Echoes: Chapter 35 of 38
Title: Echoes
Author: EcstaticDance
Summary: Allof 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 (Thank you, as always!)
Previous Chapters: At My LJ
Return to Chapter 34
Chapter 35
“What do you hear?” The gruff voice on the other end of the line sounded older than Kara remembered.
“Nothing but the rain, Sir. Just got Pea to sleep.” About time, too. She'd been screaming for an hour. Kara rolled her shoulders back hard, trying to release some of the accumulated tension.
“Find someone to sit with her. I need you and Lee in my quarters.” A professional call, then.
“Yes, sir.” Kara hung up the comm link then picked it right back up.
“Helo, can you do me a favor?”
“What do you need?” His tone reminded her of just how much he'd already given.
She felt her cheeks flush as she answered. “Someone to sit with Elpis. The admiral needs to see me and Lee, and we just got her to sleep.”
“Sure. Be right there.” He hung up without giving her time to thank him.
Lee sat at the table, hunched over his paperwork, looking at her with a single eyebrow raised in question. She shrugged and pulled on a hooded sweatshirt. Papers were shuffled into several neat piles, then tucked in files. He was locking them away in his briefcase when Karl appeared at the hatch two minutes later.
The tall man's light mood and easy smile were gone. He looked as haggard as Bill sounded.
“I'm working on it, Helo. We're going to get her back.” She had nothing else to offer him, nothing that he would have wanted at this point in time, anyways. He nodded, said nothing, and moved into the room.
Kara turned to say something more, but Karl was staring into Pea's crib, back turned to the door, and she could tell that he wouldn't be moving anytime soon.
﴿﴾
Bill listened as Laura coughed dryly into her hand. She curled deeper into the corner of Bill's couch, fussing with her blankets again, staring at Saul. Saul himself stood awkwardly, alone in a corner of the room, not meeting Laura's eyes.
“I want to go after Hera, Sir.”
“No.”
A knock sounded at the door, and a moment later Lee and Kara walked in.
“You all know this ship is dying.” Bill got right to the point. They didn't have time for games. “You know we're at the end of the line.”
Lee looked at the floor, Saul at the squinted into the distance, Laura glared at Saul and Kara's eyes locked with Bill's. She held his gaze, firm and unruffled. The unflappable Starbuck.
“She's my child! How can you say that, how can you say that I can't go for her?”
“Because it would be a suicide mission. We've already sent a reconnaissance mission from the baseship. We can't even get in, much less out.”
Zak's memory rose and stood between himself and Kara. He knew what Helo was going to do when he heard about this plan. Would have known even without their conversation. “The baseship can do a better job of supplying the fleet's needs at this point anyways. But this ship
still has a good fight in her.”
“They haunt me every night, Bill. Gaius and Caprica Six and Hera and these two other unknown people. We need her, Bill. We can't find Earth without Hera. I know it.”
His entire life had been tied up in the Galactica. Here at the end, he found he couldn't actually walk away from her while she was still limping along. He could give her a final purpose, give himself a purpose as well. If he had to develop faith, he supposed now was as good a time as any. “So how are we going to get Hera back?”
﴿﴾
Lee pulled Kara back into his arms, burying his face in her neck. “I'm going with you.”
He felt her tense, but held tight anyways. “Lee, no. You can't. You have to stay here. Who'll look after Elpis if you go?”
“I have to Kara. I have to prove to people that I'm not just blindly allowing the cylons free reign in the fleet. They have to see that if the cylons step out of line, I am going to make them pay. Me, personally.” It had nothing to do with her complaint, he knew that. He ran his fingers along her stomach, feeling her skin quiver at his touch. “Romo will take her. He got pretty attached while you were...” He trailed off. The three months Kara had been missing filled the room around them, unspoken and at times overwhelming. He kissed her shoulder and held her tighter still for a moment. “Yeah. He'll complain, but he'll love it.”
Her fingers twisted into his hair, pulling his head back, and he felt her lips hovering over his, the heat of her breath feathering over his face. “Why?”
Her skin burned under his hands, and he brushed his lips lightly against hers. He would never own her, he'd always known that. But her heart
was his, nonetheless, even after everything. “Because I still believe you.”
She kissed him then, hard and desperate and grateful. They rolled over and over together under the sheets of their bed, and for a little while at least, nothing else mattered.
﴿﴾
Boomer sat sullenly next to Hera as she drew pictures of the people she'd known on Galactica. Considering that they were the efforts of a three year old, she supposed they were pretty good. Cavil was having a hard time being so generous. Since they'd arrived, he'd spent hours prodding her, trying to see if she would open up and share some deep, hidden wisdom that might save the cylon race. It took every ounce of the Eight's determination and skill to talk him out of slicing the child's brain in some desperate, futile attempt to regain immortality. She wondered, fleetingly, how Tory was doing.
In the privacy of her own mind, behind the firewall she'd built and strengthened, she dreamed of rescue. Possible scenarios played out in her mind, cycling and shifting as the days passed. Surely the Agathons would come after their daughter. Certainly Galen had believed her when she said she loved him, and would follow her in an effort to get her back. Yet the days did go by, and no rescue came, and it dawned on her that life among Cylons was not so vastly different from life among humans. The cell was different, but she was still surrounded by blank faces that didn't quite hide palpable distrust and loathing.
Boomer shook herself, and scribbled absently on the paper Hera had placed in front of her nearly half an hour ago. Suddenly, the child placed a and on hers. Gazing up with dark, solemn eyes, she smile a sad smile. “Tank you, Boomah.” A shiver ran down her spine and she
pulled her hand away. On the table in front of the little girl was a crude drawing of an Eight forcing herself between a One and Hera.
﴿﴾
Everyone who called Galactica home had made it to the hanger deck. Even Caprica Six and Baltar's ridiculous gaggle of women, though they should have been evacuated earlier that day with the rest of the civilians.
Kara had proposed calling everyone here first, then been championed by Lee, so the two of them accompanied Bill. Kara slapped the bright
red tape down at one end of the deck and pulled it out in a straight line right down the middle. Bill stood at the top of a set of rolling stairs with his son and his daughter-in-law on either side. All eyes turned expectantly up toward him.
This was it, the moment of truth. His ship was falling apart, his will was fading and his children were having to remind him what leadership looked like. He felt so very, very old, looking out over these people who had relied on him to guide them for so long - these people he'd failed so horribly. This was the moment when he made up for all those mistakes that he hadn't been able to regret.
“This,” he announced with a strength he did not feel, “is a volunteer mission. No one should feel obligated to join us. I have made this
decision for myself, but I cannot make it for you. If we do not have enough volunteers to man the Galactica, I will lead this rescue mission with a contingent of Raptors.” He paused to let the words sink in, and to give what he said next more weight. “This will likely be a one-way mission.”
A quite murmur rippled through the crowd, ooh's and ah's at the courage or folly that was sending them to probable death for the sake
of a little girl and a skin job. He wondered how many would join him. He wondered how many would die for something they didn't believe in. He wondered how many of them still believed in him.
He set his jaw and continued.
“Volunteers, please step to the starboard side. All others, move to port.” The crowd shuffled, uncovering the red tape that Kara had laid down only moments before. He climbed back down the stairs and came around to stand in front of them, at the head of the red line. “Make your
choice.”
﴿﴾
D'Anna looked across the data stream at the representative Two, Six, Eight and centurion.
“The humans have decided to go to war against the cylons once more. They've asked us to stay behind and protect the fleet while they fight.” Here they stood again, getting ready to jump at the throats of their brothers and sisters, to tear apart the cylon race. Nothing had gone as it should have. “I say this is their battle. I've had enough of fighting.”
Leoban spoke. “Change comes slowly, but it always comes. Kara is calling for this mission. I say we follow Kara.”
D'Anna breathed deeply, biting her tongue.
“The humans are not asking us to fight their war. They're asking us to protect their children. I say we stay.” The Eight, loyal as ever.
We vote to fight. We can not forgive the others for taking away our free will. The centurion representative spoke to them through the data stream.
“I say we each get to choose. Each one of us, individually.” The representative Six, Sonja, the one who had been selected to represent them on the newly formed, ship-based Quorum. “We are not clones. We're individuals, and every one of us has our own free will. It's time we start exercising it. Those who wish to go with humanity, to fight Cavil and retrieve Hera, should be free to go over to the Galactica and do so. Those who wish to remain and defend humanity should be allowed that choice. Those who wish to remain uninvolved... I think that's a valid option. Maybe we can find a place for them within the civilian portion of the fleet?” She looked directly at D'Anna as she said the last.
D'Anna snorted. “Sure, that would work well. 'Oh by the way, one of those cylons is moving into the next bunk. Hope you don't mind!' I don't think so.” She looked around the command room, at the running lights, the flowing water, the seemingly endless copies of the same faces passing by her again and again and again. All of this had happened before.
She plunged her hand into the data stream, summoned up the image of the planet around which they were still orbiting. The home of the
original cylon race. It sang to her, the way the image of the Final Five had called to her between death and life. It was a planet on the very verge of recovery. Still poisoned from the horrible war that had destroyed it, but ready to begin life anew. Ready for a fresh start. This world held secrets that she longed to know.
She withdrew her hand and looked around the room once more. “I'll stay here, on this planet. I've had enough of these games.”
﴿﴾
There was no choice to be made for Lee. He believed in Kara with all of his heart and soul, and if she said they needed to do this, then he was going to be there, to have her back. He didn't even bother looking at his father as he crossed over to join his wife. Her smile as he walked toward her lit her face the way he remembered sunrise on Caprica lighting his childhood bedroom through the white blinds she glowed for him. Where she led, he would follow.
Saul and Ellen Tigh were almost immediately beside them. To his surprise, so was Hot Dog. He laughed to himself when the young pilot saluted Starbuck. The young man always had suffered from more than the normal level of hero worship. Then, Doc Cottle and Nurse Ishay; healers, both, to the bitter end. He understood why his father turned Cottle away, but wished it hadn't been necessary. They were going to need all the help they could get if they were to have any hope of surviving this.
﴿﴾
Captain Simpson Markson stood on the bridge of his ship. They'd known, the captains, that Galactica wouldn't be able to shepherd them forever. Too many battles, too much time, and too much care wore down even the most stolid people, and Galactica had seen all of these. He, they, could understand and accept that.
Simpson looked down at his navigational controls, at the dot on his display that indicated the cylon baseship. The cylons on that ship had flown protective circles around the fleet every day since they'd returned from their mission to end cylon resurrection. He'd even met one once. A beautiful, regal-looking woman who carried herself with enough self-importance to have done a Caprican proud. She'd argued against this, suggested that the baseship should attack, rather than the Galactica, that the cylons were not yet trusted enough to take on that role. She'd also avoided eye contact as she'd reminded them all that some of those ships she'd be protecting had weapons that could severely damage, or even destroy, the baseship.
He remembered the shame that had convinced them to vote for the original plan, the pride that had driven them to want to prove that the cylons could trust them, that they had grown and were now better than they had been. He wondered now how many of their human soldiers would stay behind to protect them, if the captains had been rash.
But there was no way to take back the choice, now. Typing in the necessary codes, he checked the status of their nuclear warhead. Stable. He wouldn't go back on his word, never had in his life. He just wanted to know that he had a way to defend himself, to take one last shot if he'd made a mistake.
﴿﴾
With Lee's solid warmth behind her, Kara watched the cylons start filing over. Caprica Six, who had abandoned her people to serve humanity and protect Hera. Tyrol, then Anders who looked at her as if he wanted to burn a hole into her brain to figure out what she was thinking. Kara met his gaze with a question in her own eyes, and wasn't surprised when he simply, sadly shook his head. He still didn't know why Hera was so important. Aimee and Pierce joined Caprica Six, then Leonard moved toward them.
He stopped on the line, and she felt like a bug under his pale, scrutinizing eyes. He wasn't Leoben. She knew that in the same way she knew that she had two hands. But he was still intensely unsettling. Kara struggled to keep any and all reaction from playing across her face until he finally came to a decision and walked over to her. As he passed, he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her near so he could speak into her ear.
“You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead humanity to it's end. Do not fear the word. You are the Keeper of the Keys. The Keys to the Watchtowers of the gods. The homes of the gods. The homes of humanity. You will gather the keys. You will lead the remnants of humanity to their end. To become the children of the gods. To become the gods.”
Kara pulled away, terrified. You will lead the remnants of humanity to their end. It was so close to what the hybrid had told her. There was no reason he wouldn't have heard about that, but the talk of keys had never come from anyone but him and her mind still couldn't make any kind of sense out of it. Looking back toward the crowd, she saw President Roslin struggling across the deck. She sent the gods a quick thank you for the excuse to move away from Leonard and went to help her.
﴿﴾
Laura leaned heavily on Kara's arm, leaving Bill free to move around if he needed to. They were going after Hera. Her visions had been haunting her more and more frequently since the child had disappeared. She knew that once they found her, they would find Earth. This was the culmination of everything they'd fought and struggled and hoped for. This was what she'd suffered and continued to live for. And when this was done, she could put down the mantle and finally, peacefully, rest.
She lost count quickly. Cylons and humans kept moving across lines. The Agathons, other pilots, tailors and beauticians and medics, people who had been in the military all their lives and people whose only experience with any kind of fighting was what they'd endured on New Caprica; they all crossed over without hesitation once they'd made up their minds.
All except Baltar, who kept taking one step forward, toward the starboard side, and then a step back into the clutches of the women who followed his every movement. The Cult of Gaius Frakking Baltar. No, they wouldn't like it at all if their illustrious leader decided to join in this mission. It wouldn't be a great loss if he didn't join them, anyways, she thought bitterly. Last time he'd been threatened with death at cylon hands, he'd led them straight to the fleet.
The trickle ended. Far fewer people were willing to go after Hera than wanted to stay behind. They'd expected that. Bill dismissed everyone after taking note of who had agreed to go with him, and Laura took Ishay's arm. She noticed that Lee, Kara and the four of the Final Five who remained with the fleet weren't disbursing with the rest of the crew. It made sense. They had information and training that made them critical in planning what came next. She was surprised to find that she even trusted them, the cylons and Kara. They'd all given so much for the sake of the fleet, for people who would gladly have killed them if the opportunity had presented itself.
Maybe Karl and Lee had been right, after all.
Maybe they really had saved their humanity by offering the cylons their trust.
Continue to Chapter 36.
Author: EcstaticDance
Summary: Allof 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 (Thank you, as always!)
Previous Chapters: At My LJ
Return to Chapter 34
Chapter 35
“What do you hear?” The gruff voice on the other end of the line sounded older than Kara remembered.
“Nothing but the rain, Sir. Just got Pea to sleep.” About time, too. She'd been screaming for an hour. Kara rolled her shoulders back hard, trying to release some of the accumulated tension.
“Find someone to sit with her. I need you and Lee in my quarters.” A professional call, then.
“Yes, sir.” Kara hung up the comm link then picked it right back up.
“Helo, can you do me a favor?”
“What do you need?” His tone reminded her of just how much he'd already given.
She felt her cheeks flush as she answered. “Someone to sit with Elpis. The admiral needs to see me and Lee, and we just got her to sleep.”
“Sure. Be right there.” He hung up without giving her time to thank him.
Lee sat at the table, hunched over his paperwork, looking at her with a single eyebrow raised in question. She shrugged and pulled on a hooded sweatshirt. Papers were shuffled into several neat piles, then tucked in files. He was locking them away in his briefcase when Karl appeared at the hatch two minutes later.
The tall man's light mood and easy smile were gone. He looked as haggard as Bill sounded.
“I'm working on it, Helo. We're going to get her back.” She had nothing else to offer him, nothing that he would have wanted at this point in time, anyways. He nodded, said nothing, and moved into the room.
Kara turned to say something more, but Karl was staring into Pea's crib, back turned to the door, and she could tell that he wouldn't be moving anytime soon.
﴿﴾
Bill listened as Laura coughed dryly into her hand. She curled deeper into the corner of Bill's couch, fussing with her blankets again, staring at Saul. Saul himself stood awkwardly, alone in a corner of the room, not meeting Laura's eyes.
“I want to go after Hera, Sir.”
“No.”
A knock sounded at the door, and a moment later Lee and Kara walked in.
“You all know this ship is dying.” Bill got right to the point. They didn't have time for games. “You know we're at the end of the line.”
Lee looked at the floor, Saul at the squinted into the distance, Laura glared at Saul and Kara's eyes locked with Bill's. She held his gaze, firm and unruffled. The unflappable Starbuck.
“She's my child! How can you say that, how can you say that I can't go for her?”
“Because it would be a suicide mission. We've already sent a reconnaissance mission from the baseship. We can't even get in, much less out.”
Zak's memory rose and stood between himself and Kara. He knew what Helo was going to do when he heard about this plan. Would have known even without their conversation. “The baseship can do a better job of supplying the fleet's needs at this point anyways. But this ship
still has a good fight in her.”
“They haunt me every night, Bill. Gaius and Caprica Six and Hera and these two other unknown people. We need her, Bill. We can't find Earth without Hera. I know it.”
His entire life had been tied up in the Galactica. Here at the end, he found he couldn't actually walk away from her while she was still limping along. He could give her a final purpose, give himself a purpose as well. If he had to develop faith, he supposed now was as good a time as any. “So how are we going to get Hera back?”
﴿﴾
Lee pulled Kara back into his arms, burying his face in her neck. “I'm going with you.”
He felt her tense, but held tight anyways. “Lee, no. You can't. You have to stay here. Who'll look after Elpis if you go?”
“I have to Kara. I have to prove to people that I'm not just blindly allowing the cylons free reign in the fleet. They have to see that if the cylons step out of line, I am going to make them pay. Me, personally.” It had nothing to do with her complaint, he knew that. He ran his fingers along her stomach, feeling her skin quiver at his touch. “Romo will take her. He got pretty attached while you were...” He trailed off. The three months Kara had been missing filled the room around them, unspoken and at times overwhelming. He kissed her shoulder and held her tighter still for a moment. “Yeah. He'll complain, but he'll love it.”
Her fingers twisted into his hair, pulling his head back, and he felt her lips hovering over his, the heat of her breath feathering over his face. “Why?”
Her skin burned under his hands, and he brushed his lips lightly against hers. He would never own her, he'd always known that. But her heart
was his, nonetheless, even after everything. “Because I still believe you.”
She kissed him then, hard and desperate and grateful. They rolled over and over together under the sheets of their bed, and for a little while at least, nothing else mattered.
﴿﴾
Boomer sat sullenly next to Hera as she drew pictures of the people she'd known on Galactica. Considering that they were the efforts of a three year old, she supposed they were pretty good. Cavil was having a hard time being so generous. Since they'd arrived, he'd spent hours prodding her, trying to see if she would open up and share some deep, hidden wisdom that might save the cylon race. It took every ounce of the Eight's determination and skill to talk him out of slicing the child's brain in some desperate, futile attempt to regain immortality. She wondered, fleetingly, how Tory was doing.
In the privacy of her own mind, behind the firewall she'd built and strengthened, she dreamed of rescue. Possible scenarios played out in her mind, cycling and shifting as the days passed. Surely the Agathons would come after their daughter. Certainly Galen had believed her when she said she loved him, and would follow her in an effort to get her back. Yet the days did go by, and no rescue came, and it dawned on her that life among Cylons was not so vastly different from life among humans. The cell was different, but she was still surrounded by blank faces that didn't quite hide palpable distrust and loathing.
Boomer shook herself, and scribbled absently on the paper Hera had placed in front of her nearly half an hour ago. Suddenly, the child placed a and on hers. Gazing up with dark, solemn eyes, she smile a sad smile. “Tank you, Boomah.” A shiver ran down her spine and she
pulled her hand away. On the table in front of the little girl was a crude drawing of an Eight forcing herself between a One and Hera.
﴿﴾
Everyone who called Galactica home had made it to the hanger deck. Even Caprica Six and Baltar's ridiculous gaggle of women, though they should have been evacuated earlier that day with the rest of the civilians.
Kara had proposed calling everyone here first, then been championed by Lee, so the two of them accompanied Bill. Kara slapped the bright
red tape down at one end of the deck and pulled it out in a straight line right down the middle. Bill stood at the top of a set of rolling stairs with his son and his daughter-in-law on either side. All eyes turned expectantly up toward him.
This was it, the moment of truth. His ship was falling apart, his will was fading and his children were having to remind him what leadership looked like. He felt so very, very old, looking out over these people who had relied on him to guide them for so long - these people he'd failed so horribly. This was the moment when he made up for all those mistakes that he hadn't been able to regret.
“This,” he announced with a strength he did not feel, “is a volunteer mission. No one should feel obligated to join us. I have made this
decision for myself, but I cannot make it for you. If we do not have enough volunteers to man the Galactica, I will lead this rescue mission with a contingent of Raptors.” He paused to let the words sink in, and to give what he said next more weight. “This will likely be a one-way mission.”
A quite murmur rippled through the crowd, ooh's and ah's at the courage or folly that was sending them to probable death for the sake
of a little girl and a skin job. He wondered how many would join him. He wondered how many would die for something they didn't believe in. He wondered how many of them still believed in him.
He set his jaw and continued.
“Volunteers, please step to the starboard side. All others, move to port.” The crowd shuffled, uncovering the red tape that Kara had laid down only moments before. He climbed back down the stairs and came around to stand in front of them, at the head of the red line. “Make your
choice.”
﴿﴾
D'Anna looked across the data stream at the representative Two, Six, Eight and centurion.
“The humans have decided to go to war against the cylons once more. They've asked us to stay behind and protect the fleet while they fight.” Here they stood again, getting ready to jump at the throats of their brothers and sisters, to tear apart the cylon race. Nothing had gone as it should have. “I say this is their battle. I've had enough of fighting.”
Leoban spoke. “Change comes slowly, but it always comes. Kara is calling for this mission. I say we follow Kara.”
D'Anna breathed deeply, biting her tongue.
“The humans are not asking us to fight their war. They're asking us to protect their children. I say we stay.” The Eight, loyal as ever.
We vote to fight. We can not forgive the others for taking away our free will. The centurion representative spoke to them through the data stream.
“I say we each get to choose. Each one of us, individually.” The representative Six, Sonja, the one who had been selected to represent them on the newly formed, ship-based Quorum. “We are not clones. We're individuals, and every one of us has our own free will. It's time we start exercising it. Those who wish to go with humanity, to fight Cavil and retrieve Hera, should be free to go over to the Galactica and do so. Those who wish to remain and defend humanity should be allowed that choice. Those who wish to remain uninvolved... I think that's a valid option. Maybe we can find a place for them within the civilian portion of the fleet?” She looked directly at D'Anna as she said the last.
D'Anna snorted. “Sure, that would work well. 'Oh by the way, one of those cylons is moving into the next bunk. Hope you don't mind!' I don't think so.” She looked around the command room, at the running lights, the flowing water, the seemingly endless copies of the same faces passing by her again and again and again. All of this had happened before.
She plunged her hand into the data stream, summoned up the image of the planet around which they were still orbiting. The home of the
original cylon race. It sang to her, the way the image of the Final Five had called to her between death and life. It was a planet on the very verge of recovery. Still poisoned from the horrible war that had destroyed it, but ready to begin life anew. Ready for a fresh start. This world held secrets that she longed to know.
She withdrew her hand and looked around the room once more. “I'll stay here, on this planet. I've had enough of these games.”
﴿﴾
There was no choice to be made for Lee. He believed in Kara with all of his heart and soul, and if she said they needed to do this, then he was going to be there, to have her back. He didn't even bother looking at his father as he crossed over to join his wife. Her smile as he walked toward her lit her face the way he remembered sunrise on Caprica lighting his childhood bedroom through the white blinds she glowed for him. Where she led, he would follow.
Saul and Ellen Tigh were almost immediately beside them. To his surprise, so was Hot Dog. He laughed to himself when the young pilot saluted Starbuck. The young man always had suffered from more than the normal level of hero worship. Then, Doc Cottle and Nurse Ishay; healers, both, to the bitter end. He understood why his father turned Cottle away, but wished it hadn't been necessary. They were going to need all the help they could get if they were to have any hope of surviving this.
﴿﴾
Captain Simpson Markson stood on the bridge of his ship. They'd known, the captains, that Galactica wouldn't be able to shepherd them forever. Too many battles, too much time, and too much care wore down even the most stolid people, and Galactica had seen all of these. He, they, could understand and accept that.
Simpson looked down at his navigational controls, at the dot on his display that indicated the cylon baseship. The cylons on that ship had flown protective circles around the fleet every day since they'd returned from their mission to end cylon resurrection. He'd even met one once. A beautiful, regal-looking woman who carried herself with enough self-importance to have done a Caprican proud. She'd argued against this, suggested that the baseship should attack, rather than the Galactica, that the cylons were not yet trusted enough to take on that role. She'd also avoided eye contact as she'd reminded them all that some of those ships she'd be protecting had weapons that could severely damage, or even destroy, the baseship.
He remembered the shame that had convinced them to vote for the original plan, the pride that had driven them to want to prove that the cylons could trust them, that they had grown and were now better than they had been. He wondered now how many of their human soldiers would stay behind to protect them, if the captains had been rash.
But there was no way to take back the choice, now. Typing in the necessary codes, he checked the status of their nuclear warhead. Stable. He wouldn't go back on his word, never had in his life. He just wanted to know that he had a way to defend himself, to take one last shot if he'd made a mistake.
﴿﴾
With Lee's solid warmth behind her, Kara watched the cylons start filing over. Caprica Six, who had abandoned her people to serve humanity and protect Hera. Tyrol, then Anders who looked at her as if he wanted to burn a hole into her brain to figure out what she was thinking. Kara met his gaze with a question in her own eyes, and wasn't surprised when he simply, sadly shook his head. He still didn't know why Hera was so important. Aimee and Pierce joined Caprica Six, then Leonard moved toward them.
He stopped on the line, and she felt like a bug under his pale, scrutinizing eyes. He wasn't Leoben. She knew that in the same way she knew that she had two hands. But he was still intensely unsettling. Kara struggled to keep any and all reaction from playing across her face until he finally came to a decision and walked over to her. As he passed, he reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her near so he could speak into her ear.
“You are the harbinger of death, Kara Thrace. You will lead humanity to it's end. Do not fear the word. You are the Keeper of the Keys. The Keys to the Watchtowers of the gods. The homes of the gods. The homes of humanity. You will gather the keys. You will lead the remnants of humanity to their end. To become the children of the gods. To become the gods.”
Kara pulled away, terrified. You will lead the remnants of humanity to their end. It was so close to what the hybrid had told her. There was no reason he wouldn't have heard about that, but the talk of keys had never come from anyone but him and her mind still couldn't make any kind of sense out of it. Looking back toward the crowd, she saw President Roslin struggling across the deck. She sent the gods a quick thank you for the excuse to move away from Leonard and went to help her.
﴿﴾
Laura leaned heavily on Kara's arm, leaving Bill free to move around if he needed to. They were going after Hera. Her visions had been haunting her more and more frequently since the child had disappeared. She knew that once they found her, they would find Earth. This was the culmination of everything they'd fought and struggled and hoped for. This was what she'd suffered and continued to live for. And when this was done, she could put down the mantle and finally, peacefully, rest.
She lost count quickly. Cylons and humans kept moving across lines. The Agathons, other pilots, tailors and beauticians and medics, people who had been in the military all their lives and people whose only experience with any kind of fighting was what they'd endured on New Caprica; they all crossed over without hesitation once they'd made up their minds.
All except Baltar, who kept taking one step forward, toward the starboard side, and then a step back into the clutches of the women who followed his every movement. The Cult of Gaius Frakking Baltar. No, they wouldn't like it at all if their illustrious leader decided to join in this mission. It wouldn't be a great loss if he didn't join them, anyways, she thought bitterly. Last time he'd been threatened with death at cylon hands, he'd led them straight to the fleet.
The trickle ended. Far fewer people were willing to go after Hera than wanted to stay behind. They'd expected that. Bill dismissed everyone after taking note of who had agreed to go with him, and Laura took Ishay's arm. She noticed that Lee, Kara and the four of the Final Five who remained with the fleet weren't disbursing with the rest of the crew. It made sense. They had information and training that made them critical in planning what came next. She was surprised to find that she even trusted them, the cylons and Kara. They'd all given so much for the sake of the fleet, for people who would gladly have killed them if the opportunity had presented itself.
Maybe Karl and Lee had been right, after all.
Maybe they really had saved their humanity by offering the cylons their trust.
Continue to Chapter 36.