, their guards had become more and more relaxed, more trusting of their charges, but for Hicks to be absent from his post for hours and for Mondav to be willing to leave Kara and himself completely alone…
“He hurt himself playing hammerball last night. Whatever he did, it got worse so he went to see Doc Cottle a couple hours ago.” Mondav looked conflicted. After a short internal struggle, he said, “You’re probably right, sir, I shouldn’t leave you alone…”
Damn. “You could always lock us in,” Helo suggested.
“Yeah, but who knows what kind of trouble you two could get into, locked in here alone.”
Helo played the opening Mondav had just given him, trying to salvage the situation. “Well, Private, what would you do, locked into a confined space with a beautiful woman?”
Mondav shook his head. A smirk twisted his lips as he shuffled through the compartments on his utility belt until he came up with a magnetic lock, holding it up for Helo to see. “I’ll be back in half an hour, sir.”
“Works for me.”
Mondav disappeared through the open hatch, closing it behind him. There was a faint whine as the mag lock was activated on the other side, locking Helo and Kara into the heavy Raider while their remaining Marine guard ran off to fetch Kara a drink. Helo shook his head in amazement.
“You almost blew that one, genius.”
He turned to Kara, who leaned in the opening to the cockpit, arms crossed beneath her breasts. “Frak you, Thrace. We have half an hour.” He gestured for Kara to precede him to the pilot’s station and followed her as he pulled the Cylon data chip from his pocket. “Did you hear Tyrol say her engines are back online?” he asked as Kara dropped into the pilot’s chair.
“I did. Have you had a chance to decode your chip yet?” She patted down her pockets and Helo knew she was looking for a cigar.
Helo reached into his own pocket and pulled out a lollipop, tossing it to her. “No smoking on my ship.”
Kara arched a brow. “Your ship? I believe I’m the one who flew her from Caprica…” she mocked as she unwrapped the candy.
Helo stuck his tongue out at her as he slid the data chip into the slot on the main communication console, ignoring her laughing, “Anytime, Karl.” Making sure the Raider’s comm system remained isolated from Galactica - the whole point of rerouting connections even as he complied with orders and hooked her into the Colonial system - he initiated the translation program.
***
As he had told Sharon, a safe place was being prepared for her and the child. It was not yet ready, but Leoben was certain that it would be by the time it was needed. He was equally certain that it wouldn’t be long, now - he would know it as soon Helo made his break from the human fleet.
The pieces slowly shifted into their pre-ordained pattern. The Progenitors would soon be reunited and their Child born. The Protector was in place aboard Galactica, awaiting their arrival. Both the Protector and another of Leoben’s own model worked toward gaining the Child and the Progenitors acceptance among the humans, worked on changing the attitude of the Soldier, without whose support Mother, Father, and Child would not survive.
Leoben bowed his head, prayed that he would be sufficient to see this through.
***
Based on the intel they had picked up from the chip a few hours earlier, Helo was busy faking orders for an 0600 test launch of the heavy Raider while Kara programmed an intercept course. Once the fake orders were entered, he would work on getting the ship fueled for the “test” flight.
Helo found it hard to believe that the time was really here, that he would be leaving in just a couple of hours, heading into the unknown. It wasn’t too late, yet, for him to turn back from this course of action, to just let Sharon go, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do that to her and the baby; he couldn’t do that to himself. They were his family. He had accepted that and now that the time had come, he felt lighter, somehow. It was a cliché, he knew, but he felt as though a great weight had been lifted. He didn’t even believe that this wild scheme he and Kara had concocted would succeed, but at least he was doing something.
Kara wheeled around in the pilot’s chair, a smug look on her face. “Program complete. We’re taking this baby deep into Cylon territory. You up for it?”
There was a look of excitement in Kara’s eyes, the kind of self-destructive look that she always got when she was planning to do something she knew might cause irreparable damage to her relationships with others, particularly the Old Man. Helo knew just how important Commander Adama was to Kara. And after being locked with her in this very ship, he thought he knew how important Lee Adama’s opinion was to her as well. A memory replayed in his mind.
The sound of the mag lock being deactivated drifted up to the cockpit, where they were just finishing programming the basestar’s flight plan into the heavy Raider’s navigational system.
“Shit,” Kara said, then, “Helo. Kiss me.”
“What?”
“I said kiss me. It’s what Mondav’s expecting to find.” When he just looked at her, she said, “It’s not as if it’s the first time. If it helps, pretend I’m Sharon.”
He pulled her up against him as the door opened, Mondav whistling tunelessly to let them know he was returning, and teased, “Just like you’ll pretend I’m Lee Adama?”
Kara opened her mouth to say something cutting and Helo took advantage of that just as Mondav walked in. The Marine suspected nothing of what they had really been doing while he was gone. He shot Helo a look of pure jealousy when he handed him a bottle of beer and Kara laughed, not unkindly, and took her own bottle.
The three of them had drunk their beers, talked a bit about what was happening back on Caprica and how likely it was that there was a resistance movement on any of the other Colonies. Then they left, returning to quarters.
And now it seemed that Kara had every intention of coming with him. Helo was certain that he could never return to Galactica if he left now, taking with him a ship that was a damn near priceless military asset, deserting his post during time of war. If Kara went with him, there would be no turning back for her either.
He couldn’t allow that to happen.
Was he up for it? Without responding to Kara with anything more than a quick grin, Helo hit the key that sent the launch orders to Galactica’s roster and quickly entered the fueling order, set for 0530 - anything earlier might arouse suspicion.
Kara would never allow him to just leave her behind - not given what they had gone through back on Caprica. It wasn’t just for his sake that she wanted to do this thing or for the sake of thumbing her nose at authority. Sharon and Kara had been friends for years before any of them knew Sharon was a Cylon. They had become friends again in the weeks the three of them had been together before Helo and Kara had returned to Galactica. And if he did what he knew had to be done to make Kara stay on Galactica, she’d never forgive him. In fact, she’d probably kill him, if they ever saw each other again.
“You okay, Karl? You seem a little distracted.” She stood and took a step toward him.
“I’m fine.” He shrugged, chewed at his cheek for a second. “Just pre-mission jitters.” Helo stood as well, his mind whirling at the speed of light. No matter what he did to make sure she remained on Galactica, Kara would be implicated in his crimes; there was no help for that. But he thought she could weather that storm without permanent repercussions with either the Old Man or Apollo.
He felt the weight in his right pocket of the wire stripper. It wasn’t much, but it should do the trick, provided Kara wasn’t expecting anything…
“Makes you feel more alive, doesn’t it?” Kara observed with a reckless grin.
Helo gave her a lopsided smile. “Yeah.” He gestured for her to go ahead of him. “I think we’re about done.” There were just a few minutes left before the refueling would begin. “We should get outta here.” He slipped his hand into his pocket, took a firm grip on the handles of the stripper.
“Wouldn’t want to get busted now, would we?”
Suspecting nothing, Kara turned her back on Helo. She had taken a step away from him, toward the Raider’s hatch, when he pulled the stripper from his pocket and bashed her on the base of her skull in one quick, efficient move.
She dropped like a stone. Helo caught her before she could hit the deck, eased her down. There was blood on his hand, blood on the back of her head. “Oh, Gods…”
Throwing the wire stripper violently out the hatch, he laid Kara out flat, put his fingers to her throat to check her pulse. It was strong and steady. He took a deep breath, thanked the Gods that he hadn’t killed her. Her head would hurt for a while, and probably her pride, but he could live with that.
Working as quickly as he could, Helo dragged her limp body from the Cylon ship and closed the hatch. Checking his chrono, he saw that the refueling team would be there in less than five minutes. Sliding his arms as gently as he could under her shoulders and knees, he lifted her and hurried to a storage compartment outside the hangar, away from casual traffic. He stripped off her tunic and outside tank, then, using the tunic to tie her hands and the tank as a gag, he laid her gently in the storage compartment.
He checked the back of her head, relieved to find that the bleeding had stopped. Kissing her forehead, he whispered, “I’m sorry, Kara, but I can’t let you destroy your life. You have too much here to just throw it away.”
Helo closed the compartment, but left it unlocked. He had to make it clear to everyone that she wasn’t responsible for any of this, that it was his crime alone, but he also had to be sure that she would be able to free herself from the compartment, eventually, if no one found her before she woke.
***
Suited up and ready for launch, Helo strode into the hangar, heading straight for the heavy Raider, in position and ready for conveyance to the launch tubes. The deck crew swarmed over her, conducting their typical pre-flight operations - or at least as typical as could be for a ship that had never been launched by a Colonial crew.
Helo was nervous as hell, but all seemed to be going smoothly. Spare clothes for both himself and Sharon had already been loaded into the Raider, hidden from sight, as had a full medical kit and an assortment of weaponry and ammunition. Obviously, the theft from the munitions lockers hadn’t been noticed yet.
“Everything’s about ready for your test flight, Lieutenant,” Cally told him as he walked up to the hatch. “Just you this morning?”
“Just me. No one else wanted to get up this early, I guess.”
“That excuse didn’t work for us, huh?” she smirked. “You can go ahead and board, sir, I’ll let you know as soon as she’s ready.”
“Thanks, Cally.” Just then, Helo picked up the sound of distant pounding. No one else seemed to have noticed yet, but to Helo, it was clearly the angry sound of boots smashing against metal. Dammit, Starbuck, couldn’t you have waited another five minutes?
Continuing as though nothing was wrong, Helo boarded and sealed the hatch behind him. He ran to the pilot’s seat, grabbed the helmet that awaited him there and slammed it onto his head, sealing the connection and activating the life support system. Toggling on his headset and trying to keep his voice level, even though every nerve ending was screaming at him to move, he said, “Cally, Helo. How’s it looking?”
“You’re good to go, Lieutenant,” came the welcome news and Helo felt the faint shudder as the heavy Raider was conveyed into the tube.
A couple of tense moments passed and then the launch officer’s voice came over his headset. “Heavy Raider zero-zero-one, you are cleared for launch.”
Lords of Kobol, guide me… Helo hit it while he still had the chance - if the pounding he had heard was indeed Starbuck, then she had to have been discovered by now. As the Raider was flung down the tube and into space, a red light began to flash on his console.
Lee Adama’s voice over his headset, “What the frak do you think you’re doing, Lieutenant?”
Knowing there was nothing he could say to adequately explain, Helo chose to ignore the CAG, just as he ignored the Dradis, which showed the Vipers currently flying the CAP closing in on his position. Instead, he spooled up the Raider’s FTL drive.
“Agathon, the CAP has orders to shoot you down if you don’t turn back immediately.”
“I can’t do that, Captain.” A green light indicated that the FTL drive was ready; his course was already programmed in. “I’m sorry, Captain. Don’t be too hard on her.” With that he flicked a switch and was gone.
TO BE CONTINUED
link to part 4, the conclusion
Authors: SabaceanBabe and Un4scene
Word count: 4,015
Date: July 12, 2005
Rating: PG-13
Characters and pairings: Helo/Sharon, Starbuck, Leoben, and others
Summary: Sharon is in the hands of the Cylons and Helo finds that it’s up to him to rescue her before the Cylons take their child.
Spoilers: all of season 1, a few from the rumors we’ve heard of season two
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica belongs to lots of people, but none of them are me. Not making a profit - please don’t sue.
Authors’ notes: You may have noticed that this is part 3 of 2. Um, yeah. And, erm, you may remember that I said part 3 would finish it? Well, yeah. It’s like this: It kinda, sorta got away from me, again. *blushes* Please don’t hurt me. I’m working feverishly (just ask Dani) on the conclusion and have every intention of posting it no later than Friday, July 15, 2005. Gack!
***
Sharon shifted restlessly, unable to get comfortable. The shelf/bed on which she lay seemed to be alive, possessing an internal warmth all its own. Like the walls, the floor, the chair, the entire room - all had been grown from the semi-organic material of the basestar as needed by its inhabitants. If she ever escaped this place, Sharon never wanted to see dark pink again.
Her back ached abominably and she wanted to stand, to walk a bit to ease the strain, but she couldn’t. Her pregnancy had progressed at an alarming rate, her child growing in a matter of days to the point where Sharon thought he or she must be born at any time. She felt as though she were the size of a Raptor, but she was so weak.
For the dozenth time since she had been brought aboard the basestar, Sharon felt despair threaten to overwhelm her, felt tears begin to seep from the corners of her eyes. She blinked rapidly in an attempt stop them, but they wouldn’t be swayed.
“Sharon?” There was concern in Helo’s voice as he wiped away the tears with his thumb. She felt his touch on her face, but she knew he wasn’t there. “Sharon, I am here; you’re keeping me here.”
She couldn’t fight it anymore. Hallucination or not, she was terrified and as alone as she had ever been. She needed Helo more than she had thought possible, needed him to lend her some of his strength. Opening her eyes, she focused on his face, reached out to stroke his cheek and was surprised when she felt light stubble there.
“You’ve got to let me go, Sharon. I’m only here because of you.”
“No, you can’t be here - I left you on Kobol. I left so you could escape, so you’d be safe.”
He drew her hand away from his face and pressed it against his chest - she felt the fabric of his tanks, the beat of his heart. “I know you did. But I’m not safe, Sharon, and I won’t be until you let me go.”
“I only wanted to protect you.” She heard the childish whine in her voice and hated it.
“Hush. I know.” Helo brought her hand up to his mouth, kissed her fingertips. “The best way for you to protect me, if that’s really what you want, is to let me go home, back to Galactica. I can’t stay with you, Sharon. You’re a Cylon. You and I, we don’t belong together. Even if I wanted to settle down with just one woman, it’d be someone like me, someone human.” Even as she closed her eyes against his words, words that cut, she couldn’t stop the sensations that ran through her when he laid his hand on their baby. Nor could she stop the baby from kicking at that hand. “I never wanted this responsibility. I’m not cut out to be a father, Sharon.”
Ready to deny his words, Sharon opened her eyes to look at him. Instead of Helo, the man whose hand rested on her stomach, who felt the kick of her child, was another of her own kind. A Cylon male, blond hair and gray eyes. She had seen him before, but not for a very long time.
He smiled at her. “Call me Leoben.” He watched reverently as a ripple flowed under his palm through the muscles of her stomach. His eyes met hers as he continued, “I’ll do everything I can to help you.”
“I don’t believe you.”
His smile widened. “I know you don’t, Sharon. But that doesn’t change what will be. Your Helo will be here soon. He’ll take you away to a place that’s being prepared for you among the humans. A place where you and this child will be safe.”
She tried to brush him away, but her efforts were so weak that a fly wouldn’t have felt threatened, let alone a healthy Cylon. “Go away,” she whispered, and then, louder, “You can’t make me believe this, Six, anymore than I believe Helo has been here or that he’s coming.”
Leoben looked sorrowful as he pulled up the coverlet, tucking her into the living bed as though she were a child. But he wasn’t really there, just as Helo had never really been there. Nothing was real, except the fact that her baby would be coming soon and that she couldn’t stop the Cylons from taking it.
“Number Six has nothing to do with my presence here, Sharon. I’m here for you, the mother of the next generation, and for your child. You must be strong, for this child…” The one who called himself Leoben gently stroked her stomach. “…and for the future of us all.”
***
“Try it now!” Helo called to Private Mondav as he made a new connection between two wires. The Marine was in the cockpit of the heavy Raider, helping Helo to recalibrate the communications system to Colonial specifications, having volunteered to help from sheer boredom - and maybe more than just a passing interest in Kara. The man wasn’t much on the technical side of things, but he made a decent enough assistant, following Helo’s or Kara’s direction.
Several of the Raider’s systems had been damaged during their escape from Caprica and then from Kobol. Helo grinned as he thought about just how hard he and Kara seemed to be on vehicles, recalling a transport that had belonged to the Caprican resistance. They had smashed it up pretty thoroughly.
“It sounds like it’s working, Lieutenant!” Mondav’s reply was muffled by distance and insulated bulkheads.
Helo reached up to wipe sweat from his forehead, preventing a trickle from reaching his eye. Slipping a wire stripper into a pocket, he secured the new connection by twisting a plastic nut onto the ragged ends. As he pushed the newly connected wires back into their compartment, someone kicked the sole of his left boot, the only part of him that extended from beneath the console on which he worked.
Thinking it was either Mondav or Kara - the only other two inside the Raider - he ordered, “Cut it out, man.” Grabbing hold of a support, he pulled himself out from the tangle of wires.
“Sorry, sir,” Chief Tyrol said, “but we’re closing up shop. Shift’s over.” There was a glint in Tyrol’s eye beyond the bruising and puffiness; Helo couldn’t decide whether it was genuine humor or subtle mockery. Today he’d gotten both in about equal measure from the Chief, which was a distinct improvement over the previous cool courtesy that had concealed contempt.
Helo and Tyrol had, he thought, come to an understanding over the roles they had played in Boomer’s subversive activities and her subsequent destruction. An understanding evidenced by Helo’s sore jaw and knuckles and the Chief’s black eye. They would never be friends, exactly, but at least they could work together now without sniping at each other.
Levering himself up onto his elbows, Helo said, “If it’s all right with you, Chief, I’m on a roll here.” Tyrol was technically in charge of all work done on the Raider, even though Helo outranked him. “I’d like to stay and continue working on the comms system.” And, if the Gods were smiling on him, Kara would also be staying behind to work on the navigation system, as she had been doing for the past several hours, and they would get a chance to work out the wrinkles in their plan.
Tyrol frowned. “Sure, Lieutenant.” His gaze drifted toward the cockpit, where Kara and Mondav had been working on their separate projects. “We got the engines back on line, but Lieutenant Thrace is still working on the nav comp. The sooner we can get this bird in the air, the better off we’ll be.” He sketched a salute, then wheeled around to leave as soon as Helo half-heartedly returned it.
A moment later, Helo heard someone outside the heavy Raider say, “You’re just leaving him in there, Chief? Don’t you think he’ll…?”
“Don’t I think he’ll what, Purcell?”
The Chief’s tone should have warned Purcell to stop there, but he didn’t pick up on it. “Do something to alert the Cylons to our location.”
“And why would he do that, Purcell?”
“You’ve said it yourself, Chief. He’s a Cylon sympathizer.”
Quite interested in what Tyrol might have to say on that subject, Helo maneuvered a little closer to the entryway. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Kara and Mondav, too, had heard the exchange and were listening just as intently.
“Deckhand Purcell, you’re speaking of an officer in the Colonial Fleet. I may have said some things in anger that shouldn’t have been said, but that’s between me and Lieutenant Agathon.” From the angle of Tyrol’s head, Helo thought he might be playing more to his audience inside the Raider than to the deckhand. “Don’t you have anything better to do, Purcell?”
“No, Chief. I mean yes, Chief.”
“Get outta here.” Tyrol waved him off and then took his own advice, heading out of the hangar toward the galley.
“What a load of shit.” The sentiment didn’t surprise Helo nearly as much as the source. He more or less expected it from Kara, but it was Mondav who had said it. Helo looked over his shoulder at Mondav, standing close to Kara, who also looked at the Marine curiously. Mondav shrugged. “You’re about as much a Cylon sympathizer as Commander Adama, sir.”
Helo snorted. “Thanks.” He rapped on the bulkhead twice, lightly, with his fist. “No, I’m not a sympathizer.” Not unless being in love with a particular Cylon qualifies me as one. He turned back to the comm console, didn’t notice when Kara and Mondav returned to the cockpit.
***
As he snapped a cover back into place, Helo sensed a presence nearby and looked up to see Mondav standing next to him. He realized that he had been working on tweaking the system for a good half hour and had become completely absorbed in the work. “What’s up?”
“Kara asked me to bring her something to drink - ‘something interesting,’ as she put it.” The Marine smiled. “You want anything?”
Helo sat back, leaning his shoulders against the bulkhead. So it’s Kara now… “Aren’t you afraid to leave a couple of desperate characters like us alone?”
Mondav laughed. “I probably should be. Do you give me your word you won’t steal the ship?”
If you only knew, Helo thought. Aloud he said, “Absolutely. I have no immediate plans to steal this ship.”
Mondav’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe I shouldn’t leave you and Lieutenant Thrace alone.”
“That reminds me, where’s Hicks?” As the days passed, their guards had become more and more relaxed, more trusting of their charges, but for Hicks to be absent from his post for hours and for Mondav to be willing to leave Kara and himself completely alone…
“He hurt himself playing hammerball last night. Whatever he did, it got worse so he went to see Doc Cottle a couple hours ago.” Mondav looked conflicted. After a short internal struggle, he said, “You’re probably right, sir, I shouldn’t leave you alone…”
Damn. “You could always lock us in,” Helo suggested.
“Yeah, but who knows what kind of trouble you two could get into, locked in here alone.”
Helo played the opening Mondav had just given him, trying to salvage the situation. “Well, Private, what would you do, locked into a confined space with a beautiful woman?”
Mondav shook his head. A smirk twisted his lips as he shuffled through the compartments on his utility belt until he came up with a magnetic lock, holding it up for Helo to see. “I’ll be back in half an hour, sir.”
“Works for me.”
Mondav disappeared through the open hatch, closing it behind him. There was a faint whine as the mag lock was activated on the other side, locking Helo and Kara into the heavy Raider while their remaining Marine guard ran off to fetch Kara a drink. Helo shook his head in amazement.
“You almost blew that one, genius.”
He turned to Kara, who leaned in the opening to the cockpit, arms crossed beneath her breasts. “Frak you, Thrace. We have half an hour.” He gestured for Kara to precede him to the pilot’s station and followed her as he pulled the Cylon data chip from his pocket. “Did you hear Tyrol say her engines are back online?” he asked as Kara dropped into the pilot’s chair.
“I did. Have you had a chance to decode your chip yet?” She patted down her pockets and Helo knew she was looking for a cigar.
Helo reached into his own pocket and pulled out a lollipop, tossing it to her. “No smoking on my ship.”
Kara arched a brow. “Your ship? I believe I’m the one who flew her from Caprica…” she mocked as she unwrapped the candy.
Helo stuck his tongue out at her as he slid the data chip into the slot on the main communication console, ignoring her laughing, “Anytime, Karl.” Making sure the Raider’s comm system remained isolated from Galactica - the whole point of rerouting connections even as he complied with orders and hooked her into the Colonial system - he initiated the translation program.
***
As he had told Sharon, a safe place was being prepared for her and the child. It was not yet ready, but Leoben was certain that it would be by the time it was needed. He was equally certain that it wouldn’t be long, now - he would know it as soon Helo made his break from the human fleet.
The pieces slowly shifted into their pre-ordained pattern. The Progenitors would soon be reunited and their Child born. The Protector was in place aboard Galactica, awaiting their arrival. Both the Protector and another of Leoben’s own model worked toward gaining the Child and the Progenitors acceptance among the humans, worked on changing the attitude of the Soldier, without whose support Mother, Father, and Child would not survive.
Leoben bowed his head, prayed that he would be sufficient to see this through.
***
Based on the intel they had picked up from the chip a few hours earlier, Helo was busy faking orders for an 0600 test launch of the heavy Raider while Kara programmed an intercept course. Once the fake orders were entered, he would work on getting the ship fueled for the “test” flight.
Helo found it hard to believe that the time was really here, that he would be leaving in just a couple of hours, heading into the unknown. It wasn’t too late, yet, for him to turn back from this course of action, to just let Sharon go, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do that to her and the baby; he couldn’t do that to himself. They were his family. He had accepted that and now that the time had come, he felt lighter, somehow. It was a cliché, he knew, but he felt as though a great weight had been lifted. He didn’t even believe that this wild scheme he and Kara had concocted would succeed, but at least he was doing something.
Kara wheeled around in the pilot’s chair, a smug look on her face. “Program complete. We’re taking this baby deep into Cylon territory. You up for it?”
There was a look of excitement in Kara’s eyes, the kind of self-destructive look that she always got when she was planning to do something she knew might cause irreparable damage to her relationships with others, particularly the Old Man. Helo knew just how important Commander Adama was to Kara. And after being locked with her in this very ship, he thought he knew how important Lee Adama’s opinion was to her as well. A memory replayed in his mind.
The sound of the mag lock being deactivated drifted up to the cockpit, where they were just finishing programming the basestar’s flight plan into the heavy Raider’s navigational system.
“Shit,” Kara said, then, “Helo. Kiss me.”
“What?”
“I said kiss me. It’s what Mondav’s expecting to find.” When he just looked at her, she said, “It’s not as if it’s the first time. If it helps, pretend I’m Sharon.”
He pulled her up against him as the door opened, Mondav whistling tunelessly to let them know he was returning, and teased, “Just like you’ll pretend I’m Lee Adama?”
Kara opened her mouth to say something cutting and Helo took advantage of that just as Mondav walked in. The Marine suspected nothing of what they had really been doing while he was gone. He shot Helo a look of pure jealousy when he handed him a bottle of beer and Kara laughed, not unkindly, and took her own bottle.
The three of them had drunk their beers, talked a bit about what was happening back on Caprica and how likely it was that there was a resistance movement on any of the other Colonies. Then they left, returning to quarters.
And now it seemed that Kara had every intention of coming with him. Helo was certain that he could never return to Galactica if he left now, taking with him a ship that was a damn near priceless military asset, deserting his post during time of war. If Kara went with him, there would be no turning back for her either.
He couldn’t allow that to happen.
Was he up for it? Without responding to Kara with anything more than a quick grin, Helo hit the key that sent the launch orders to Galactica’s roster and quickly entered the fueling order, set for 0530 - anything earlier might arouse suspicion.
Kara would never allow him to just leave her behind - not given what they had gone through back on Caprica. It wasn’t just for his sake that she wanted to do this thing or for the sake of thumbing her nose at authority. Sharon and Kara had been friends for years before any of them knew Sharon was a Cylon. They had become friends again in the weeks the three of them had been together before Helo and Kara had returned to Galactica. And if he did what he knew had to be done to make Kara stay on Galactica, she’d never forgive him. In fact, she’d probably kill him, if they ever saw each other again.
“You okay, Karl? You seem a little distracted.” She stood and took a step toward him.
“I’m fine.” He shrugged, chewed at his cheek for a second. “Just pre-mission jitters.” Helo stood as well, his mind whirling at the speed of light. No matter what he did to make sure she remained on Galactica, Kara would be implicated in his crimes; there was no help for that. But he thought she could weather that storm without permanent repercussions with either the Old Man or Apollo.
He felt the weight in his right pocket of the wire stripper. It wasn’t much, but it should do the trick, provided Kara wasn’t expecting anything…
“Makes you feel more alive, doesn’t it?” Kara observed with a reckless grin.
Helo gave her a lopsided smile. “Yeah.” He gestured for her to go ahead of him. “I think we’re about done.” There were just a few minutes left before the refueling would begin. “We should get outta here.” He slipped his hand into his pocket, took a firm grip on the handles of the stripper.
“Wouldn’t want to get busted now, would we?”
Suspecting nothing, Kara turned her back on Helo. She had taken a step away from him, toward the Raider’s hatch, when he pulled the stripper from his pocket and bashed her on the base of her skull in one quick, efficient move.
She dropped like a stone. Helo caught her before she could hit the deck, eased her down. There was blood on his hand, blood on the back of her head. “Oh, Gods…”
Throwing the wire stripper violently out the hatch, he laid Kara out flat, put his fingers to her throat to check her pulse. It was strong and steady. He took a deep breath, thanked the Gods that he hadn’t killed her. Her head would hurt for a while, and probably her pride, but he could live with that.
Working as quickly as he could, Helo dragged her limp body from the Cylon ship and closed the hatch. Checking his chrono, he saw that the refueling team would be there in less than five minutes. Sliding his arms as gently as he could under her shoulders and knees, he lifted her and hurried to a storage compartment outside the hangar, away from casual traffic. He stripped off her tunic and outside tank, then, using the tunic to tie her hands and the tank as a gag, he laid her gently in the storage compartment.
He checked the back of her head, relieved to find that the bleeding had stopped. Kissing her forehead, he whispered, “I’m sorry, Kara, but I can’t let you destroy your life. You have too much here to just throw it away.”
Helo closed the compartment, but left it unlocked. He had to make it clear to everyone that she wasn’t responsible for any of this, that it was his crime alone, but he also had to be sure that she would be able to free herself from the compartment, eventually, if no one found her before she woke.
***
Suited up and ready for launch, Helo strode into the hangar, heading straight for the heavy Raider, in position and ready for conveyance to the launch tubes. The deck crew swarmed over her, conducting their typical pre-flight operations - or at least as typical as could be for a ship that had never been launched by a Colonial crew.
Helo was nervous as hell, but all seemed to be going smoothly. Spare clothes for both himself and Sharon had already been loaded into the Raider, hidden from sight, as had a full medical kit and an assortment of weaponry and ammunition. Obviously, the theft from the munitions lockers hadn’t been noticed yet.
“Everything’s about ready for your test flight, Lieutenant,” Cally told him as he walked up to the hatch. “Just you this morning?”
“Just me. No one else wanted to get up this early, I guess.”
“That excuse didn’t work for us, huh?” she smirked. “You can go ahead and board, sir, I’ll let you know as soon as she’s ready.”
“Thanks, Cally.” Just then, Helo picked up the sound of distant pounding. No one else seemed to have noticed yet, but to Helo, it was clearly the angry sound of boots smashing against metal. Dammit, Starbuck, couldn’t you have waited another five minutes?
Continuing as though nothing was wrong, Helo boarded and sealed the hatch behind him. He ran to the pilot’s seat, grabbed the helmet that awaited him there and slammed it onto his head, sealing the connection and activating the life support system. Toggling on his headset and trying to keep his voice level, even though every nerve ending was screaming at him to move, he said, “Cally, Helo. How’s it looking?”
“You’re good to go, Lieutenant,” came the welcome news and Helo felt the faint shudder as the heavy Raider was conveyed into the tube.
A couple of tense moments passed and then the launch officer’s voice came over his headset. “Heavy Raider zero-zero-one, you are cleared for launch.”
Lords of Kobol, guide me… Helo hit it while he still had the chance - if the pounding he had heard was indeed Starbuck, then she had to have been discovered by now. As the Raider was flung down the tube and into space, a red light began to flash on his console.
Lee Adama’s voice over his headset, “What the frak do you think you’re doing, Lieutenant?”
Knowing there was nothing he could say to adequately explain, Helo chose to ignore the CAG, just as he ignored the Dradis, which showed the Vipers currently flying the CAP closing in on his position. Instead, he spooled up the Raider’s FTL drive.
“Agathon, the CAP has orders to shoot you down if you don’t turn back immediately.”
“I can’t do that, Captain.” A green light indicated that the FTL drive was ready; his course was already programmed in. “I’m sorry, Captain. Don’t be too hard on her.” With that he flicked a switch and was gone.
TO BE CONTINUED
link to part 4, the conclusion