Cum Tacent Clamant (003: Endings)
Title: Cum Tacent Clamant
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Galactica
Prompt: 003. Endings
Word Count: 583
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: My series focuses on one character without an actor: the Galactica. Slight Lee/Kara, spoilers and speculation through 2.11.
Back here, in the noisy room next to the Galactica’s engines, condensation formed on the walls and dripped down in fat droplets, trickling down the wall to bounce against the floor and twirl down towards the drain where it would eventually be recycled and put back into the water supply. This water had the job of cooling the interior of the engines, but ever since the Galactica had escaped from the Cylons and the Colonies, the condensation kept forming worse and worse.
The maintenance tech who tried to stem the flow of the water and control the condensation levels couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from. He’d worked on the Galactica longer than almost anyone else, but the water kept coming. He’d told Tigh that the Galactica was simply getting old, and without a proper drydock, it was simply going to stay wet back there, and people were going to have to get used to it.
He didn’t mention his own theory-that the day the Galactica left Caprica, she had begun to weep for the lost along with all the people onboard, and she was still weeping all the unshed tears for those who had been lost, for her sisters who had been destroyed, and for the people she kept losing.
***
Starbuck landed her Viper in the launch bay, feeling the comforting lights begin to surround her. She pulled her helmet off as the canopy opened and Tyrol’s voice could be heard shouting at someone.
She climbed out of the Viper, her chest tightening, counting the ships that began to return. And correct to her mental count from outside, they were missing one.
Apollo joined her watching the other Vipers taxi in. “Yellow’s gone.”
“Yeah,” she said, biting off the word. The pilot who had joined the crew with the rest of the Pegasus Viper squadrons after the Pegasus had gone on her suicide run was indeed gone. Slagged by Cylon cannons, and now floating somewhere out in space far away from where the Galactica was now. She didn’t know why he always had to state the obvious.
She turned away, heading for the bunkroom to strip out of her flight suit and get in the shower to clean off the dirt and grime that the time in the cockpit inevitably caused. The water streamed from the showerhead down over her head, down over her shoulders. She faced the wall, not feeling particularly exhibitionist after her time out there in space.
The slap of bare feet behind her alerted her to another presence in the shower, and she recognized the cadence of the steps as Apollo’s. The water in the next stall started up, and she could hear it rain down upon his head.
She sighed and leaned her head against the tiles in her stall.
“Kara,” she heard a voice say quietly, barely audible over the water.
“Yeah?” she answered.
“You okay?”
She turned her head, looking towards the bland tiles separating them. “No. You?”
“No.”
She took a breath, watching the water flow down the walls, until she heard his voice again. “Want to be not okay together?”
The water in her stall shut off, and she wrapped her towel around herself. Apollo did the same, and they left, hoping to find someplace to sit and forget about everything that had happened.
The droplets of water kept trickling down the walls of the shower, because the Galactica carried their pain and wept what they could not cry.
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Galactica
Prompt: 003. Endings
Word Count: 583
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: My series focuses on one character without an actor: the Galactica. Slight Lee/Kara, spoilers and speculation through 2.11.
Back here, in the noisy room next to the Galactica’s engines, condensation formed on the walls and dripped down in fat droplets, trickling down the wall to bounce against the floor and twirl down towards the drain where it would eventually be recycled and put back into the water supply. This water had the job of cooling the interior of the engines, but ever since the Galactica had escaped from the Cylons and the Colonies, the condensation kept forming worse and worse.
The maintenance tech who tried to stem the flow of the water and control the condensation levels couldn’t figure out where the water was coming from. He’d worked on the Galactica longer than almost anyone else, but the water kept coming. He’d told Tigh that the Galactica was simply getting old, and without a proper drydock, it was simply going to stay wet back there, and people were going to have to get used to it.
He didn’t mention his own theory-that the day the Galactica left Caprica, she had begun to weep for the lost along with all the people onboard, and she was still weeping all the unshed tears for those who had been lost, for her sisters who had been destroyed, and for the people she kept losing.
***
Starbuck landed her Viper in the launch bay, feeling the comforting lights begin to surround her. She pulled her helmet off as the canopy opened and Tyrol’s voice could be heard shouting at someone.
She climbed out of the Viper, her chest tightening, counting the ships that began to return. And correct to her mental count from outside, they were missing one.
Apollo joined her watching the other Vipers taxi in. “Yellow’s gone.”
“Yeah,” she said, biting off the word. The pilot who had joined the crew with the rest of the Pegasus Viper squadrons after the Pegasus had gone on her suicide run was indeed gone. Slagged by Cylon cannons, and now floating somewhere out in space far away from where the Galactica was now. She didn’t know why he always had to state the obvious.
She turned away, heading for the bunkroom to strip out of her flight suit and get in the shower to clean off the dirt and grime that the time in the cockpit inevitably caused. The water streamed from the showerhead down over her head, down over her shoulders. She faced the wall, not feeling particularly exhibitionist after her time out there in space.
The slap of bare feet behind her alerted her to another presence in the shower, and she recognized the cadence of the steps as Apollo’s. The water in the next stall started up, and she could hear it rain down upon his head.
She sighed and leaned her head against the tiles in her stall.
“Kara,” she heard a voice say quietly, barely audible over the water.
“Yeah?” she answered.
“You okay?”
She turned her head, looking towards the bland tiles separating them. “No. You?”
“No.”
She took a breath, watching the water flow down the walls, until she heard his voice again. “Want to be not okay together?”
The water in her stall shut off, and she wrapped her towel around herself. Apollo did the same, and they left, hoping to find someplace to sit and forget about everything that had happened.
The droplets of water kept trickling down the walls of the shower, because the Galactica carried their pain and wept what they could not cry.