Fic - "We Needed Her"
Here's part 20 of Alpha and Omega - I am 20% done on the fanfic100 challenge. I will also be fixing links in my table tonight thanks to jarodrussell
Title - " We Needed Her"
Fandom - Battlestar Galactica
Characters - Kara Thrace/Felix Gaeta
Prompt - Colourless 020
Word Count - 1059
Summary - It's after Admiral Cain's funeral and people are having thoughts
No one ever went down to the museum any more. Gaeta supposed that at some point, they would have to tear down the exhibits and actually use the port landing deck for landing ships, but no one had the time to bother. It wasn’t a high priority when they had so few Vipers, but he had seen the specs on the Pegasus. Their metal shop had the supplies and the ability to build more Vipers so eventually he figured they would need to reopen the port landing deck, but it was a long way off. In the mean time, the museum was where he went to find old parts. What he needed was wrapped cable, and he was pretty certain he could find it in one of the exhibits. There was a lot of junk that he and Dualla had made useful over the last few months.
It was also generally a lot quieter. Everyone was still somber from the funeral for Admiral Cain to begin with, but quiet places on the Galactica were rare. He wasn’t exactly saddened over Cain’s death, and he was certain that the commander was secretly pleased that the woman was dead and not by his hand, but the long term ramifications were going to be unpleasant. Gaeta didn’t trust Fisk. Fisk and his marine death squad had been seconds away from opening fire. There had been a moment where he was certain that he was going to have to shoot Fisk. Putting that man in charge after Cain was like removing a despot and replacing her with a crooked thief. It was going to end badly. He was just glad that being assigned to the Pegasus was no longer a possibility.
The port landing deck wasn’t off limits but he rarely saw anyone there except for the occasional couple using a private corner for a tryst or one of Chief Tyrol’s people doing the same thing he was doing, scrounging for parts. However, for a change, the empty landing deck wasn’t quiet.
Instead, he could hear the gentle tinkling of piano music, a real piano at that, and not a synthesizer. A few people on the crew had small keyboards, and he’d heard that there was an actual piano somewhere on the Cloud Nine, but he had never seen it. He hadn’t even heard music, real music, being played out loud since the party on Cloud Nine on Colonial Day.
It was good too. He liked music despite lacking the talent to produce it. There was just no time in any day to find music and listen to it. He had a player, and a few clear, colorless recording disks with music, but the batteries had died months ago and he hadn’t taken the time to replace them. He followed the sound, enjoying how the empty deck seemed to reverberate. The music itself seemed to fit his mood too, sad and worried and yet still hopeful.
There was a part of him that was surprised to find Kara sitting on the floor of the Cylon centurian exhibit, her eyes closed. She opened them when he stepped onto the ragged carpet that had been torn when they had broken into the Mark II exhibit to use the Vipers back during the attack on the colonies.
“ It’s you,” she said simply. “ I wanted to be alone. What are you doing down here?” She closed her eyes. The lighting was bad, but he was certain he could see the tracks of tears on her face.
In other words, it wasn’t a good time to ask where she had gotten the music. “ I was looking for wrapped copper wire. Have you seen any?”
She wiped her face, and leaned back against the display case she was sitting by. “ You’re on duty. Of course you’re on duty.” She spit it out like she was angry, although her expression of calm didn’t change.
“ We’re always on duty,” he said easily. “That’s part of the job.”
“Is this how you planned your career?” She opened her eyes again, and looked at him. “Really?”
He shrugged. “ I thought there would be less mutiny to worry about. Fewer religious quests, and assassination plots. I also expected better food for some reason.” He waved his hands expansively. “ I clearly didn’t consider the odds of a world destroying attack by the Cylons enough.”
After a moment, she laughed. “ You make me laugh, Felix. Do you think Cain being dead is going to help anything?”
“ No… not in the long run.” He hesitated. It was easy to be critical when he wasn’t in charge. At the same time, he wasn’t an officer because all he could do was follow orders. Part of his job, a big part, was thinking for others. “ It’s good that she’s gone because she was never going to treat the situation like a defeat. We’ve lost. There’s no way two battlestars are going to turn this around, and Admiral Cain… wasn’t overly concerned about the civilian fleet.” That was being diplomatic. Cain was a monster. He had no doubt that the admiral would have taken everything worth taking and every person worth taking and left the rest to the Cylons. But… “ Cain was right on some things. Are we going to run forever? It felt good to do something other than run, and I think the president and the commander lose sight of that.”
Kara nodded. “ We needed her. Or someone like her.” She waved him away. “ I saw some wire down by the gift ship.”
“Are you all right?” he asked after a moment. She worried him, acting like this. If he hadn’t signed up to handle mutinies, that was no surprise, but he truly doubted that she had signed up to be an assassin. “ At least you didn’t have to… you know…”
“ But I would have. I was ready to. Even though I thought the commander was wrong.” She closed her eyes again. “ I want to be alone, right now, Felix. It’s not you, if there was anyone I could deal with without punching them in the face, it’d be you, but I can’t. So leave me alone.”
He nodded and backed away. It had been a bad few days for everyone.
Feel free to comment
Title - " We Needed Her"
Fandom - Battlestar Galactica
Characters - Kara Thrace/Felix Gaeta
Prompt - Colourless 020
Word Count - 1059
Summary - It's after Admiral Cain's funeral and people are having thoughts
No one ever went down to the museum any more. Gaeta supposed that at some point, they would have to tear down the exhibits and actually use the port landing deck for landing ships, but no one had the time to bother. It wasn’t a high priority when they had so few Vipers, but he had seen the specs on the Pegasus. Their metal shop had the supplies and the ability to build more Vipers so eventually he figured they would need to reopen the port landing deck, but it was a long way off. In the mean time, the museum was where he went to find old parts. What he needed was wrapped cable, and he was pretty certain he could find it in one of the exhibits. There was a lot of junk that he and Dualla had made useful over the last few months.
It was also generally a lot quieter. Everyone was still somber from the funeral for Admiral Cain to begin with, but quiet places on the Galactica were rare. He wasn’t exactly saddened over Cain’s death, and he was certain that the commander was secretly pleased that the woman was dead and not by his hand, but the long term ramifications were going to be unpleasant. Gaeta didn’t trust Fisk. Fisk and his marine death squad had been seconds away from opening fire. There had been a moment where he was certain that he was going to have to shoot Fisk. Putting that man in charge after Cain was like removing a despot and replacing her with a crooked thief. It was going to end badly. He was just glad that being assigned to the Pegasus was no longer a possibility.
The port landing deck wasn’t off limits but he rarely saw anyone there except for the occasional couple using a private corner for a tryst or one of Chief Tyrol’s people doing the same thing he was doing, scrounging for parts. However, for a change, the empty landing deck wasn’t quiet.
Instead, he could hear the gentle tinkling of piano music, a real piano at that, and not a synthesizer. A few people on the crew had small keyboards, and he’d heard that there was an actual piano somewhere on the Cloud Nine, but he had never seen it. He hadn’t even heard music, real music, being played out loud since the party on Cloud Nine on Colonial Day.
It was good too. He liked music despite lacking the talent to produce it. There was just no time in any day to find music and listen to it. He had a player, and a few clear, colorless recording disks with music, but the batteries had died months ago and he hadn’t taken the time to replace them. He followed the sound, enjoying how the empty deck seemed to reverberate. The music itself seemed to fit his mood too, sad and worried and yet still hopeful.
There was a part of him that was surprised to find Kara sitting on the floor of the Cylon centurian exhibit, her eyes closed. She opened them when he stepped onto the ragged carpet that had been torn when they had broken into the Mark II exhibit to use the Vipers back during the attack on the colonies.
“ It’s you,” she said simply. “ I wanted to be alone. What are you doing down here?” She closed her eyes. The lighting was bad, but he was certain he could see the tracks of tears on her face.
In other words, it wasn’t a good time to ask where she had gotten the music. “ I was looking for wrapped copper wire. Have you seen any?”
She wiped her face, and leaned back against the display case she was sitting by. “ You’re on duty. Of course you’re on duty.” She spit it out like she was angry, although her expression of calm didn’t change.
“ We’re always on duty,” he said easily. “That’s part of the job.”
“Is this how you planned your career?” She opened her eyes again, and looked at him. “Really?”
He shrugged. “ I thought there would be less mutiny to worry about. Fewer religious quests, and assassination plots. I also expected better food for some reason.” He waved his hands expansively. “ I clearly didn’t consider the odds of a world destroying attack by the Cylons enough.”
After a moment, she laughed. “ You make me laugh, Felix. Do you think Cain being dead is going to help anything?”
“ No… not in the long run.” He hesitated. It was easy to be critical when he wasn’t in charge. At the same time, he wasn’t an officer because all he could do was follow orders. Part of his job, a big part, was thinking for others. “ It’s good that she’s gone because she was never going to treat the situation like a defeat. We’ve lost. There’s no way two battlestars are going to turn this around, and Admiral Cain… wasn’t overly concerned about the civilian fleet.” That was being diplomatic. Cain was a monster. He had no doubt that the admiral would have taken everything worth taking and every person worth taking and left the rest to the Cylons. But… “ Cain was right on some things. Are we going to run forever? It felt good to do something other than run, and I think the president and the commander lose sight of that.”
Kara nodded. “ We needed her. Or someone like her.” She waved him away. “ I saw some wire down by the gift ship.”
“Are you all right?” he asked after a moment. She worried him, acting like this. If he hadn’t signed up to handle mutinies, that was no surprise, but he truly doubted that she had signed up to be an assassin. “ At least you didn’t have to… you know…”
“ But I would have. I was ready to. Even though I thought the commander was wrong.” She closed her eyes again. “ I want to be alone, right now, Felix. It’s not you, if there was anyone I could deal with without punching them in the face, it’d be you, but I can’t. So leave me alone.”
He nodded and backed away. It had been a bad few days for everyone.
Feel free to comment