Echoes: Chapter 31 of 38
Title: Echoes
Author: EcstaticDance
Summary: All of this has happened before, now we're going to see it happen again. But the Lords of Kobol want to see if they can possibly change it, so key characters have retained the echoes of memories which cause them to make different decisions, or experience things at different times, than in previous cycles.
Spoilers: Through Season 4
Warnings: Heavy mysticism. This is not scientifically sound, folks. It's myth-driven.
Pairings/Characters: Kara/Lee, and canon couples
Rating: M
Disclaimers: None of it is mine.
Cross-posted: Not yet.
Beta: ez_as_pi (Most sincere thanks to you, darling!)
Previous Chapters: At My LJ
Return to Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Romo Lampkin scowled at the dog Lee had saddled him with shortly after attaining the interim presidency. Jake, the young man had called him, and a hero of the New Caprica Resistance.
“What is it about young Mr. Adama that keeps landing me with these lost causes? Do you think he finds it amusing?” The dog cocked his head to one side as if he had no idea what his human companion was talking about. “See, this is why I prefer cats. They're at least proud enough not to admit it when they don't have a clue what you're going on about.”
Jake barked in response.
With a sigh, the lawyer pushed himself to his feet. “What do we know, Jake?” He walked the short length of his room, then pivoted on his heels. “We know that Natalie was last seen on the Chrion. We've got the footage of that from the security cameras. We see her get off the shuttle, greeted by someone from the ship, but not the captain. The two walk off together and she's never seen again. It's as if she vanished into thin air.” He moved slowly back across the room as he continued. “We did get an ID on the fellow who escorted her off, though, and looking at his file shows that he's got connections with Zarek. The problem is, we can't even prove he killed her, much less that it was under Zarek's direction.” He shook his head. “Losing” didn't even begin to cover it. What was the point? Aside from hope and honor.
And maybe that was the problem, he realized. If he could work at it enough, dig at it, come at it from the right angle, he could crack the case. Any problem could be solved with enough persistence.
It was himself.
The issue here was his own lack of faith. Lee Adama's presidency had, indeed, offered them all a brief breath of hope, a change from the norm. An impossible situation had presented itself and been turned into an opportunity that no one else would have dared dream up. The challenge had been put forth - help the boy make a difference or shoot him. What, precisely, had Lee Adama intended with that? Surely not this continual string of next-to-impossible legal quandaries.
Romo Lampkin stood up and started digging through his things, muttering to himself as he searched. “I am a cynic. A cynic is good for one thing, and one thing only. Removing delusions. Hope, in it's purest form, is nothing more than a delusion. In order to keep fighting for survival, humanity has to hold on to the ignis fatuus that there is something more out there for them and they deserved it.” He pulled out the gun he'd so recently used to accost Lee Adama. Releasing the safety, he placed the barrel to the side of his own head. “The only helpful cynic, in this situation, is a dead cynic.”
He squeezed the trigger.
﴿﴾
Galen wanted to be with Cally and Nicky when they made the jump. He wanted to celebrate with his son when they found the next step on the path to Earth. He wanted to be with his family when he heard that they were in the airspace over his old home. At least that's what Kara claimed, and he was ready to believe it. The home of the five would give the next step on the path to the home of the 13th.
He got to their room, but Cally didn't even give him a chance to close the hatch. She flew at him with a crescent wrench and a curse.
“Motherfrakker, I trusted you! I'm going to kill you! Kill you just like I killed your motherfrakking cylon son!”
He huddled in on himself, protecting his head from the brunt of the attack. “Hey! Someone! Help!” But the halls were empty.
He'd lied to her. He'd lied to her even after he'd known the truth. But his son had done nothing. With a roar, he dove into her, tackling her, so that the wrench went flying across the room, clanging loudly. He pinned Cally to the floor as tears streamed down his face.
He looked around the room frantically, trying to find anything to constrain her with, and hollered again. “HELP!”
A marine ran breathlessly into the room, and stopped short, taking in the scene, obviously trying to figure out who he should be helping.
“Call Cottle. Tell him to get his ass here NOW!” The marine complied without any hesitation.
The doctor showed up two minutes later, breathless and frantic. Cally was still struggling, shrieking incoherently.
“Nicky! Check Nicky. She said she was going to kill me just like she killed Nicky.”
Cottle's eyes flew wide as Nurse Ishay appeared in the doorway behind him. He pointed to Cally, “Sedate her,” and stepped quickly over to the crib.
Ishay ducked down and slammed a syringe into Cally's leg through the cloth of her fatigues, then jammed the plunger down. Within seconds, the tiny woman's movements weakened and slowed, cries tapering off.
“Get a gurney and get her woman to sickbay. Strap her in tight. She's not gonna be leaving for a long while.” Cottle spoke gruffly, but his hands examined Nicky as gently as if he'd spent his whole life taking care of small children.
“Is he going to be okay?” The words were thick and bitter in Galen's throat. His son. His beautiful son.
“I don't know. He's unconscious right now, but alive. I think he'll live, but I need to get him to sickbay, too. That's all I can tell you.”
They left the room, taking the two patients with them, leaving Galen alone.
Gaeta's voice came calmly over the intercom. “FTL jump in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...”
﴿﴾
“Frak!” Kara swallowed, fighting down nausea induced by the simultaneous pulls of an FTL jump and a sudden summons down into the river between life and death. “You have got to give me some kind of warning before you do that!” Most likely, the Gods couldn't hear her, but the yelling provided catharsis. Knowing that no straight answers to any questions would be forthcoming, she looked around herself. The blue-green light surrounding her felt somehow turbulent, as if all were not quite right.
She stopped suddenly, face-to-face with a vaguely familiar man. It took her a moment to recognize the lawyer Lee had selected to help him try to bring up charges against Zarek. “Romo Lampkin.” She frowned and looked around out of the corner of her eyes once more. She could have sworn someone had just whispered that name into her ear, but she couldn't see anyone else.
“Where am I?” The expression on his face said very clearly that he'd been expecting something quite different.
“Dead.”
A single raised eyebrow. No wonder Lee got along with him so well.
Kara sighed and sifted through the currents in the river to find his. “Okay. Not dead, exactly. Jake jumped and hit your arm, so you didn't get a clean exit.”
“Frakking mutt. I told Mr. Adama I hated dogs even more than cats,” he grumbled.
Kara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Shut up. You hate everyone.” He at least had the grace to look offended by the accusation.
Only one thing would cause the Gods to pull her into the stream like this. The story of the man's life flowed past her, giving her all the information she needed in a single instant. “Okay, look. I have places to be as soon as this jump completes. You have a choice. Again. Choice one, you can die. A horrible, painful, miserable death, watching blood drain from that gash on your head. At the end, you get Elysium, and happily ever after with your wife and kids and that cat you hated so much you dragged him everywhere you went.” Hope blossomed on his typically stoic face. Time to squash that. “Problem. You leave Lee high and dry if you do that, and you kind of made a promise to him that you'd help him help all of us survive.”
“Ah. You're my subconscious, aren't you? Trying to convince me that I want to live. It won't work.” He was a lawyer, bound by logic and reason. Emotion did not factor into the equation.
“I thought I told you to shut up.” She cut in without masking any of her annoyance. “Choice two. You get to skip the misery part, and I bring you back after. You'll be able to go back and forth across this river all you want... once you've kept your promise. You see, whatever you think about cynics and skeptics, you have more legal knowledge than anyone else in the Fleet. If we're actually going to survive, then we need what you are. So. What do you say?”
“This is sounding suspiciously like some kind of destiny bullshit. Surely my own subconscious knows better than to try to pull that one on me. So what? I'm destined to become a God, is that what you're telling me?” His voice was thick with sarcasm.
She sighed and shook her head. “No. Not a God, a Guardian. It's up to someone else to figure out what we'll be called.”
Lampkin watched her, indecision and hope finally surfacing in his eyes.
She knew from experience how clearly he could see the loved ones waiting for him on that far bank of the river. Her voice softened. “You'll still be able to see them whenever you want. You can go to them, stay with them, once humanity is settled on Earth, but we need you here to get us there.”
She watched him weigh her words, taking in what she was saying, trying to decide whether or not to believe her. “No. I need some kind of proof. If I'm going to be one of these Guardians, there's got to be some kind of payoff. Show me the payoff. If you can do that, I'll agree. If you can't, this isn't real. I die anyways, and there is nothing more because the Gods and Elysium do not exist.”
Cylons and athiests! They gave her this to work with and expected a new outcome? Humanity was, without a doubt, frakked. Fine, whatever, she had a job to do. She sifted through the currents in the river; found the one she needed. It was short and turbulent. Within it were two quick scenes. The first showed a shuttle approaching the McConnell, and the second showed a battered Natalie being ejected into space through an air lock, as well as the face of the man who pushed the button. Lampkin's face transformed when she directed his attention to them.
“He's a ringleader on the Prometheus. If we can tie him to Zarek, we'll have at least 10 different charges we can bring against the Vice President.” The conflict was gone, as if that little bit of evidence were enough to convert a man who had spent his life denying the existence of any form of higher power. “I accept.”
“Just like that?” Kara couldn't quite bring herself to believe it.
Romo shrugged expressively. “If this isn't real, I'm still dead. Not a bad ending, given my goal when I started, eh? And if it is real, then I find you and you show me how to get across to them.” He pointed over to a small group of people she assumed were his wife and children. “Either way, I win.”
She pursed her lips, granting his point. The man absolutely embodied impartiality, and there was no point in keeping either of them any longer. She put his feet on his new path. “That way, Rhadamantus.”
﴿﴾
Romo sat up, rubbing the back of his head. Jake sniffed curiously at him, then barked once, as if welcoming him back. Scowling, he lifted himself off the ground and stumbled to the nearest mirror. The side of his head felt tender, as if he'd been struck recently, but he found no bruise and no cut. The only proof that anything had happened at all was a smear of dried blood caked into the hair near his temple. Washing that away didn't even reveal a scar.
He remembered everything. None of it fit into any version of reality he'd ever believed in. The only explanation that made sense was insanity. Except that couldn't explain the blood.
“The bullet. If all that was real, it's not in my brain, so it's got to be somewhere else. Maybe it's in the gun!” He checked, and found one bullet missing. Just then, Jake started pawing at something in a corner. “Get out of there, you stupid mutt...” The dog stopped, and sat back, barking once more. Next to his paw was a misshapen bullet, smeared with blood. His own, he was sure.
“Alright, let's look at this like any other case, shall we?” He squatted down to pick it up, then turned to face the dog before continuing. “I point a gun at my head. I pull the trigger. Logic tells me I should be dead, despite any efforts to subvert my attempt.”
Jake interjected with a mournful plea for forgiveness.
“You're not getting it, so you might as well give up. Now, I was a good little atheist, and did my homework, so I could refute what was taught me...” It did add up, if not exactly. All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. We are more than this life. The river, Elysium, Gods, angels, Guardians... cycles. Bits and pieces of endless cycles held in the collective and religious memory of the species and passed on throughout eternity. “Fragments of truth that come close enough while falling entirely short of reality... And thus, immortality. At least until the end of this cycle?” Romo raised an eyebrow at the dog who was still looking at him attentively. Jake lowered his head to his paws in resignation and offered large, sympathetic eyes.
“Well, we have something to start with, anyways. Let's go call on Mr. Adama, shall we?” He snapped his fingers at his pet, who somehow managed to appear offended. “What? I could carry the cat in a bag. You're too big for that.” The dog stood up and followed him out of the room. Maybe Jake would piss on Lee's shoes in retribution for sticking the two together and then dumping this whole situation on them.
﴿﴾
Only a small group visited the surface when they reached the planet Kara's viper had located for them. Lee had been selected as the Quorum representative, joining Roslin and Zarek, the military leadership, Kara, and the Final Four, with a few other key cylons to round out the team. Their shuttle pilots did some scouting and found the source of the locator signal - an age-crumbled, but otherwise undamaged, fallout shelter - while the rest of them wandered in a daze on the surface of the burnt out husk of a planet. It was a good thing they'd known in advance that this planet would not be Earth. The trauma of finding this rock, rather than a habitable world, would have broken the Fleet. As it was, they were sure to come up against plenty of dissatisfaction over the lack of any sign pointing the way to the next step in their journey.
Dualla's voice echoed across the landing deck as they stepped out of the raptors that had taxied them back from the surface. The CAP was escorting an unexpected Colonial Raptor that refused to identify itself. Lee looked for Kara out of habit, and found her immediately. She tossed her helmet to the nearest deck hand and quickly made her way over to join him. The hatch was lifting as she walked up, revealing a tall blonde wearing an overly earnest expression.
Ellen Tigh.
In shock, he reached out a hand to touch Kara's back, to ground himself in reality. She leaned back into him, the first indication of forgiveness that she'd offered him since their argument over the destiny of the final four Cylons who had been hidden within the fleet.
“Ellen!” Saul broke the silence before anyone else. “It's true! You were the Fifth. Did you know on New Caprica?”
The woman had eyes for no one but her spouse. Before she could respond, however, another figure appeared behind her.
Galen walked up to the new Eight who had appeared behind Ellen, examining her intently. A look of absolute recognition dawned on his face, and he turned to address the Admiral. “That's Boomer.”
Within seconds, marines were escorting Boomer to the Brig and Ellen to a conference room. D'Anna sent the rest of the Cylons back to their baseship, deciding that she would stay as their representative while the leaders of the fleet talked with Ellen. Roslin and Zarek followed her, the Admiral, and the XO. Lee was torn. He had no right to join in on the conversation, but the look he exchanged with Kara told him that she shared his concern over the safety of allowing Zarek to join them. If he was trying to sabotage the treaty with the cylons, the information discussed there might give him exactly what he needed.
“Madame President.” Lee hurried off after the departing party. “May I have a word with you?”
“I'll be right there.” Laura sent Zarek on his way, missing his sigh of relief. “What is it, Lee?”
“Just... You've probably already thought of it.” His face must have been an interesting shade of red.
“Lee...” She looked over her glasses at him, mouth pulling into a thin line.
“I'm still not convinced that Zarek wasn't behind Natalie's murder, and I have to wonder if he's got a bigger agenda. Just... Be careful what you let him hear.” It was foolish, really, stopping her to remind her of that.
Roslin coughed lightly, then nodded her head slowly, as if considering. “Alright, Lee. I'll trust your instinct on this. Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me?”
“Of course.”
As he answered, she turned and made her way slowly in the direction of the conference room the rest of them were headed to. He was struck by the realization that the two days she'd spent without her medication had taken an irreparable toll on her health. In just the last week, the president had lost so much of her former vibrancy, so much of her edge.
Lee wondered if taking over the presidency a second time would be as easy as the first, especially if Zarek was still vice president when Laura passed. That thought was soon overshadowed by the realization of what both he and his father would be losing, personally, when her time did come, because there was no longer any way to deny the fact.
Laura Roslin was dying.
﴿﴾
Laura walked slowly down the hallway toward the conference room where the leaders of humanity, and D'Anna, would be questioning Ellen Tigh. Lee was right. She should have considered the possible ramifications of allowing Zarek to sit in on the discussion. Once, she would have. She was so, so very tired now. Dredging up the will to get herself out of bed and dressed in the mornings was a challenge, never mind governing the last remnants of humanity.
The halls had gotten longer, Laura was sure of it. She joined the rest of the party, panting and longing for a comfortable seat. Ellen, of course, had taken the only one that remotely met that description. She fumbled with a closer option, nodding gratefully when Bill took over, unsmiling, and pulled the chair out for her. She waved vaguely in Zarek's direction.
“Tom, could I ask you to do me a favor? Could you go ask Doctor Cottle for a refill of my pain medication? I left my bottle on Colonial One.”
The Vice President smiled tightly and with only a slight hesitation, gave a sharp nod before walking mechanically out of the room.
“Well, now that we're all settled, I'm sure you have questions for me.” The bubbly blond made Laura wish she had energy for a cat fight.
“Yes, we do. How long have you known you were a cylon?” Laura got right to the point.
“Oh. Well.” Ellen primped herself a bit, crossing her legs. “I suppose you could say I started to wonder while we were all on New Caprica. I... I started to remember things that weren't a part of the life I've had in the Colonies. Saul was in those memories...” Laura's eyebrows inched up her forehead. Was this woman for real? The final Cylon must have noticed the rising tension in the room, because she trailed off, then got to the point. “Anyways, I killed myself after I'd given Cavil the map, so that he couldn't use me to get at Saul anymore. And I woke up in a resurrection tank.”
“Why didn't you come back? Where have you been? What have you been doing?” Saul Tigh peppered his wife with rapid-fire questions.
“Saul, one at a time, sweetie!” Ellen laughed, then continued in a more serious tone. “Cavil has been holding me hostage in the Resurrection Hub. He kept me separated from most of the people living on the ship, and under heavy guard. I wasn't allowed out of my room. From what little I was able to observe, I believe he's been making plans to move the rest of the cylons to a place we call the Colony. It's where we brought the Centurions when we stepped in to stop the first cylon war, and I expect that's where he'll go back to now. He's... fixated on the barbarism of basic biological functions, and with the loss of resurrection, he'll be completely unbalanced by the idea that procreation might be the only hope for cylon survival. Because of that, I believe he was getting ready to experiment on
Hera.”
It was the first worrisome information the woman had shared. They'd just discovered that the girl was still alive, and Laura's visions had only gotten stronger since then. She was convinced, once more, that Hera was critical to the survival of humanity. If Cavil mounted some sort of offensive to try to take her from them... her mind refused to focus on consequences. They had to protect the girl at all costs, and if she was taking Lee's advice, that meant not letting Zarek know how important she was to the survival of humanity.
“Did Boomer help you get here?” Bill cut in with his own question. Of course that was his concern. It was justified, she supposed. The Eight had nearly killed him, after all.
“Yes, she did. I hope you'll all take that into account, and go easy on the poor girl. She's been through more than you can probably imagine.” Ellen may have returned more subdued than before her resurrection, but glimpses of her past behaviors slipped through when she smiled coquettishly at the men in the room.
Laura's stomach churned.
“You don't need to worry about that.” Laura put on her sweetest smile and stared down the infuriating blond.
Bill shot her a quizzical look that she answered with a blank expression. He shrugged and turned back to Ellen. “Do you know where the Colony is?”
“Of course.” She shrugged a single shoulder and proceeded to rattle off the jump coordinates before Laura could stop her. Waiting a beat, Ellen sighed, then changed topic. “Does anyone have a drink?”
Laura nearly lost her composure when the Admiral responded by pulling a flask out of his coat pocket. That was the kind of behavior she would have expected of Saul, not Bill. She knew he'd been drinking more lately, but apparently hadn't realized the extent of it. Not that she was really in any position to say anything about it. She'd only just admitted what she felt for him, and any kind of actual, personal relationship would be... unethical to say the least. Yet, Elosha's one absolute requirement had been that she remember what it was to be a person who could feel love. The people required more than a president. But, the President couldn't afford the political riot that would ensue if she let herself be a woman.
A new wave of exhaustion swept over her. That was happening more and more frequently. Laura forced her attention back to the matter at hand. The questioning of Ellen had devolved into an overly sentimental discussion of how much of their previous lives each of the Final Five could remember.
“Excuse me. I have one more question for you, Ellen.” Once she had the answer, she could leave, go to sleep. “How did you find your way back here?”
Ellen blinked and looked at Saul. “Didn't you tell them about Sam's song?” When Saul responded with an expression of utter confusion, she clarified. “Before our world ended, Sam... We all realized what was happening. We all had visions. Part of Sam's role was to teach us what he called the song of the universe. If anything happened, if we needed to do something, we would hear that song, and it would help us remember. It was buried so deeply in our subconscious that when Cavil was altering our personalities, he didn't find it. My own altered programming was erased when I resurrected, but I started hearing Sam's song a few months ago. It's led us here over the past week.”
Laura raised her eyebrows and nodded. Visions and subliminal music. Everyone wanted to be a prophet. “Thank you, Ellen. I think I'm done.” Turning to Bill, she said, “If you see Mr. Zarek, could you get my prescription from him and bring it to me? Tell him I'll fill him in on the situation on Colonial One, tomorrow.” She smiled and pushed herself up out of her seat. The others could handle the situation without her from here. She was so, so tired.
Continue to Chapter 32
Author: EcstaticDance
Summary: All of this has happened before, now we're going to see it happen again. But the Lords of Kobol want to see if they can possibly change it, so key characters have retained the echoes of memories which cause them to make different decisions, or experience things at different times, than in previous cycles.
Spoilers: Through Season 4
Warnings: Heavy mysticism. This is not scientifically sound, folks. It's myth-driven.
Pairings/Characters: Kara/Lee, and canon couples
Rating: M
Disclaimers: None of it is mine.
Cross-posted: Not yet.
Beta: ez_as_pi (Most sincere thanks to you, darling!)
Previous Chapters: At My LJ
Return to Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Romo Lampkin scowled at the dog Lee had saddled him with shortly after attaining the interim presidency. Jake, the young man had called him, and a hero of the New Caprica Resistance.
“What is it about young Mr. Adama that keeps landing me with these lost causes? Do you think he finds it amusing?” The dog cocked his head to one side as if he had no idea what his human companion was talking about. “See, this is why I prefer cats. They're at least proud enough not to admit it when they don't have a clue what you're going on about.”
Jake barked in response.
With a sigh, the lawyer pushed himself to his feet. “What do we know, Jake?” He walked the short length of his room, then pivoted on his heels. “We know that Natalie was last seen on the Chrion. We've got the footage of that from the security cameras. We see her get off the shuttle, greeted by someone from the ship, but not the captain. The two walk off together and she's never seen again. It's as if she vanished into thin air.” He moved slowly back across the room as he continued. “We did get an ID on the fellow who escorted her off, though, and looking at his file shows that he's got connections with Zarek. The problem is, we can't even prove he killed her, much less that it was under Zarek's direction.” He shook his head. “Losing” didn't even begin to cover it. What was the point? Aside from hope and honor.
And maybe that was the problem, he realized. If he could work at it enough, dig at it, come at it from the right angle, he could crack the case. Any problem could be solved with enough persistence.
It was himself.
The issue here was his own lack of faith. Lee Adama's presidency had, indeed, offered them all a brief breath of hope, a change from the norm. An impossible situation had presented itself and been turned into an opportunity that no one else would have dared dream up. The challenge had been put forth - help the boy make a difference or shoot him. What, precisely, had Lee Adama intended with that? Surely not this continual string of next-to-impossible legal quandaries.
Romo Lampkin stood up and started digging through his things, muttering to himself as he searched. “I am a cynic. A cynic is good for one thing, and one thing only. Removing delusions. Hope, in it's purest form, is nothing more than a delusion. In order to keep fighting for survival, humanity has to hold on to the ignis fatuus that there is something more out there for them and they deserved it.” He pulled out the gun he'd so recently used to accost Lee Adama. Releasing the safety, he placed the barrel to the side of his own head. “The only helpful cynic, in this situation, is a dead cynic.”
He squeezed the trigger.
﴿﴾
Galen wanted to be with Cally and Nicky when they made the jump. He wanted to celebrate with his son when they found the next step on the path to Earth. He wanted to be with his family when he heard that they were in the airspace over his old home. At least that's what Kara claimed, and he was ready to believe it. The home of the five would give the next step on the path to the home of the 13th.
He got to their room, but Cally didn't even give him a chance to close the hatch. She flew at him with a crescent wrench and a curse.
“Motherfrakker, I trusted you! I'm going to kill you! Kill you just like I killed your motherfrakking cylon son!”
He huddled in on himself, protecting his head from the brunt of the attack. “Hey! Someone! Help!” But the halls were empty.
He'd lied to her. He'd lied to her even after he'd known the truth. But his son had done nothing. With a roar, he dove into her, tackling her, so that the wrench went flying across the room, clanging loudly. He pinned Cally to the floor as tears streamed down his face.
He looked around the room frantically, trying to find anything to constrain her with, and hollered again. “HELP!”
A marine ran breathlessly into the room, and stopped short, taking in the scene, obviously trying to figure out who he should be helping.
“Call Cottle. Tell him to get his ass here NOW!” The marine complied without any hesitation.
The doctor showed up two minutes later, breathless and frantic. Cally was still struggling, shrieking incoherently.
“Nicky! Check Nicky. She said she was going to kill me just like she killed Nicky.”
Cottle's eyes flew wide as Nurse Ishay appeared in the doorway behind him. He pointed to Cally, “Sedate her,” and stepped quickly over to the crib.
Ishay ducked down and slammed a syringe into Cally's leg through the cloth of her fatigues, then jammed the plunger down. Within seconds, the tiny woman's movements weakened and slowed, cries tapering off.
“Get a gurney and get her woman to sickbay. Strap her in tight. She's not gonna be leaving for a long while.” Cottle spoke gruffly, but his hands examined Nicky as gently as if he'd spent his whole life taking care of small children.
“Is he going to be okay?” The words were thick and bitter in Galen's throat. His son. His beautiful son.
“I don't know. He's unconscious right now, but alive. I think he'll live, but I need to get him to sickbay, too. That's all I can tell you.”
They left the room, taking the two patients with them, leaving Galen alone.
Gaeta's voice came calmly over the intercom. “FTL jump in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...”
﴿﴾
“Frak!” Kara swallowed, fighting down nausea induced by the simultaneous pulls of an FTL jump and a sudden summons down into the river between life and death. “You have got to give me some kind of warning before you do that!” Most likely, the Gods couldn't hear her, but the yelling provided catharsis. Knowing that no straight answers to any questions would be forthcoming, she looked around herself. The blue-green light surrounding her felt somehow turbulent, as if all were not quite right.
She stopped suddenly, face-to-face with a vaguely familiar man. It took her a moment to recognize the lawyer Lee had selected to help him try to bring up charges against Zarek. “Romo Lampkin.” She frowned and looked around out of the corner of her eyes once more. She could have sworn someone had just whispered that name into her ear, but she couldn't see anyone else.
“Where am I?” The expression on his face said very clearly that he'd been expecting something quite different.
“Dead.”
A single raised eyebrow. No wonder Lee got along with him so well.
Kara sighed and sifted through the currents in the river to find his. “Okay. Not dead, exactly. Jake jumped and hit your arm, so you didn't get a clean exit.”
“Frakking mutt. I told Mr. Adama I hated dogs even more than cats,” he grumbled.
Kara rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Shut up. You hate everyone.” He at least had the grace to look offended by the accusation.
Only one thing would cause the Gods to pull her into the stream like this. The story of the man's life flowed past her, giving her all the information she needed in a single instant. “Okay, look. I have places to be as soon as this jump completes. You have a choice. Again. Choice one, you can die. A horrible, painful, miserable death, watching blood drain from that gash on your head. At the end, you get Elysium, and happily ever after with your wife and kids and that cat you hated so much you dragged him everywhere you went.” Hope blossomed on his typically stoic face. Time to squash that. “Problem. You leave Lee high and dry if you do that, and you kind of made a promise to him that you'd help him help all of us survive.”
“Ah. You're my subconscious, aren't you? Trying to convince me that I want to live. It won't work.” He was a lawyer, bound by logic and reason. Emotion did not factor into the equation.
“I thought I told you to shut up.” She cut in without masking any of her annoyance. “Choice two. You get to skip the misery part, and I bring you back after. You'll be able to go back and forth across this river all you want... once you've kept your promise. You see, whatever you think about cynics and skeptics, you have more legal knowledge than anyone else in the Fleet. If we're actually going to survive, then we need what you are. So. What do you say?”
“This is sounding suspiciously like some kind of destiny bullshit. Surely my own subconscious knows better than to try to pull that one on me. So what? I'm destined to become a God, is that what you're telling me?” His voice was thick with sarcasm.
She sighed and shook her head. “No. Not a God, a Guardian. It's up to someone else to figure out what we'll be called.”
Lampkin watched her, indecision and hope finally surfacing in his eyes.
She knew from experience how clearly he could see the loved ones waiting for him on that far bank of the river. Her voice softened. “You'll still be able to see them whenever you want. You can go to them, stay with them, once humanity is settled on Earth, but we need you here to get us there.”
She watched him weigh her words, taking in what she was saying, trying to decide whether or not to believe her. “No. I need some kind of proof. If I'm going to be one of these Guardians, there's got to be some kind of payoff. Show me the payoff. If you can do that, I'll agree. If you can't, this isn't real. I die anyways, and there is nothing more because the Gods and Elysium do not exist.”
Cylons and athiests! They gave her this to work with and expected a new outcome? Humanity was, without a doubt, frakked. Fine, whatever, she had a job to do. She sifted through the currents in the river; found the one she needed. It was short and turbulent. Within it were two quick scenes. The first showed a shuttle approaching the McConnell, and the second showed a battered Natalie being ejected into space through an air lock, as well as the face of the man who pushed the button. Lampkin's face transformed when she directed his attention to them.
“He's a ringleader on the Prometheus. If we can tie him to Zarek, we'll have at least 10 different charges we can bring against the Vice President.” The conflict was gone, as if that little bit of evidence were enough to convert a man who had spent his life denying the existence of any form of higher power. “I accept.”
“Just like that?” Kara couldn't quite bring herself to believe it.
Romo shrugged expressively. “If this isn't real, I'm still dead. Not a bad ending, given my goal when I started, eh? And if it is real, then I find you and you show me how to get across to them.” He pointed over to a small group of people she assumed were his wife and children. “Either way, I win.”
She pursed her lips, granting his point. The man absolutely embodied impartiality, and there was no point in keeping either of them any longer. She put his feet on his new path. “That way, Rhadamantus.”
﴿﴾
Romo sat up, rubbing the back of his head. Jake sniffed curiously at him, then barked once, as if welcoming him back. Scowling, he lifted himself off the ground and stumbled to the nearest mirror. The side of his head felt tender, as if he'd been struck recently, but he found no bruise and no cut. The only proof that anything had happened at all was a smear of dried blood caked into the hair near his temple. Washing that away didn't even reveal a scar.
He remembered everything. None of it fit into any version of reality he'd ever believed in. The only explanation that made sense was insanity. Except that couldn't explain the blood.
“The bullet. If all that was real, it's not in my brain, so it's got to be somewhere else. Maybe it's in the gun!” He checked, and found one bullet missing. Just then, Jake started pawing at something in a corner. “Get out of there, you stupid mutt...” The dog stopped, and sat back, barking once more. Next to his paw was a misshapen bullet, smeared with blood. His own, he was sure.
“Alright, let's look at this like any other case, shall we?” He squatted down to pick it up, then turned to face the dog before continuing. “I point a gun at my head. I pull the trigger. Logic tells me I should be dead, despite any efforts to subvert my attempt.”
Jake interjected with a mournful plea for forgiveness.
“You're not getting it, so you might as well give up. Now, I was a good little atheist, and did my homework, so I could refute what was taught me...” It did add up, if not exactly. All this has happened before, and all of it will happen again. We are more than this life. The river, Elysium, Gods, angels, Guardians... cycles. Bits and pieces of endless cycles held in the collective and religious memory of the species and passed on throughout eternity. “Fragments of truth that come close enough while falling entirely short of reality... And thus, immortality. At least until the end of this cycle?” Romo raised an eyebrow at the dog who was still looking at him attentively. Jake lowered his head to his paws in resignation and offered large, sympathetic eyes.
“Well, we have something to start with, anyways. Let's go call on Mr. Adama, shall we?” He snapped his fingers at his pet, who somehow managed to appear offended. “What? I could carry the cat in a bag. You're too big for that.” The dog stood up and followed him out of the room. Maybe Jake would piss on Lee's shoes in retribution for sticking the two together and then dumping this whole situation on them.
﴿﴾
Only a small group visited the surface when they reached the planet Kara's viper had located for them. Lee had been selected as the Quorum representative, joining Roslin and Zarek, the military leadership, Kara, and the Final Four, with a few other key cylons to round out the team. Their shuttle pilots did some scouting and found the source of the locator signal - an age-crumbled, but otherwise undamaged, fallout shelter - while the rest of them wandered in a daze on the surface of the burnt out husk of a planet. It was a good thing they'd known in advance that this planet would not be Earth. The trauma of finding this rock, rather than a habitable world, would have broken the Fleet. As it was, they were sure to come up against plenty of dissatisfaction over the lack of any sign pointing the way to the next step in their journey.
Dualla's voice echoed across the landing deck as they stepped out of the raptors that had taxied them back from the surface. The CAP was escorting an unexpected Colonial Raptor that refused to identify itself. Lee looked for Kara out of habit, and found her immediately. She tossed her helmet to the nearest deck hand and quickly made her way over to join him. The hatch was lifting as she walked up, revealing a tall blonde wearing an overly earnest expression.
Ellen Tigh.
In shock, he reached out a hand to touch Kara's back, to ground himself in reality. She leaned back into him, the first indication of forgiveness that she'd offered him since their argument over the destiny of the final four Cylons who had been hidden within the fleet.
“Ellen!” Saul broke the silence before anyone else. “It's true! You were the Fifth. Did you know on New Caprica?”
The woman had eyes for no one but her spouse. Before she could respond, however, another figure appeared behind her.
Galen walked up to the new Eight who had appeared behind Ellen, examining her intently. A look of absolute recognition dawned on his face, and he turned to address the Admiral. “That's Boomer.”
Within seconds, marines were escorting Boomer to the Brig and Ellen to a conference room. D'Anna sent the rest of the Cylons back to their baseship, deciding that she would stay as their representative while the leaders of the fleet talked with Ellen. Roslin and Zarek followed her, the Admiral, and the XO. Lee was torn. He had no right to join in on the conversation, but the look he exchanged with Kara told him that she shared his concern over the safety of allowing Zarek to join them. If he was trying to sabotage the treaty with the cylons, the information discussed there might give him exactly what he needed.
“Madame President.” Lee hurried off after the departing party. “May I have a word with you?”
“I'll be right there.” Laura sent Zarek on his way, missing his sigh of relief. “What is it, Lee?”
“Just... You've probably already thought of it.” His face must have been an interesting shade of red.
“Lee...” She looked over her glasses at him, mouth pulling into a thin line.
“I'm still not convinced that Zarek wasn't behind Natalie's murder, and I have to wonder if he's got a bigger agenda. Just... Be careful what you let him hear.” It was foolish, really, stopping her to remind her of that.
Roslin coughed lightly, then nodded her head slowly, as if considering. “Alright, Lee. I'll trust your instinct on this. Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me?”
“Of course.”
As he answered, she turned and made her way slowly in the direction of the conference room the rest of them were headed to. He was struck by the realization that the two days she'd spent without her medication had taken an irreparable toll on her health. In just the last week, the president had lost so much of her former vibrancy, so much of her edge.
Lee wondered if taking over the presidency a second time would be as easy as the first, especially if Zarek was still vice president when Laura passed. That thought was soon overshadowed by the realization of what both he and his father would be losing, personally, when her time did come, because there was no longer any way to deny the fact.
Laura Roslin was dying.
﴿﴾
Laura walked slowly down the hallway toward the conference room where the leaders of humanity, and D'Anna, would be questioning Ellen Tigh. Lee was right. She should have considered the possible ramifications of allowing Zarek to sit in on the discussion. Once, she would have. She was so, so very tired now. Dredging up the will to get herself out of bed and dressed in the mornings was a challenge, never mind governing the last remnants of humanity.
The halls had gotten longer, Laura was sure of it. She joined the rest of the party, panting and longing for a comfortable seat. Ellen, of course, had taken the only one that remotely met that description. She fumbled with a closer option, nodding gratefully when Bill took over, unsmiling, and pulled the chair out for her. She waved vaguely in Zarek's direction.
“Tom, could I ask you to do me a favor? Could you go ask Doctor Cottle for a refill of my pain medication? I left my bottle on Colonial One.”
The Vice President smiled tightly and with only a slight hesitation, gave a sharp nod before walking mechanically out of the room.
“Well, now that we're all settled, I'm sure you have questions for me.” The bubbly blond made Laura wish she had energy for a cat fight.
“Yes, we do. How long have you known you were a cylon?” Laura got right to the point.
“Oh. Well.” Ellen primped herself a bit, crossing her legs. “I suppose you could say I started to wonder while we were all on New Caprica. I... I started to remember things that weren't a part of the life I've had in the Colonies. Saul was in those memories...” Laura's eyebrows inched up her forehead. Was this woman for real? The final Cylon must have noticed the rising tension in the room, because she trailed off, then got to the point. “Anyways, I killed myself after I'd given Cavil the map, so that he couldn't use me to get at Saul anymore. And I woke up in a resurrection tank.”
“Why didn't you come back? Where have you been? What have you been doing?” Saul Tigh peppered his wife with rapid-fire questions.
“Saul, one at a time, sweetie!” Ellen laughed, then continued in a more serious tone. “Cavil has been holding me hostage in the Resurrection Hub. He kept me separated from most of the people living on the ship, and under heavy guard. I wasn't allowed out of my room. From what little I was able to observe, I believe he's been making plans to move the rest of the cylons to a place we call the Colony. It's where we brought the Centurions when we stepped in to stop the first cylon war, and I expect that's where he'll go back to now. He's... fixated on the barbarism of basic biological functions, and with the loss of resurrection, he'll be completely unbalanced by the idea that procreation might be the only hope for cylon survival. Because of that, I believe he was getting ready to experiment on
Hera.”
It was the first worrisome information the woman had shared. They'd just discovered that the girl was still alive, and Laura's visions had only gotten stronger since then. She was convinced, once more, that Hera was critical to the survival of humanity. If Cavil mounted some sort of offensive to try to take her from them... her mind refused to focus on consequences. They had to protect the girl at all costs, and if she was taking Lee's advice, that meant not letting Zarek know how important she was to the survival of humanity.
“Did Boomer help you get here?” Bill cut in with his own question. Of course that was his concern. It was justified, she supposed. The Eight had nearly killed him, after all.
“Yes, she did. I hope you'll all take that into account, and go easy on the poor girl. She's been through more than you can probably imagine.” Ellen may have returned more subdued than before her resurrection, but glimpses of her past behaviors slipped through when she smiled coquettishly at the men in the room.
Laura's stomach churned.
“You don't need to worry about that.” Laura put on her sweetest smile and stared down the infuriating blond.
Bill shot her a quizzical look that she answered with a blank expression. He shrugged and turned back to Ellen. “Do you know where the Colony is?”
“Of course.” She shrugged a single shoulder and proceeded to rattle off the jump coordinates before Laura could stop her. Waiting a beat, Ellen sighed, then changed topic. “Does anyone have a drink?”
Laura nearly lost her composure when the Admiral responded by pulling a flask out of his coat pocket. That was the kind of behavior she would have expected of Saul, not Bill. She knew he'd been drinking more lately, but apparently hadn't realized the extent of it. Not that she was really in any position to say anything about it. She'd only just admitted what she felt for him, and any kind of actual, personal relationship would be... unethical to say the least. Yet, Elosha's one absolute requirement had been that she remember what it was to be a person who could feel love. The people required more than a president. But, the President couldn't afford the political riot that would ensue if she let herself be a woman.
A new wave of exhaustion swept over her. That was happening more and more frequently. Laura forced her attention back to the matter at hand. The questioning of Ellen had devolved into an overly sentimental discussion of how much of their previous lives each of the Final Five could remember.
“Excuse me. I have one more question for you, Ellen.” Once she had the answer, she could leave, go to sleep. “How did you find your way back here?”
Ellen blinked and looked at Saul. “Didn't you tell them about Sam's song?” When Saul responded with an expression of utter confusion, she clarified. “Before our world ended, Sam... We all realized what was happening. We all had visions. Part of Sam's role was to teach us what he called the song of the universe. If anything happened, if we needed to do something, we would hear that song, and it would help us remember. It was buried so deeply in our subconscious that when Cavil was altering our personalities, he didn't find it. My own altered programming was erased when I resurrected, but I started hearing Sam's song a few months ago. It's led us here over the past week.”
Laura raised her eyebrows and nodded. Visions and subliminal music. Everyone wanted to be a prophet. “Thank you, Ellen. I think I'm done.” Turning to Bill, she said, “If you see Mr. Zarek, could you get my prescription from him and bring it to me? Tell him I'll fill him in on the situation on Colonial One, tomorrow.” She smiled and pushed herself up out of her seat. The others could handle the situation without her from here. She was so, so tired.
Continue to Chapter 32