Fic: Through the Winter chapter 9 (Cain/Gina)
Title: Through the Winter (9/?)
Author: phoenixstorm
Pairing: Cain/Gina
Rating: G/PG/whatever the previous chapters have been.
Word Count: 4,893
Summary: Another 'What if' fic. This time: What if Gina was a sleeper agent cylon?
-----------------------------
Chapter Nine
Partway through the next day Gina still hadn’t had any luck tracking down the traitor programmer, and she once again found herself wandering the Pegasus, trying to find something else to occupy her before she drove herself mad. She hadn't slept properly in days, she had a large cut on her head that throbbed persistently, she'd learnt that the human race had been all but wiped out, and just to make matters worse someone was trying to make it look as if she'd been partly responsible. The work managed to keep her mind off things for a little while, but when that work wasn't actually yielding any results Gina had to get out before being reduced to a weeping mass in the corner of her quarters. Thus the aimless wandering about the Pegasus continued.
The physical damage done to the Pegasus had been mostly repaired by now, but that only served to make things seem more eerie throughout the ship. It was almost possible to forget that they’d been under attack not a week ago now, but then you’d get to the wall with the photos the Raptors had taken of the colonies and suddenly reality was back like a slap to the face. It was a horrible feeling, and Gina had taken to discreetly averting her eyes whenever she was coming up on them.
“Ms. Inviere.” There was no mistaking the voice of Kendra Shaw, and Gina called out a greeting before turning to face her.
“Lieutenant, I’m going out of my mind. Please tell me there’s something I can help you with to keep me occupied.”
“I was actually just coming to ask you for help. I need an extra hand and you were so capable the other day, plus I figured you wouldn’t have much to do since we have no network anymore.”
Gina laughed bitterly. “My job here is officially over, yes.”
“Well then, come watch this footage the scouting Raptors brought back. We may spot something there we can use.”
They watched the footage over and over, seeing nothing but blank space every time. Gina’s eyes were getting sore from having stared at the screen for so long but she forced herself to continue looking. There was something about the top left corner of the screen that her eyes kept darting back to which she felt was important for some reason, but no matter how hard she looked at it she could never spot anything. She was still staring at that part of the screen, giving up hope when suddenly the briefest of movements caught her attention. “Stop!” She cried out to Kendra, who quickly hit the pause button on her remote.
Gina got up and went and tapped the top left side of the screen. “Zoom in here” she instructed, and Kendra did so.
There was nothing at first, then there was just a cluster of stars, but as Kendra kept enlarging the picture a ship eventually came into focus.
“That’s...how did you...?” Kendra’s head darted between both Gina and the screen before she shook it and went to set up the system to print out what was currently on the screen. Gina kept her eyes on the ship there, tilting her head slightly as she tried to work out what it was. It didn’t appear to be the cylon equivalent of a Battlestar, but then again who knew with the toasters?
“Admiral Cain is having a dinner with the ship’s officers tonight,” Kendra told Gina as she held up and inspected her new print, “and you should come along, you more than deserve it. Thanks!”
She left quickly, and Gina packed up the equipment and decided that it was apparently up to her to return the footage to CIC.
She stopped outside of Helena’s quarters on the way there, trying to decide whether to knock or not. They hadn’t seen each other since just after the attack, aside from when she’d lied to her about the network two days after that, and she missed Helena desperately. Gina knew that the admiral was very busy during this time however, and had turned to leave but came face to face with the admiral instead.
“Gina, I was just about to get a couple of hours of sleep, please come in.”
“I don’t want to disturb” Gina tried to reply, but was gently guided into the room by Helena’s arm. She stood by the door as Helena unbuttoned and rolled her head, rubbing her neck.
“I know you’re very busy,” Gina continued, “and I...I...oh, Helena!”
Helena turned just in time for Gina to throw her arms around her neck, and she buried her face in the brown hair. She could feel Helena stroking her back.
No words were spoken, but Gina was greatly reassured just by having her lover here with her again, finally. And Helena would make everything okay. She always did.
As she started to feel better she realised how incredibly selfish she was being, as Helena had suffered the same losses that she had and also had to deal with an entire Battlestar looking to her for answers and salvation. She must be carrying such enormous burdens right now.
She pulled away and planted a gentle kiss on the admiral’s lips. “You should sleep, I’m sure you’re exhausted. I’ll stay with you.”
The look Helena gave her was filled with so much gratitude that Gina realised she’d been right, and she pulled her over to the bed where they both lay down. Gina let Helena use one of her arms as a pillow, and with the other hand she stroked the dark curls.
“I’ve organised a dinner with Belzen, Fisk and Shaw tonight,” Helena told Gina sleepily with her eyes closed, “and I want you to come.”
Gina kissed her forehead twice, choosing to keep her previous invitation to the dinner to herself, and replied “I’d love to, of course I’ll come.”
Helena nodded and snuggled in closer, and when her breathing became louder Gina knew that she’d fallen asleep.
“I love you” she whispered to the sleeping woman, and never took her eyes off her.
The creases in Helena’s forehead from her serious frown smoothed out, and returned to the beautiful calm that Gina loved so much to see. One of the reasons Gina usually woke up later in the mornings was because she liked to stay up and watch Helena’s sleeping face for a while, the face that wasn’t burdened by expectations and responsibilities, and these days the fate of what was left of the entire human race as well.
Gina knew that she’d get to see less and less of Helena’s tender side as time went on and their war against the cylons continued. But Gina was with her now, and she swore that for just a few hours, just once, Admiral Cain was going to stop having the weight of humanity on her shoulders and have someone else look after her instead.
---
Helena’s body clock was as accurate as ever, and she awoke a little over two hours later. Gina smiled and kissed her when she saw the brown eyes open, and Helena finally pulled back with a groan.
“I have to go, but don’t forget about dinner tonight.”
She got out of bed and did up her buttons, then leant down for a last quick kiss before she left with Gina following shortly after.
There were only a couple of hours until dinner, and once Gina was back in her room she instinctively pulled out her book to write a journal entry, but when she opened to the last one she’d written and saw her blood on it and the way it had cut off as the bombs hit she felt a strong ache in her chest and slammed the book shut. She wouldn’t be able to write in it again, not if she had to see that every time she opened it. Even if she tore that page out she was sure the memories would still haunt her, so she picked up the book and threw it into the bin beside her desk, wanting to burn the stupid thing but not sure who would spare her a match in times like this.
Instead she started to compile a list of the crew members she’d hired, making notes next to the ones who had the skills and the opportunity to try and compromise her network. The problem was that she’d been very thorough when hiring, and she had hired the best. Too many of them would definitely have the skills to write that section of code, and it wasn’t as if she monitored them every second of every day. The one factor which threw her the most was the ability to hide their access to it. Was it skill, or had someone managed to steal and use her own computer for a while? It was a large process of elimination, only she couldn’t really eliminate anyone. Perhaps she’d have to go about this the old fashioned way, and just interview everyone suspicious to see what she could get out of them. She’d have to do it discreetly of course, because if Helena found out about it she’d have to explain the lie as well.
Gina clenched her jaw as she felt her stomach eat itself a little, still consumed by guilt over what she’d done. She forced it down, telling herself again that once she’d uncovered the truth she’d be able to take the whole story to Helena. It was just a matter of time...hopefully.
She checked the clock and quickly jumped out of her seat, realising that she’d lost track of time and was actually going to be late to the dinner now. She pulled a new top out of her locker and changed quickly, then hunted through her boxes for her good earrings.
When she was ready she walked as quickly as her heels allowed her, greeting the soldier who stood outside the entrance to Helena’s quarters as he opened the hatch for her.
“Speak of the devil,” she heard Kendra say as she walked in, but her gaze went directly to Helena, quickly surveying the room on its way.
It was set up very similarly to the way it had been on their first dinner together, and Gina couldn’t keep the large smile from her face as she walked to her lover.
“Hello Gina,” Helena said to her, softly and with warmth. “Welcome.”
Gina returned the greeting and the two leaned in so that they could kiss each other on the cheek. Gina squeezed her arm tightly, and the two gazed at each other as they pulled apart.
“Gentlemen,” Helena turned away to address the men in the room, “I’d like you to meet Ms. Gina Inviere.”
Gina nodded at them with a smile, politely not interrupting to tell Helena that she was already fairly well acquainted with the two of them.
“Ah, Ms. Inviere and Lieutenant Shaw have been working very closely upgrading our systems, and before that she was supervising the retrofit, and I must say she’s proven herself valuable in both capacities.”
Gina raised an eyebrow and smirked at the admiral as if to ask if that was all she was good for, and Helena looked away as she made a very poor attempt to stop herself from grinning widely. Gina knew she’d get told off later, so she managed to stop herself before continuing.
“Thank you,” she said instead. “Well you’ve certainly set a beautiful table.”
“Thank you,” Helena echoed, and her smile told Gina that she’d intended for the table to be laid out the same way as their first dinner. Maybe it was Helena trying to say that no matter what happened with the cylons nothing would change them, or maybe she was just trying to cheer the both of them up with a little happy nostalgia. Perhaps this was even an anniversary of that dinner, and as Gina tried to count back the months in her head she overheard Helena telling everyone to take a seat, and so she walked to take the one beside the admiral.
Helena started to speak again. “I actually think it’s quite important for a ship’s officers to get together every once in a while. Share some food, some wine, some good conversation. Helps morale.”
“Not to mention it’s the only time we get to park our butts in a chair around here.” Fisk interrupted, raising his glass.
“Now that you’re all here,” Helena continued, “I would like to take a moment to say a few words. In all seriousness, I said some things before in the heat of emotion. Things that I felt this crew needed to hear. But I don’t want any of you for one moment to think that I would ever risk lives or resources in some mad quest for revenge.”
She paused for a while, but no one spoke. Gina sensed that the admiral had more to say, and she guessed that the other people in the room had the same feeling.
“My plan...” Helena paused again to rub her forehead. “is to wage an all-out classic guerrilla war campaign. I want to find their weak links and I want to hit them hard.”
“As they say, the best defence is a good offence.” Gina mused out loud, and was rewarded by a smile from the admiral.
‘Gold star’ Gina couldn’t help but think, remembering her first meeting with Helena.
“Then here’s to a good offence.” Fisk raised his glass, leading them into a toast. “And to kickin’ some cylon ass!”
“Hear hear” Belzen agreed, and Gina joined in with Kendra, noting out of the corner of her eyes that Helena had just gone in for a large mouthful of her wine instead. She realised then that it was probably a little inappropriate to be toasting the destruction of the toasters, but she doubted that was the reason why Helena hadn’t joined in. She’d have to ask about that later.
An unspoken agreement seemed to have gone around the table with the toast that there would be no more talk of cylons or warfare, and Gina was so glad to be laughing again after everything that had happened recently. It just went to show that you could destroy some - and Gina tried not to think too hard about just how many that ‘some’ had been - humans, but you couldn’t destroy the human spirit. The cylons would keep going just because they didn’t know how to stop, but humans kept going because they wanted to keep going. They could be broken, physically and mentally, but they would keep going against all odds because that’s just what humankind frakking did. Nothing could take that away from them. And that, Gina realised, was why she believed humankind was going to win. Not today, not tomorrow, but she felt sure that at some point that she would be back on Scorpia, ready to rebuild society.
She glanced at Helena over her wine glass. How could they possibly lose with someone like Admiral Cain leading them? Perhaps that was the reason everyone was able to laugh so easily tonight.
“So the next thing I know,” Fisk was continuing his story, “the crazy old broad has slapped me. ‘I will not have my daughter dating a man who thinks that being a drunkard allows him to compare himself to Mighty Dionysius’ she said. Gemenese, they’re religious nutters, all of them.”
“I’m from Gemenon.” Gina pointed a finger at him with a slight warning tone. “And it’s not right, running around comparing yourself to a god just because you’ve had too much to drink.”
“He’s the god of wine!” Fisk protested, looking to Belzen for help.
“He’s not just the god of wine, Colonel. In any case, you shouldn’t be mocking the gods no matter what reason.”
“Religious nutter,” Fisk muttered into his glass, but before Gina could respond Kendra had jumped in.
“I used to get all sorts of crap from a partner’s mother about being in the military. She was one of those strict anti-war types, and every time I saw her she’d always greet me with ‘so, murdered anyone lately?’”
Fisk, Belzen and Helena raised their eyes to the ceiling and shook their heads over this comment.
“They won’t be making comments like that when...” Fisk trailed off part way through his sentence.
There was silence following this, and Gina couldn’t think of anything to say to change the subject again. As much as she believed that humanity would survive, that would never bring back everyone she’d lost, and everyone that the other people in the room had lost as well.
After a long while it was Helena who finally spoke. “I think it’s time we called it a night.”
----
Gina had just finished getting changed the next morning when there was a knock on her door. Kendra waited for her outside, holding a pile of documents.
“Morning. The admiral’s asked us to go around and firewall all of our systems for the attack tomorrow.”
Gina blinked sleepily, not sure she’d heard the lieutenant correctly. “What do you mean, what attack?”
Kendra returned her confused look, but then seemed to work out what was going on. “Oh right, you missed that part last night. You know the cylon ship you found yesterday? Cain’s decided to launch an attack against it tomorrow, to show the cylons that they’re not safe out there. She wants all of the systems firewalled to stop them from accessing the ship, like the code in the old network would have allowed.”
“But...we have no network at the moment, Lieutenant. How would they be able to access it?”
Kendra shrugged. “I guess she wants to be able to use the network as a last resort if necessary, but it’ll be pointless if the enemy can use it against us.”
Gina opened her mouth to reply ‘not my network’, but decided against it at the last second and replied “not a bad idea” instead.
Several hours later she was very ready to change her mind, though, since once again without the network every single terminal had to be accessed and firewalled individually. Gina began to have serious doubts about whether they’d actually be able to finish for the attack. They’d manage if they were able to split up, but of course Kendra was the only one with the access codes. This meant that Gina was the one who had to do all the work, while Kendra would stand off to the side until it was time to input them. The whole process was very inefficient, and considering the point of Gina’s job was to help eliminate inefficiency this was starting to annoy her. She’d only just barely been able to manage the tediousness of going around to each individual terminal the last time, and that was only because the last time there wasn’t the possibility that it could all go faster if only she had a higher damn security clearance.
“Almost done here,” she told Kendra as she continued to tap away at the screen. “I don’t know how we’re going to firewall all of these systems by tomorrow unless we split up.”
She looked back at Kendra before returning to the screen. “And you’re the only one with the access codes.”
“Well we can speak to the admiral about raising your security clearance...” Gina heard Kendra reply, and the way she trailed off at the end caused Gina to pause as she realised that she and Helena had been caught.
Apparently she’d been very wrong in assuming that Kendra was dense when they’d first met.
She turned back to the lieutenant. “And here I thought we were being so discreet,” she said with a light sigh, then turned back to close the glass door that normally covered the computer. “Or at least, that’s what Helena wants to think. In reality I think I may have let slip on one or two occasions. It’s so hard to stay discreet when you truly care for someone.”
A cheeky look spread on Kendra’s face. “Actually, I picked up the vibes from her. She’d completely change whenever she was looking at or talking to you. It was...”
“Program’s uploaded.” Gina interrupted, and started to walk out. “You need to input your code.”
She stopped when she noticed that Kendra wasn’t moving, and after a moment of standing silently with a thoughtful expression on her face the lieutenant said “Alpha one nine six gamma one.”
Gina grinned, pleased that they’d finally get some work done now. She turned back to the screen and started to input the access code. “To satisfy your curiosity, we met a few months ago when I presented the plans for the retrofit.” She hit enter on the system, smiling when the program completed installation without a hitch. “We spent a lot of time together working out the details, and I guess one thing led to the other.”
She raised and eyebrow as Kendra shook her head with an amused smile. “You seem so surprised.”
“It’s just that Cain seems so self-sufficient.” Kendra replied as Gina moved onto the next terminal and started hitting buttons there. She stopped after Kendra had spoken though, to consider what she’d just said.
“She seems that way, but a lot of it is just a front she puts on. After all, no one can survive entirely on their own. It’s a little complicated, but...we work. We’re good for one another.”
“If you say so.” The cheeky tone returned to Kendra’s voice, and Gina let out an over-exaggerated huff, feigning insult.
“If you’re going to be that way you can go firewall programs by yourself then. Go on.”
Kendra shook her head and walked off, and Gina turned back to her screen with a large grin on her face. It felt good to not be keeping her relationship a secret anymore, even if it was only with one person. Kendra was starting to grow on her, and she was glad for their fast blooming friendship in times like these, especially since Barbara’s passing and everyone else being kept constantly busy. She touched her chest, feeling the dog tags underneath her clothing, but then shook her head to clear it. She wasn’t going to go there, not now.
As she went to enter her newly acquired access code once again her head started to ache, and as she reached up a hand to massage the cut on her forehead her vision went blurry, and then there was nothing but black.
----
Gina raised her head from her pillow and was very confused as she didn’t remember finishing with the firewalls or coming back to her quarters.
Pulling herself to her feet she chuckled a little. Obviously the whole process was just that boring and repetitive that she’d managed to switch off while doing it. It was all very convenient then, really. If only she’d been able to doze off and still take notes back when she was in college.
Her stomach growled and she checked the clock, her mouth falling open a little when she discovered that it was 6:14am. She'd been out for most of the day then, and all night! She was also still fully clothed from yesterday for some reason, but she changed her top and pants before pulling the coat back on and then headed down to the mess for breakfast.
The place turned out to be packed with pilots, as they were all trying to get a quick breakfast in before they went to prepare for the upcoming attack. Gina spotted Lynelle’s blonde ponytail from behind at one of the tables towards the back, and she pulled Barbara’s dog tags from around her neck as she walked over.
“Here,” she said, placing one hand on Lynelle’s shoulder as she deposited the dog tags and their chain on the table in front of her. “For luck today.”
Lynelle rubbed her thumb over the metal thoughtfully, then turned to look at Gina over her shoulder. “Freckles and Tom Tom flying together again, huh? Thanks, Gina.”
“Go show those toasters how hard it is to keep humanity down.” Gina smiled encouragement and patted Lynelle on the shoulder, then let the Pegasus CAG go back to discussing tactics with her rookies as she went to get some food for herself.
Gina ended up having to stand since there weren’t any available chairs, and she was considering taking the food down to Helena’s quarters until she remembered that Helena would be busier than anyone today. But on that note it was unlikely that the admiral would actually be in her quarters, so Gina could probably sneak in and use the table there without bothering anybody.
She squeezed out past all of the pilots and carried her food down to the admiral’s quarters, opening the door and jumping just a little when she saw Helena pacing the room while reading some papers.
“Good morning, Helena. There weren’t any seats available in the mess so I thought I’d come and steal your table.”
“It’s all yours,” Helena replied, not looking up from her papers. “I’ll be leaving in a minute, and I’d actually like you to stay in here during the attack anyway, just to be on the safe side.”
Gina laughed. “I wasn’t going to go take a nap in a Viper cockpit in case you’re worried.”
“I wasn’t.” Helena finished the page she was reading and excused herself, walking towards the door. Gina put down her fork and beckoned the admiral over to her, then stood to give the woman a tight hug.
“Be careful today, all right? That’s an order, Admiral.”
Helena kissed her in reply. “I mean it, don’t go wandering the ship. We may take some hits.”
Gina threw her head back with an exaggerated sigh. “I promise I won’t go anywhere or do anything to make you unhappy with me, okay?”
“That’s my girl.” Helena kissed her again, and they held this one, squeezing each other tightly as they did so. Gina knew that the CIC was one of the safer places to be during an attack, but it was still going to be a battle and she was reluctant to let go of her love.
She held onto Helena’s bottom lip with her teeth as the admiral moved to pull away, but when Helena said her name sternly in a voice distorted by the lack of her lower lip Gina couldn’t help but laugh and Helena used that opportunity to escape.
“The attack will begin in an hour, so if you need anything from your quarters make sure you’ve brought it back here well before then.”
“I’m staying the night, by the way,” Gina told her with a grin, but then her face turned serious. “And you will be careful, won’t you? I love you.”
Helena smiled at her tenderly as she walked out the door, and Gina sat back down at the table to continue with her breakfast. She tapped the fork against the container several times with a smile on her face, her worry fading a little. From what Kendra had told her yesterday they were only going up against a comm. relay that had little to no defences. The cylons thought they’d wiped everyone out, and they certainly weren’t going to be expecting an attack on a ship like that. No, this attack would be simple, but then the ones afterwards when the cylons knew that there was still a human threat out there...they would be the ones to worry about.
She finished her food and then pushed the container away, leaning back in the chair which she’d managed to convince Helena to keep in there, even though she herself didn’t usually sit.
For the second time in as many days her vision started to spin, then get blurry, and she closed her eyes to clear her head.
A moment later she opened them again and tears started streaming out, her breathing sped right up and she began to panic. She was standing in a corridor in front of two huge cylons, their red eyes skipping backwards and forwards as they stared directly at her. The sound of gunfire and screams echoed throughout the corridors, but Gina was frozen to the spot, absolutely terrified beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
And yet, it wasn’t the cylon centurions that were doing this to her. It wasn’t the knowledge that she was going to die soon, nor the fact that she was powerless in front of the things that had wiped out most of her species.
What made her want to scream and keep screaming until her throat was raw was what was standing in between the cylons, holding them back and stopping them from attacking. That something was a tall blonde in a white raincoat, and she had Gina’s face.
The woman stepped towards her and smiled at Gina using her own lips.
“Hello, sister.”
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Chapter Ten
Author note: Okay, so not a great deal has changed so far, really. I thought it over, and I realised that Gina just wasn't that instrumental to the whole cylon attack. If Caprica Six had been sleeper...oooh boy, what could happen there. Anyway, big things will happen, but they will be later and for different reasons.
Author: phoenixstorm
Pairing: Cain/Gina
Rating: G/PG/whatever the previous chapters have been.
Word Count: 4,893
Summary: Another 'What if' fic. This time: What if Gina was a sleeper agent cylon?
-----------------------------
Chapter Nine
Partway through the next day Gina still hadn’t had any luck tracking down the traitor programmer, and she once again found herself wandering the Pegasus, trying to find something else to occupy her before she drove herself mad. She hadn't slept properly in days, she had a large cut on her head that throbbed persistently, she'd learnt that the human race had been all but wiped out, and just to make matters worse someone was trying to make it look as if she'd been partly responsible. The work managed to keep her mind off things for a little while, but when that work wasn't actually yielding any results Gina had to get out before being reduced to a weeping mass in the corner of her quarters. Thus the aimless wandering about the Pegasus continued.
The physical damage done to the Pegasus had been mostly repaired by now, but that only served to make things seem more eerie throughout the ship. It was almost possible to forget that they’d been under attack not a week ago now, but then you’d get to the wall with the photos the Raptors had taken of the colonies and suddenly reality was back like a slap to the face. It was a horrible feeling, and Gina had taken to discreetly averting her eyes whenever she was coming up on them.
“Ms. Inviere.” There was no mistaking the voice of Kendra Shaw, and Gina called out a greeting before turning to face her.
“Lieutenant, I’m going out of my mind. Please tell me there’s something I can help you with to keep me occupied.”
“I was actually just coming to ask you for help. I need an extra hand and you were so capable the other day, plus I figured you wouldn’t have much to do since we have no network anymore.”
Gina laughed bitterly. “My job here is officially over, yes.”
“Well then, come watch this footage the scouting Raptors brought back. We may spot something there we can use.”
They watched the footage over and over, seeing nothing but blank space every time. Gina’s eyes were getting sore from having stared at the screen for so long but she forced herself to continue looking. There was something about the top left corner of the screen that her eyes kept darting back to which she felt was important for some reason, but no matter how hard she looked at it she could never spot anything. She was still staring at that part of the screen, giving up hope when suddenly the briefest of movements caught her attention. “Stop!” She cried out to Kendra, who quickly hit the pause button on her remote.
Gina got up and went and tapped the top left side of the screen. “Zoom in here” she instructed, and Kendra did so.
There was nothing at first, then there was just a cluster of stars, but as Kendra kept enlarging the picture a ship eventually came into focus.
“That’s...how did you...?” Kendra’s head darted between both Gina and the screen before she shook it and went to set up the system to print out what was currently on the screen. Gina kept her eyes on the ship there, tilting her head slightly as she tried to work out what it was. It didn’t appear to be the cylon equivalent of a Battlestar, but then again who knew with the toasters?
“Admiral Cain is having a dinner with the ship’s officers tonight,” Kendra told Gina as she held up and inspected her new print, “and you should come along, you more than deserve it. Thanks!”
She left quickly, and Gina packed up the equipment and decided that it was apparently up to her to return the footage to CIC.
She stopped outside of Helena’s quarters on the way there, trying to decide whether to knock or not. They hadn’t seen each other since just after the attack, aside from when she’d lied to her about the network two days after that, and she missed Helena desperately. Gina knew that the admiral was very busy during this time however, and had turned to leave but came face to face with the admiral instead.
“Gina, I was just about to get a couple of hours of sleep, please come in.”
“I don’t want to disturb” Gina tried to reply, but was gently guided into the room by Helena’s arm. She stood by the door as Helena unbuttoned and rolled her head, rubbing her neck.
“I know you’re very busy,” Gina continued, “and I...I...oh, Helena!”
Helena turned just in time for Gina to throw her arms around her neck, and she buried her face in the brown hair. She could feel Helena stroking her back.
No words were spoken, but Gina was greatly reassured just by having her lover here with her again, finally. And Helena would make everything okay. She always did.
As she started to feel better she realised how incredibly selfish she was being, as Helena had suffered the same losses that she had and also had to deal with an entire Battlestar looking to her for answers and salvation. She must be carrying such enormous burdens right now.
She pulled away and planted a gentle kiss on the admiral’s lips. “You should sleep, I’m sure you’re exhausted. I’ll stay with you.”
The look Helena gave her was filled with so much gratitude that Gina realised she’d been right, and she pulled her over to the bed where they both lay down. Gina let Helena use one of her arms as a pillow, and with the other hand she stroked the dark curls.
“I’ve organised a dinner with Belzen, Fisk and Shaw tonight,” Helena told Gina sleepily with her eyes closed, “and I want you to come.”
Gina kissed her forehead twice, choosing to keep her previous invitation to the dinner to herself, and replied “I’d love to, of course I’ll come.”
Helena nodded and snuggled in closer, and when her breathing became louder Gina knew that she’d fallen asleep.
“I love you” she whispered to the sleeping woman, and never took her eyes off her.
The creases in Helena’s forehead from her serious frown smoothed out, and returned to the beautiful calm that Gina loved so much to see. One of the reasons Gina usually woke up later in the mornings was because she liked to stay up and watch Helena’s sleeping face for a while, the face that wasn’t burdened by expectations and responsibilities, and these days the fate of what was left of the entire human race as well.
Gina knew that she’d get to see less and less of Helena’s tender side as time went on and their war against the cylons continued. But Gina was with her now, and she swore that for just a few hours, just once, Admiral Cain was going to stop having the weight of humanity on her shoulders and have someone else look after her instead.
---
Helena’s body clock was as accurate as ever, and she awoke a little over two hours later. Gina smiled and kissed her when she saw the brown eyes open, and Helena finally pulled back with a groan.
“I have to go, but don’t forget about dinner tonight.”
She got out of bed and did up her buttons, then leant down for a last quick kiss before she left with Gina following shortly after.
There were only a couple of hours until dinner, and once Gina was back in her room she instinctively pulled out her book to write a journal entry, but when she opened to the last one she’d written and saw her blood on it and the way it had cut off as the bombs hit she felt a strong ache in her chest and slammed the book shut. She wouldn’t be able to write in it again, not if she had to see that every time she opened it. Even if she tore that page out she was sure the memories would still haunt her, so she picked up the book and threw it into the bin beside her desk, wanting to burn the stupid thing but not sure who would spare her a match in times like this.
Instead she started to compile a list of the crew members she’d hired, making notes next to the ones who had the skills and the opportunity to try and compromise her network. The problem was that she’d been very thorough when hiring, and she had hired the best. Too many of them would definitely have the skills to write that section of code, and it wasn’t as if she monitored them every second of every day. The one factor which threw her the most was the ability to hide their access to it. Was it skill, or had someone managed to steal and use her own computer for a while? It was a large process of elimination, only she couldn’t really eliminate anyone. Perhaps she’d have to go about this the old fashioned way, and just interview everyone suspicious to see what she could get out of them. She’d have to do it discreetly of course, because if Helena found out about it she’d have to explain the lie as well.
Gina clenched her jaw as she felt her stomach eat itself a little, still consumed by guilt over what she’d done. She forced it down, telling herself again that once she’d uncovered the truth she’d be able to take the whole story to Helena. It was just a matter of time...hopefully.
She checked the clock and quickly jumped out of her seat, realising that she’d lost track of time and was actually going to be late to the dinner now. She pulled a new top out of her locker and changed quickly, then hunted through her boxes for her good earrings.
When she was ready she walked as quickly as her heels allowed her, greeting the soldier who stood outside the entrance to Helena’s quarters as he opened the hatch for her.
“Speak of the devil,” she heard Kendra say as she walked in, but her gaze went directly to Helena, quickly surveying the room on its way.
It was set up very similarly to the way it had been on their first dinner together, and Gina couldn’t keep the large smile from her face as she walked to her lover.
“Hello Gina,” Helena said to her, softly and with warmth. “Welcome.”
Gina returned the greeting and the two leaned in so that they could kiss each other on the cheek. Gina squeezed her arm tightly, and the two gazed at each other as they pulled apart.
“Gentlemen,” Helena turned away to address the men in the room, “I’d like you to meet Ms. Gina Inviere.”
Gina nodded at them with a smile, politely not interrupting to tell Helena that she was already fairly well acquainted with the two of them.
“Ah, Ms. Inviere and Lieutenant Shaw have been working very closely upgrading our systems, and before that she was supervising the retrofit, and I must say she’s proven herself valuable in both capacities.”
Gina raised an eyebrow and smirked at the admiral as if to ask if that was all she was good for, and Helena looked away as she made a very poor attempt to stop herself from grinning widely. Gina knew she’d get told off later, so she managed to stop herself before continuing.
“Thank you,” she said instead. “Well you’ve certainly set a beautiful table.”
“Thank you,” Helena echoed, and her smile told Gina that she’d intended for the table to be laid out the same way as their first dinner. Maybe it was Helena trying to say that no matter what happened with the cylons nothing would change them, or maybe she was just trying to cheer the both of them up with a little happy nostalgia. Perhaps this was even an anniversary of that dinner, and as Gina tried to count back the months in her head she overheard Helena telling everyone to take a seat, and so she walked to take the one beside the admiral.
Helena started to speak again. “I actually think it’s quite important for a ship’s officers to get together every once in a while. Share some food, some wine, some good conversation. Helps morale.”
“Not to mention it’s the only time we get to park our butts in a chair around here.” Fisk interrupted, raising his glass.
“Now that you’re all here,” Helena continued, “I would like to take a moment to say a few words. In all seriousness, I said some things before in the heat of emotion. Things that I felt this crew needed to hear. But I don’t want any of you for one moment to think that I would ever risk lives or resources in some mad quest for revenge.”
She paused for a while, but no one spoke. Gina sensed that the admiral had more to say, and she guessed that the other people in the room had the same feeling.
“My plan...” Helena paused again to rub her forehead. “is to wage an all-out classic guerrilla war campaign. I want to find their weak links and I want to hit them hard.”
“As they say, the best defence is a good offence.” Gina mused out loud, and was rewarded by a smile from the admiral.
‘Gold star’ Gina couldn’t help but think, remembering her first meeting with Helena.
“Then here’s to a good offence.” Fisk raised his glass, leading them into a toast. “And to kickin’ some cylon ass!”
“Hear hear” Belzen agreed, and Gina joined in with Kendra, noting out of the corner of her eyes that Helena had just gone in for a large mouthful of her wine instead. She realised then that it was probably a little inappropriate to be toasting the destruction of the toasters, but she doubted that was the reason why Helena hadn’t joined in. She’d have to ask about that later.
An unspoken agreement seemed to have gone around the table with the toast that there would be no more talk of cylons or warfare, and Gina was so glad to be laughing again after everything that had happened recently. It just went to show that you could destroy some - and Gina tried not to think too hard about just how many that ‘some’ had been - humans, but you couldn’t destroy the human spirit. The cylons would keep going just because they didn’t know how to stop, but humans kept going because they wanted to keep going. They could be broken, physically and mentally, but they would keep going against all odds because that’s just what humankind frakking did. Nothing could take that away from them. And that, Gina realised, was why she believed humankind was going to win. Not today, not tomorrow, but she felt sure that at some point that she would be back on Scorpia, ready to rebuild society.
She glanced at Helena over her wine glass. How could they possibly lose with someone like Admiral Cain leading them? Perhaps that was the reason everyone was able to laugh so easily tonight.
“So the next thing I know,” Fisk was continuing his story, “the crazy old broad has slapped me. ‘I will not have my daughter dating a man who thinks that being a drunkard allows him to compare himself to Mighty Dionysius’ she said. Gemenese, they’re religious nutters, all of them.”
“I’m from Gemenon.” Gina pointed a finger at him with a slight warning tone. “And it’s not right, running around comparing yourself to a god just because you’ve had too much to drink.”
“He’s the god of wine!” Fisk protested, looking to Belzen for help.
“He’s not just the god of wine, Colonel. In any case, you shouldn’t be mocking the gods no matter what reason.”
“Religious nutter,” Fisk muttered into his glass, but before Gina could respond Kendra had jumped in.
“I used to get all sorts of crap from a partner’s mother about being in the military. She was one of those strict anti-war types, and every time I saw her she’d always greet me with ‘so, murdered anyone lately?’”
Fisk, Belzen and Helena raised their eyes to the ceiling and shook their heads over this comment.
“They won’t be making comments like that when...” Fisk trailed off part way through his sentence.
There was silence following this, and Gina couldn’t think of anything to say to change the subject again. As much as she believed that humanity would survive, that would never bring back everyone she’d lost, and everyone that the other people in the room had lost as well.
After a long while it was Helena who finally spoke. “I think it’s time we called it a night.”
----
Gina had just finished getting changed the next morning when there was a knock on her door. Kendra waited for her outside, holding a pile of documents.
“Morning. The admiral’s asked us to go around and firewall all of our systems for the attack tomorrow.”
Gina blinked sleepily, not sure she’d heard the lieutenant correctly. “What do you mean, what attack?”
Kendra returned her confused look, but then seemed to work out what was going on. “Oh right, you missed that part last night. You know the cylon ship you found yesterday? Cain’s decided to launch an attack against it tomorrow, to show the cylons that they’re not safe out there. She wants all of the systems firewalled to stop them from accessing the ship, like the code in the old network would have allowed.”
“But...we have no network at the moment, Lieutenant. How would they be able to access it?”
Kendra shrugged. “I guess she wants to be able to use the network as a last resort if necessary, but it’ll be pointless if the enemy can use it against us.”
Gina opened her mouth to reply ‘not my network’, but decided against it at the last second and replied “not a bad idea” instead.
Several hours later she was very ready to change her mind, though, since once again without the network every single terminal had to be accessed and firewalled individually. Gina began to have serious doubts about whether they’d actually be able to finish for the attack. They’d manage if they were able to split up, but of course Kendra was the only one with the access codes. This meant that Gina was the one who had to do all the work, while Kendra would stand off to the side until it was time to input them. The whole process was very inefficient, and considering the point of Gina’s job was to help eliminate inefficiency this was starting to annoy her. She’d only just barely been able to manage the tediousness of going around to each individual terminal the last time, and that was only because the last time there wasn’t the possibility that it could all go faster if only she had a higher damn security clearance.
“Almost done here,” she told Kendra as she continued to tap away at the screen. “I don’t know how we’re going to firewall all of these systems by tomorrow unless we split up.”
She looked back at Kendra before returning to the screen. “And you’re the only one with the access codes.”
“Well we can speak to the admiral about raising your security clearance...” Gina heard Kendra reply, and the way she trailed off at the end caused Gina to pause as she realised that she and Helena had been caught.
Apparently she’d been very wrong in assuming that Kendra was dense when they’d first met.
She turned back to the lieutenant. “And here I thought we were being so discreet,” she said with a light sigh, then turned back to close the glass door that normally covered the computer. “Or at least, that’s what Helena wants to think. In reality I think I may have let slip on one or two occasions. It’s so hard to stay discreet when you truly care for someone.”
A cheeky look spread on Kendra’s face. “Actually, I picked up the vibes from her. She’d completely change whenever she was looking at or talking to you. It was...”
“Program’s uploaded.” Gina interrupted, and started to walk out. “You need to input your code.”
She stopped when she noticed that Kendra wasn’t moving, and after a moment of standing silently with a thoughtful expression on her face the lieutenant said “Alpha one nine six gamma one.”
Gina grinned, pleased that they’d finally get some work done now. She turned back to the screen and started to input the access code. “To satisfy your curiosity, we met a few months ago when I presented the plans for the retrofit.” She hit enter on the system, smiling when the program completed installation without a hitch. “We spent a lot of time together working out the details, and I guess one thing led to the other.”
She raised and eyebrow as Kendra shook her head with an amused smile. “You seem so surprised.”
“It’s just that Cain seems so self-sufficient.” Kendra replied as Gina moved onto the next terminal and started hitting buttons there. She stopped after Kendra had spoken though, to consider what she’d just said.
“She seems that way, but a lot of it is just a front she puts on. After all, no one can survive entirely on their own. It’s a little complicated, but...we work. We’re good for one another.”
“If you say so.” The cheeky tone returned to Kendra’s voice, and Gina let out an over-exaggerated huff, feigning insult.
“If you’re going to be that way you can go firewall programs by yourself then. Go on.”
Kendra shook her head and walked off, and Gina turned back to her screen with a large grin on her face. It felt good to not be keeping her relationship a secret anymore, even if it was only with one person. Kendra was starting to grow on her, and she was glad for their fast blooming friendship in times like these, especially since Barbara’s passing and everyone else being kept constantly busy. She touched her chest, feeling the dog tags underneath her clothing, but then shook her head to clear it. She wasn’t going to go there, not now.
As she went to enter her newly acquired access code once again her head started to ache, and as she reached up a hand to massage the cut on her forehead her vision went blurry, and then there was nothing but black.
----
Gina raised her head from her pillow and was very confused as she didn’t remember finishing with the firewalls or coming back to her quarters.
Pulling herself to her feet she chuckled a little. Obviously the whole process was just that boring and repetitive that she’d managed to switch off while doing it. It was all very convenient then, really. If only she’d been able to doze off and still take notes back when she was in college.
Her stomach growled and she checked the clock, her mouth falling open a little when she discovered that it was 6:14am. She'd been out for most of the day then, and all night! She was also still fully clothed from yesterday for some reason, but she changed her top and pants before pulling the coat back on and then headed down to the mess for breakfast.
The place turned out to be packed with pilots, as they were all trying to get a quick breakfast in before they went to prepare for the upcoming attack. Gina spotted Lynelle’s blonde ponytail from behind at one of the tables towards the back, and she pulled Barbara’s dog tags from around her neck as she walked over.
“Here,” she said, placing one hand on Lynelle’s shoulder as she deposited the dog tags and their chain on the table in front of her. “For luck today.”
Lynelle rubbed her thumb over the metal thoughtfully, then turned to look at Gina over her shoulder. “Freckles and Tom Tom flying together again, huh? Thanks, Gina.”
“Go show those toasters how hard it is to keep humanity down.” Gina smiled encouragement and patted Lynelle on the shoulder, then let the Pegasus CAG go back to discussing tactics with her rookies as she went to get some food for herself.
Gina ended up having to stand since there weren’t any available chairs, and she was considering taking the food down to Helena’s quarters until she remembered that Helena would be busier than anyone today. But on that note it was unlikely that the admiral would actually be in her quarters, so Gina could probably sneak in and use the table there without bothering anybody.
She squeezed out past all of the pilots and carried her food down to the admiral’s quarters, opening the door and jumping just a little when she saw Helena pacing the room while reading some papers.
“Good morning, Helena. There weren’t any seats available in the mess so I thought I’d come and steal your table.”
“It’s all yours,” Helena replied, not looking up from her papers. “I’ll be leaving in a minute, and I’d actually like you to stay in here during the attack anyway, just to be on the safe side.”
Gina laughed. “I wasn’t going to go take a nap in a Viper cockpit in case you’re worried.”
“I wasn’t.” Helena finished the page she was reading and excused herself, walking towards the door. Gina put down her fork and beckoned the admiral over to her, then stood to give the woman a tight hug.
“Be careful today, all right? That’s an order, Admiral.”
Helena kissed her in reply. “I mean it, don’t go wandering the ship. We may take some hits.”
Gina threw her head back with an exaggerated sigh. “I promise I won’t go anywhere or do anything to make you unhappy with me, okay?”
“That’s my girl.” Helena kissed her again, and they held this one, squeezing each other tightly as they did so. Gina knew that the CIC was one of the safer places to be during an attack, but it was still going to be a battle and she was reluctant to let go of her love.
She held onto Helena’s bottom lip with her teeth as the admiral moved to pull away, but when Helena said her name sternly in a voice distorted by the lack of her lower lip Gina couldn’t help but laugh and Helena used that opportunity to escape.
“The attack will begin in an hour, so if you need anything from your quarters make sure you’ve brought it back here well before then.”
“I’m staying the night, by the way,” Gina told her with a grin, but then her face turned serious. “And you will be careful, won’t you? I love you.”
Helena smiled at her tenderly as she walked out the door, and Gina sat back down at the table to continue with her breakfast. She tapped the fork against the container several times with a smile on her face, her worry fading a little. From what Kendra had told her yesterday they were only going up against a comm. relay that had little to no defences. The cylons thought they’d wiped everyone out, and they certainly weren’t going to be expecting an attack on a ship like that. No, this attack would be simple, but then the ones afterwards when the cylons knew that there was still a human threat out there...they would be the ones to worry about.
She finished her food and then pushed the container away, leaning back in the chair which she’d managed to convince Helena to keep in there, even though she herself didn’t usually sit.
For the second time in as many days her vision started to spin, then get blurry, and she closed her eyes to clear her head.
A moment later she opened them again and tears started streaming out, her breathing sped right up and she began to panic. She was standing in a corridor in front of two huge cylons, their red eyes skipping backwards and forwards as they stared directly at her. The sound of gunfire and screams echoed throughout the corridors, but Gina was frozen to the spot, absolutely terrified beyond anything she could have ever imagined.
And yet, it wasn’t the cylon centurions that were doing this to her. It wasn’t the knowledge that she was going to die soon, nor the fact that she was powerless in front of the things that had wiped out most of her species.
What made her want to scream and keep screaming until her throat was raw was what was standing in between the cylons, holding them back and stopping them from attacking. That something was a tall blonde in a white raincoat, and she had Gina’s face.
The woman stepped towards her and smiled at Gina using her own lips.
“Hello, sister.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Ten
Author note: Okay, so not a great deal has changed so far, really. I thought it over, and I realised that Gina just wasn't that instrumental to the whole cylon attack. If Caprica Six had been sleeper...oooh boy, what could happen there. Anyway, big things will happen, but they will be later and for different reasons.