Echoes: Chapter 37 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 36.
Chapter 37
“... Jump.” The command came over the comm link and Maggie felt the expected disorientation as Aimee executed the jump.
“Warm up the nukes, Dryad. We're goin' in hot.” They had a split second, the necessary reaction time of the computer brains they were going up against. Maggie swerved around a raider that sat directly in front of her, holding her breath as the two ships passed within inches of each other. A bright flash lit the darkness and she winced. One down.
It was a dog fight to rival what they'd experienced back in the early days after the first cylon attacks.
The bulk of the Colony floated in front of them, so huge that it entirely obscured the anomaly that she knew was there. She dodged a stream of gunfire, hoping that Galactica had made the jump safely.
As the raptor turned, they came across a second line of bullets. Racetrack's eyes went wide as she watched a row of perforations appear in her windshield. She felt her chest compress under an incredible pressure that didn't make sense along with those holes. She glanced over at Aimee, who sat with head bowed and blood dribbling from her open mouth, then looked down at her own chest.
Her vision went red. Then black. Then white.
﴿﴾
“Ahead full.” William Adama stared at the enormous red marker on the DRADIS screen, the Cylon Colony. He couldn't turn back now.
“Aye, Sir.” Gaeta answered without hesitation.
The marker grew larger, closer.
Bill muttered under his breath, “Steady.”
“It's been a pleasure to serve with you, Bill.” Saul kept his voice low. Only his CO would ever know his doubts.
Bill smiled bitterly. “I'm not done yet.” He gripped the edge of the command table, calling out, “Brace for impact!”
The ship shuddered, and the lights flickered, sparks showering down over them.
“Contact confirmed, Sir. We have penetrated the outer wall of the Colony.”
Bill pushed himself upright, nodding and rubbing a hand across his abdomen, where his body had taken the brunt of the collision. He gasped for breath. “Damage report.”
“Fires on foredecks C and D. Hull integrity compromised throughout the bow of the ship. Otherwise, we seem to be in good shape.”
“Are our people out?”
“Aye, Sir.”
“Good. Seal the affected decks and vent the O2.” He looked back up at the DRADIS, wishing it could show him a map, the locations of his people, his son. “Tell me where they board us.”
﴿﴾
Kara gritted her teeth and pushed forward. First the FTL jump, then impact with the Colony, now the nearly undeniable pull of the River. The gods had nothing if not poor timing. This time, though, they would have to wait. She looked back over her shoulder at Helo and Athena and the handful of Marines who followed them.
They stayed low, watching ahead and behind, communicating with hand signals, and relying on the microphones in their helmets only to inform Galactica of their progress.
Two toasters, one skinjob, hallway to the left, she flashed the code to those behind her. A Marine ran forward, took aim around the corner as she ducked back, and fired three times. Kara peeked once more.
Two Toasters, skinjob down. Helo did the honors this time, hardly bothering to keep under cover. She couldn't blame him. If they'd taken Elpis...
She looked around the corner one last time. All clear. Forward.
﴿﴾
Laura looked around herself. Their first injuries were fire-induced, caused by the planned collision of the battlestar with the cylon Colony. She vacillated uselessly among the injured, applying a compress here, speaking a word of encouragement there. Most of these would survive. The ones who wouldn't were already gone.
The admiral's voice crackled suddenly over the intercom. “Attention all hands. We've been boarded, A deck, fore. Repeat, we have been boarded, A deck, fore.”
“Clear these patients out of triage. Let's go, people! We need to make room for the ones who are coming.” Nurse Ishay spoke authoritatively. She was in her element here.
Laura looked down at her shaking hands. The ship's medical staff, including Dr. Simon Pierce, moved with precision and efficiency. The new battle injuries began to arrive before they'd finished.
“Gunshot wound to the calf.”
“Shrapnel in his chest.”
“He'd just taken his helmet off for a second. Just to scratch an itch...”
She watched as medics and soldiers piled through the door, left their comrades on empty stretchers, and ran back out into the fray.
She walked over to the soldier with a head wound in a daze. Picking up a damp cloth, she dabbed at the bloodied side of his skull. “You're going to be okay. Just hang on, and we'll fix you up.”
Ishay appeared at her side, taking the cloth from her hands, frowning and shaking her head. Laura backed away in shock. Useless fell short in describing what she could manage here. She was wasting their time.
She shook uncontrollably as she exited the sickbay. A quick check of her watch told her that it was time for her last dose. She pulled out the needle and stuck it into her arm, breathing deeply through the sting, then into the energy that filled her.
Command. She belonged in the command center.
﴿﴾
“What the frak was that?” Cavil shouted at the top of his lungs, and Boomer winced. She glanced surreptitiously at Hera, who cowered in a corner, trying to stay as far away from Cavil as possible.
“She's a little girl. She's terrified. Just wait! Give her a chance!” Boomer pleaded the child's case with Cavil again.
He drew back his arm, and slapped her so hard she fell to the floor, ears ringing.
“Get the girl on the table. We're doing this now.”
Boomer reached up and wiped blood from the edge of her mouth. Her hands curled into fists as she pushed herself up from the floor.
﴿﴾
One Toaster. If Lee remembered the layout correctly, he'd just led them to the very center of the Colony. These were the “guest rooms” as Ellen had referred to them. The lack of Cylon presence shocked him.
Caprica Six rounded the corner and took out the single centurion with admirable precision. Lee headed into the corridors, signaling for Gaius and the handful of Marines with them to join Caprica Six in searching the rooms. They were all empty.
All but one.
Lee turned the corner, expecting to find only more blank walls. Instead, a bed covered with a white sheet occupied the center of the room. A body lay under the sheet. He moved forward slowly, sidearm held at the ready.
As he approached the side of the bed, he reached out a hand and pulled the sheet away. Then he swallowed hard.
The top of the skull shifted away from the body's face, rolled to the ground. Behind him, he heard retching. Gaius, he was sure.
“Galactica, this is blue team. We found Tory. She won't be coming back.”
﴿﴾
Kara had lost two marines already, and the room in front of them was full of skin jobs. Hera lay strapped to a table, screaming, and a One stood over her, yelling as loudly.
“Shut her up, I said! We don't have time!”
A four bent over the girl's head, a long needle in his hand. Kara didn't hesitate. He dropped before anyone in the room realized they'd arrived.
The One pulled a gun from his waist, aiming it first at Kara's group and then at Hera.
Kara shifted her own aim, and a dozen shots rang out as Boomer sprang up from nowhere. She hung in mid-air, her body punctured with a half dozen bullet holes, then dropped with a dull thud.
Athena ran to her daughter, unfastened the straps and picked the girl up.
The One had vanished in the time it had taken Boomer to fall.
﴿﴾
The CIC's hatch swung open, admitting sounds of gunfire and screaming wounded. Bill looked up briefly, and Laura appeared at his side. He nodded, returning his attention to the ongoing reports from Hoshi and Gaeta. This was as safe a place for Roslin as sickbay.
Lee and Kara had both succeeded, survived long enough to begin the journey back to Galactica from the heart of the Colony. Other casualties stood somewhere around forty percent, as far as he could gather. So far, his forces were holding.
“Blue team and red team report rendezvous,” Lee's voice crackled over the wireless. “Galactica in sight.”
He despised this part of command. He always had. The waiting, while others execute the plan. “Come on,” he growled. “Come home, Son.”
Laura reached out and took his hand. Together, they waited.
﴿﴾
Her daddy carried her onto the Galactica. Only a few of them were still alive, but the important ones had all made it. She didn't say anything. That was important, too. No one could find them, or there would be trouble.
Every time they heard the clank of centurions or the echo of shots, they turned away, until they were in a quiet place, where they didn't hear anything.
They weren't looking close enough. Some of the shiny ones were at the end of the hallway, and they started shooting. Her daddy dropped her as he fell. Hera screamed once, unable to hold it inside, then scampered behind a row of empty crates down the hall away from the fighting.
Someone behind her called her name.
Hera ran without looking. She didn't care where she ran, she just wanted to get away. The noise hurt her ears, and her daddy's white face scared her.
She ran and ran until her lady appeared in front of her and scooped her up.
“CIC?” her lady asked, not looking at her.
Her man nodded and answered. “That's where the others were heading.”
He sounded like she felt - like he couldn't breath.
﴿﴾
Kara dove toward the wall when the bullets started flying. Helo, movements hampered by his daughter, hadn't managed to escape. Athena rushed over to him, trying to do something to staunch the gush of blood from his thigh.
“Hera! Get Hera. Leave me!”
Kara had to agree with him. There wasn't time, and they didn't have the manpower. If any of the medics were still alive, they'd be combing the halls. She called in their position to the CIC, so that it could be communicated to sickbay. They couldn't do anything more for him.
“Come on!” She called.
A tune started playing in her head. She recognized it, knew it as if it were a part of her. It called her forward. She didn't check to make sure the others were following. They'd have to fend for themselves.
She rounded the corner and nearly ran into Sam. They looked at each other, and Sam's eyes grew round. “You can hear it, too.”
Kara nodded. Without another word, they both ran, following the music.
﴿﴾
The forest flashed around Laura, and she reached out a hand to steady herself. She blinked, trying to clear her vision. The prophesy that had haunted her dreams layered itself over and into her reality, the lights that covered the walls of the CIC flickering in and out of familiar star patterns over and over again.
The Geminon constellation flared brightly, the individual stars lost in their combined brightness, and three figures materialized out of the white light. Two adults, Gaius and Caprica Six, carrying a child.
“Hera!” She whispered the name of the child as Caprica set her down.
Hera looked at her, deep brown eyes pleading, begging for help. She reached out a small hand toward Laura.
The door closed and another figure swooped in to grab Hera, pushing Gaius and Caprica away.
“This stops now.” John Cavil's voice filled the room. “You can't win anyways, you know. We're stronger and faster and we don't get tired. We are the superior life form. If you accept that and let me walk out of here with the child, we'll let you go.”
“Lies!” Laura hissed at him.
He tightened his hold on Hera until she started crying. “Fine, then if you don't let me go, this little treasure isn't going to survive, either!” He brought his gun down to Hera's head, and the white light flared behind them once more.
A flash of blond hair beneath a black helmet ducked in behind him. A pale arm rose and fell with a sharp crack behind Cavil's ear as a darker figure snatched Hera from his arms.
Shots were being fired behind her, and Laura ducked down behind the command table. The two unknown figures stood, each holding one of Hera's hands, facing each other, forming a triangle. The two reached for each others' hands, and the woman, Laura recognized her as Kara, shone so brightly she cast the other two into shadows.
“And the Arrow of Apollo will show them the way to Earth...” Realization dawned, and tears sprang up in Laura's eyes.
Bill cried out beside her, and she looked over to find him on the floor, clutching a hand to his heavily bleeding arm.
“Bill! Oh, Bill, no!” She rushed over to him and added her own weight to his efforts, praying that it would be enough to save him.
﴿﴾
Kara held Hera's hand tightly, and looked hesitantly at Sam. She reached her arm toward him, slowly, until their fingers brushed.
The now-familiar blue-green light washed over them, and she found herself standing in a circle with Sam and a much older Hera, in the middle of the River of Life. Around them, the dead of this battle stood, looking on, waiting patiently.
Kara looked around at all the lost souls that were trying to make their way to Ellysium.
“See to them, Kara. They need you, and we have time.” Hera's mellow voice acted as a trigger, releasing Kara from her inaction. It took only a thought to show most of them the way. Only one soul remained. Racetrack, who stood watching the others walk away with a look of longing on her face.
Kara left her circle and approached Maggie. “You have a choice that they don't. You can follow them. Or you can stay behind, help us to help humanity.”
Maggie looked at her with questioning eyes.
“I don't really have any answers for you. It's about faith. The Lords of Kobol are asking you to believe that you can make a difference, protect humanity as a whole...”
“To be more than I was.” Racetrack cut her off.
“Yeah.”
Racetrack bit her lower lip, then nodded.
Kara reached out to her, touching the other woman's forehead, imparting knowledge. “Your grandmother is so proud of you,” she whispered.
Racetracks eyes shone bright with tears, and she stepped away, walking deeper into the stream, slowly at first, and then with purpose.
Kara turned back to Hera and Sam, then. “So what the frak are we doing here?”
﴿﴾
“Port, full!” Bill called out from the floor. Laura had taken off his belt and used it to help him slow down the bleeding from his arm. He pushed his hand out of her sight, so that she wouldn't see the blue tinge that now colored it.
“Close the doors! Close 'em now!” Lee hollered from the far side of the CIC. They'd repelled the Cylons who had tried to enter with them.
The ship groaned and shuddered around them, torn metal scraping against crumpled panels, tearing where it had only weakened before.
“Evacuate any compromised areas and seal them off. Keep pushing.”
They had what they'd come for. It was time to get the hell out.
﴿﴾
Hera looked downstream, into the mists that almost completely obscured Kara's vision. She focused on something Kara's eyes could not see.
“We have five. One more will join, but not yet.”
“Five complete the circle.” Sam spoke as if in a trance. “Time is short.”
Kara looked between Sam and Hera, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
“The song, Kara. The song is one of the keys. The one I taught the other four. The past and the future are the other two.” Sam looked at her with a clarity and an excitement that she'd never seen before. “This is the moment of perfect symmetry.”
“Change is the only constant. The cycle of time moves on. All of this has happened before, but it will never look the same again.” Hera turned back from the stream, looking directly into Kara. “The song came from the past, and will bring us into the future. It is the melody of life.”
Sam looked at her and smiled. “It's the song your father taught you.”
A piano appeared in the stream next to them, then disappeared again as quickly. The sheet music her father had used to teach her their song floated in front of her.
“Numbers.” She said. The notes were numbers.
﴿﴾
Laura gazed, stunned, around the room.
“If we move any farther, the anomaly is going to pull us in, sir. What are you orders?” Hoshi's usually calm voice held an edge of panic.
Gaeta sat slumped over his station, his feet in a pool of red. Bill remained slumped on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness. Saul held the comm link, communicating directly with sickbay, relaying reassignment orders. Lee ran by her, leading a small group of marines and pilots out into the hallway to attack the remaining cylons from behind.
“I have jump coordinates.” Kara called into the chaos.
Laura's head came up. Kara. She still shone like the rising sun. Their eyes met. “Do we jump?”
The Arrow of Apollo will show you the way to Earth. Her vision swirled around her, inseparable from the scene happening within the CIC. And Kara's face was radiant with hope.
Laura nodded.
﴿﴾
Kara ran to the FTL station, her fathers song running through her head. She picked a number for the first note, then filled in the string until she had entered a valid jump coordinate.
“We're caught in the anomaly's pull, sir! Orders?” Hoshi's tone made it clear they had no time for hesitation.
Kara took a deep breath, looked once more at Hera and Sam, and turned the key.
﴿﴾
Maggie sat comfortably in the midst of the River of Life. She watched as the Galactica pulled herself slowly and painfully out of the Colony. She found her Raptor, saw the hand of her corps hovering over the nuke launch button.
A lazy smile spread over her face. The Galactica flashed out of view, jumping away toward humanity's fate. Maggie reached out a hand, and tipped her bird so that her corpse's hand hit the trigger. The nuke Dryad had prepped for her flew true, and struck home.
The direct hit set off a chain of explosions that lit the sunless void for a full thirty minutes before knocking the Colony far enough out of position that it got caught in the anomaly's gravity, pulling it's full contingent of raiders, ordered to fly no more than a certain distance from the Colony no matter what happened, along with it.
Maggie shook her head proudly. “Best shot of my entire existence.”
Continue to Chapter 38.
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 36.
Chapter 37
“... Jump.” The command came over the comm link and Maggie felt the expected disorientation as Aimee executed the jump.
“Warm up the nukes, Dryad. We're goin' in hot.” They had a split second, the necessary reaction time of the computer brains they were going up against. Maggie swerved around a raider that sat directly in front of her, holding her breath as the two ships passed within inches of each other. A bright flash lit the darkness and she winced. One down.
It was a dog fight to rival what they'd experienced back in the early days after the first cylon attacks.
The bulk of the Colony floated in front of them, so huge that it entirely obscured the anomaly that she knew was there. She dodged a stream of gunfire, hoping that Galactica had made the jump safely.
As the raptor turned, they came across a second line of bullets. Racetrack's eyes went wide as she watched a row of perforations appear in her windshield. She felt her chest compress under an incredible pressure that didn't make sense along with those holes. She glanced over at Aimee, who sat with head bowed and blood dribbling from her open mouth, then looked down at her own chest.
Her vision went red. Then black. Then white.
﴿﴾
“Ahead full.” William Adama stared at the enormous red marker on the DRADIS screen, the Cylon Colony. He couldn't turn back now.
“Aye, Sir.” Gaeta answered without hesitation.
The marker grew larger, closer.
Bill muttered under his breath, “Steady.”
“It's been a pleasure to serve with you, Bill.” Saul kept his voice low. Only his CO would ever know his doubts.
Bill smiled bitterly. “I'm not done yet.” He gripped the edge of the command table, calling out, “Brace for impact!”
The ship shuddered, and the lights flickered, sparks showering down over them.
“Contact confirmed, Sir. We have penetrated the outer wall of the Colony.”
Bill pushed himself upright, nodding and rubbing a hand across his abdomen, where his body had taken the brunt of the collision. He gasped for breath. “Damage report.”
“Fires on foredecks C and D. Hull integrity compromised throughout the bow of the ship. Otherwise, we seem to be in good shape.”
“Are our people out?”
“Aye, Sir.”
“Good. Seal the affected decks and vent the O2.” He looked back up at the DRADIS, wishing it could show him a map, the locations of his people, his son. “Tell me where they board us.”
﴿﴾
Kara gritted her teeth and pushed forward. First the FTL jump, then impact with the Colony, now the nearly undeniable pull of the River. The gods had nothing if not poor timing. This time, though, they would have to wait. She looked back over her shoulder at Helo and Athena and the handful of Marines who followed them.
They stayed low, watching ahead and behind, communicating with hand signals, and relying on the microphones in their helmets only to inform Galactica of their progress.
Two toasters, one skinjob, hallway to the left, she flashed the code to those behind her. A Marine ran forward, took aim around the corner as she ducked back, and fired three times. Kara peeked once more.
Two Toasters, skinjob down. Helo did the honors this time, hardly bothering to keep under cover. She couldn't blame him. If they'd taken Elpis...
She looked around the corner one last time. All clear. Forward.
﴿﴾
Laura looked around herself. Their first injuries were fire-induced, caused by the planned collision of the battlestar with the cylon Colony. She vacillated uselessly among the injured, applying a compress here, speaking a word of encouragement there. Most of these would survive. The ones who wouldn't were already gone.
The admiral's voice crackled suddenly over the intercom. “Attention all hands. We've been boarded, A deck, fore. Repeat, we have been boarded, A deck, fore.”
“Clear these patients out of triage. Let's go, people! We need to make room for the ones who are coming.” Nurse Ishay spoke authoritatively. She was in her element here.
Laura looked down at her shaking hands. The ship's medical staff, including Dr. Simon Pierce, moved with precision and efficiency. The new battle injuries began to arrive before they'd finished.
“Gunshot wound to the calf.”
“Shrapnel in his chest.”
“He'd just taken his helmet off for a second. Just to scratch an itch...”
She watched as medics and soldiers piled through the door, left their comrades on empty stretchers, and ran back out into the fray.
She walked over to the soldier with a head wound in a daze. Picking up a damp cloth, she dabbed at the bloodied side of his skull. “You're going to be okay. Just hang on, and we'll fix you up.”
Ishay appeared at her side, taking the cloth from her hands, frowning and shaking her head. Laura backed away in shock. Useless fell short in describing what she could manage here. She was wasting their time.
She shook uncontrollably as she exited the sickbay. A quick check of her watch told her that it was time for her last dose. She pulled out the needle and stuck it into her arm, breathing deeply through the sting, then into the energy that filled her.
Command. She belonged in the command center.
﴿﴾
“What the frak was that?” Cavil shouted at the top of his lungs, and Boomer winced. She glanced surreptitiously at Hera, who cowered in a corner, trying to stay as far away from Cavil as possible.
“She's a little girl. She's terrified. Just wait! Give her a chance!” Boomer pleaded the child's case with Cavil again.
He drew back his arm, and slapped her so hard she fell to the floor, ears ringing.
“Get the girl on the table. We're doing this now.”
Boomer reached up and wiped blood from the edge of her mouth. Her hands curled into fists as she pushed herself up from the floor.
﴿﴾
One Toaster. If Lee remembered the layout correctly, he'd just led them to the very center of the Colony. These were the “guest rooms” as Ellen had referred to them. The lack of Cylon presence shocked him.
Caprica Six rounded the corner and took out the single centurion with admirable precision. Lee headed into the corridors, signaling for Gaius and the handful of Marines with them to join Caprica Six in searching the rooms. They were all empty.
All but one.
Lee turned the corner, expecting to find only more blank walls. Instead, a bed covered with a white sheet occupied the center of the room. A body lay under the sheet. He moved forward slowly, sidearm held at the ready.
As he approached the side of the bed, he reached out a hand and pulled the sheet away. Then he swallowed hard.
The top of the skull shifted away from the body's face, rolled to the ground. Behind him, he heard retching. Gaius, he was sure.
“Galactica, this is blue team. We found Tory. She won't be coming back.”
﴿﴾
Kara had lost two marines already, and the room in front of them was full of skin jobs. Hera lay strapped to a table, screaming, and a One stood over her, yelling as loudly.
“Shut her up, I said! We don't have time!”
A four bent over the girl's head, a long needle in his hand. Kara didn't hesitate. He dropped before anyone in the room realized they'd arrived.
The One pulled a gun from his waist, aiming it first at Kara's group and then at Hera.
Kara shifted her own aim, and a dozen shots rang out as Boomer sprang up from nowhere. She hung in mid-air, her body punctured with a half dozen bullet holes, then dropped with a dull thud.
Athena ran to her daughter, unfastened the straps and picked the girl up.
The One had vanished in the time it had taken Boomer to fall.
﴿﴾
The CIC's hatch swung open, admitting sounds of gunfire and screaming wounded. Bill looked up briefly, and Laura appeared at his side. He nodded, returning his attention to the ongoing reports from Hoshi and Gaeta. This was as safe a place for Roslin as sickbay.
Lee and Kara had both succeeded, survived long enough to begin the journey back to Galactica from the heart of the Colony. Other casualties stood somewhere around forty percent, as far as he could gather. So far, his forces were holding.
“Blue team and red team report rendezvous,” Lee's voice crackled over the wireless. “Galactica in sight.”
He despised this part of command. He always had. The waiting, while others execute the plan. “Come on,” he growled. “Come home, Son.”
Laura reached out and took his hand. Together, they waited.
﴿﴾
Her daddy carried her onto the Galactica. Only a few of them were still alive, but the important ones had all made it. She didn't say anything. That was important, too. No one could find them, or there would be trouble.
Every time they heard the clank of centurions or the echo of shots, they turned away, until they were in a quiet place, where they didn't hear anything.
They weren't looking close enough. Some of the shiny ones were at the end of the hallway, and they started shooting. Her daddy dropped her as he fell. Hera screamed once, unable to hold it inside, then scampered behind a row of empty crates down the hall away from the fighting.
Someone behind her called her name.
Hera ran without looking. She didn't care where she ran, she just wanted to get away. The noise hurt her ears, and her daddy's white face scared her.
She ran and ran until her lady appeared in front of her and scooped her up.
“CIC?” her lady asked, not looking at her.
Her man nodded and answered. “That's where the others were heading.”
He sounded like she felt - like he couldn't breath.
﴿﴾
Kara dove toward the wall when the bullets started flying. Helo, movements hampered by his daughter, hadn't managed to escape. Athena rushed over to him, trying to do something to staunch the gush of blood from his thigh.
“Hera! Get Hera. Leave me!”
Kara had to agree with him. There wasn't time, and they didn't have the manpower. If any of the medics were still alive, they'd be combing the halls. She called in their position to the CIC, so that it could be communicated to sickbay. They couldn't do anything more for him.
“Come on!” She called.
A tune started playing in her head. She recognized it, knew it as if it were a part of her. It called her forward. She didn't check to make sure the others were following. They'd have to fend for themselves.
She rounded the corner and nearly ran into Sam. They looked at each other, and Sam's eyes grew round. “You can hear it, too.”
Kara nodded. Without another word, they both ran, following the music.
﴿﴾
The forest flashed around Laura, and she reached out a hand to steady herself. She blinked, trying to clear her vision. The prophesy that had haunted her dreams layered itself over and into her reality, the lights that covered the walls of the CIC flickering in and out of familiar star patterns over and over again.
The Geminon constellation flared brightly, the individual stars lost in their combined brightness, and three figures materialized out of the white light. Two adults, Gaius and Caprica Six, carrying a child.
“Hera!” She whispered the name of the child as Caprica set her down.
Hera looked at her, deep brown eyes pleading, begging for help. She reached out a small hand toward Laura.
The door closed and another figure swooped in to grab Hera, pushing Gaius and Caprica away.
“This stops now.” John Cavil's voice filled the room. “You can't win anyways, you know. We're stronger and faster and we don't get tired. We are the superior life form. If you accept that and let me walk out of here with the child, we'll let you go.”
“Lies!” Laura hissed at him.
He tightened his hold on Hera until she started crying. “Fine, then if you don't let me go, this little treasure isn't going to survive, either!” He brought his gun down to Hera's head, and the white light flared behind them once more.
A flash of blond hair beneath a black helmet ducked in behind him. A pale arm rose and fell with a sharp crack behind Cavil's ear as a darker figure snatched Hera from his arms.
Shots were being fired behind her, and Laura ducked down behind the command table. The two unknown figures stood, each holding one of Hera's hands, facing each other, forming a triangle. The two reached for each others' hands, and the woman, Laura recognized her as Kara, shone so brightly she cast the other two into shadows.
“And the Arrow of Apollo will show them the way to Earth...” Realization dawned, and tears sprang up in Laura's eyes.
Bill cried out beside her, and she looked over to find him on the floor, clutching a hand to his heavily bleeding arm.
“Bill! Oh, Bill, no!” She rushed over to him and added her own weight to his efforts, praying that it would be enough to save him.
﴿﴾
Kara held Hera's hand tightly, and looked hesitantly at Sam. She reached her arm toward him, slowly, until their fingers brushed.
The now-familiar blue-green light washed over them, and she found herself standing in a circle with Sam and a much older Hera, in the middle of the River of Life. Around them, the dead of this battle stood, looking on, waiting patiently.
Kara looked around at all the lost souls that were trying to make their way to Ellysium.
“See to them, Kara. They need you, and we have time.” Hera's mellow voice acted as a trigger, releasing Kara from her inaction. It took only a thought to show most of them the way. Only one soul remained. Racetrack, who stood watching the others walk away with a look of longing on her face.
Kara left her circle and approached Maggie. “You have a choice that they don't. You can follow them. Or you can stay behind, help us to help humanity.”
Maggie looked at her with questioning eyes.
“I don't really have any answers for you. It's about faith. The Lords of Kobol are asking you to believe that you can make a difference, protect humanity as a whole...”
“To be more than I was.” Racetrack cut her off.
“Yeah.”
Racetrack bit her lower lip, then nodded.
Kara reached out to her, touching the other woman's forehead, imparting knowledge. “Your grandmother is so proud of you,” she whispered.
Racetracks eyes shone bright with tears, and she stepped away, walking deeper into the stream, slowly at first, and then with purpose.
Kara turned back to Hera and Sam, then. “So what the frak are we doing here?”
﴿﴾
“Port, full!” Bill called out from the floor. Laura had taken off his belt and used it to help him slow down the bleeding from his arm. He pushed his hand out of her sight, so that she wouldn't see the blue tinge that now colored it.
“Close the doors! Close 'em now!” Lee hollered from the far side of the CIC. They'd repelled the Cylons who had tried to enter with them.
The ship groaned and shuddered around them, torn metal scraping against crumpled panels, tearing where it had only weakened before.
“Evacuate any compromised areas and seal them off. Keep pushing.”
They had what they'd come for. It was time to get the hell out.
﴿﴾
Hera looked downstream, into the mists that almost completely obscured Kara's vision. She focused on something Kara's eyes could not see.
“We have five. One more will join, but not yet.”
“Five complete the circle.” Sam spoke as if in a trance. “Time is short.”
Kara looked between Sam and Hera, trying to figure out what they were talking about.
“The song, Kara. The song is one of the keys. The one I taught the other four. The past and the future are the other two.” Sam looked at her with a clarity and an excitement that she'd never seen before. “This is the moment of perfect symmetry.”
“Change is the only constant. The cycle of time moves on. All of this has happened before, but it will never look the same again.” Hera turned back from the stream, looking directly into Kara. “The song came from the past, and will bring us into the future. It is the melody of life.”
Sam looked at her and smiled. “It's the song your father taught you.”
A piano appeared in the stream next to them, then disappeared again as quickly. The sheet music her father had used to teach her their song floated in front of her.
“Numbers.” She said. The notes were numbers.
﴿﴾
Laura gazed, stunned, around the room.
“If we move any farther, the anomaly is going to pull us in, sir. What are you orders?” Hoshi's usually calm voice held an edge of panic.
Gaeta sat slumped over his station, his feet in a pool of red. Bill remained slumped on the floor, drifting in and out of consciousness. Saul held the comm link, communicating directly with sickbay, relaying reassignment orders. Lee ran by her, leading a small group of marines and pilots out into the hallway to attack the remaining cylons from behind.
“I have jump coordinates.” Kara called into the chaos.
Laura's head came up. Kara. She still shone like the rising sun. Their eyes met. “Do we jump?”
The Arrow of Apollo will show you the way to Earth. Her vision swirled around her, inseparable from the scene happening within the CIC. And Kara's face was radiant with hope.
Laura nodded.
﴿﴾
Kara ran to the FTL station, her fathers song running through her head. She picked a number for the first note, then filled in the string until she had entered a valid jump coordinate.
“We're caught in the anomaly's pull, sir! Orders?” Hoshi's tone made it clear they had no time for hesitation.
Kara took a deep breath, looked once more at Hera and Sam, and turned the key.
﴿﴾
Maggie sat comfortably in the midst of the River of Life. She watched as the Galactica pulled herself slowly and painfully out of the Colony. She found her Raptor, saw the hand of her corps hovering over the nuke launch button.
A lazy smile spread over her face. The Galactica flashed out of view, jumping away toward humanity's fate. Maggie reached out a hand, and tipped her bird so that her corpse's hand hit the trigger. The nuke Dryad had prepped for her flew true, and struck home.
The direct hit set off a chain of explosions that lit the sunless void for a full thirty minutes before knocking the Colony far enough out of position that it got caught in the anomaly's gravity, pulling it's full contingent of raiders, ordered to fly no more than a certain distance from the Colony no matter what happened, along with it.
Maggie shook her head proudly. “Best shot of my entire existence.”
Continue to Chapter 38.