BSG Fic: Never Enough (15minuteficlets Challenge: Word #124)
I've never done the Fifteen Minute Ficlet Challenge but it sounded intriguing. The rules are: One word. Fifteen minutes. You see the word. You write - anything you want on any topic. For 15 minutes. You post. You're done. Do not go over 15 minutes and do not look at the word before you start.
My 15 minute ficlet based on Word #124 is behind the cut, and the entry posted here to 15minuteficlets.
Title: Never Enough
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (of course)
Set just after episode 9, "Flight of the Phoenix" and so there are spoilers up until that point.
Word #124
Note: sabaceanbabe has written a much better version of the CIC scene and you can read it here.
"Officers - take this thing back to its cell".
Sharon remained crouched on the ground, perspiration cooling on her face, the blood trickling from the slash in her palm which had developed in the space of seconds from a sharp pain to a throbbing agony.
That pain was nothing compared to the pain she felt when she heard Adama's words.
She kept her face expressionless, her eyes meeting his. His face was impassive.
Again ... again ..... The gun pointed at her head again, Tigh shouting at Adama to do it, to kill her, that she had double-crossed them. Adama hadn't killed her, though. This was the second time that he had held a gun but had not killed her. Why had he hesitated? Did he still remember?
Sharon closed her eyes as they cuffed her wrists again, bound her ankles and reattached the metal rod to her collar. She shuffled down the corridor, no one in CIC even caring that her palm was still bleeding, the red blood staining her hands and cuffs.
"Make sure Doc Cottle fixes her hand up," Adama called out abruptly but when Sharon turned her head to look at him sharply, he had turned away again. If she had been Leoben or Doral ... would he have shot her?
Pain washed over her again. Dee staring at her with such shocked wariness ... only sweet, awkward Gaeta and his thoughtless use of her name before he cut it off....
Her name .... would she ever hear anyone call her by her name again? Would the word only ever come from Helo's lips? For everyone else it was that thing ... Cylon .... that creature... her ... the Cylon prisoner ... Toaster, the prisoner ....
It hurt. She understood why they did this. The thing was, she had no memory of pulling the trigger on Adama, no memory of so many of the devastating actions of her predecessor.
Her own memories of Adama were warm ... tinged with love and comfort. He was like the father of all of them, particularly Sharon whose family had in every practical sense been the Galactica fleet.
The Old Man had always had a kind word and a smile for her. Even though she wasn't as brilliant or flamboyant as Starbuck, he had appreciated her for her quiet and conscientious dedication to her work. He had smiled at her and called her dependable, and from Adama that wasn't damning you with faint praise.
He had known the name of each of his people ....
Thing.
It was a cold shock even though she was expecting it to see the warmth in his eyes vanish and become filled with hate. This was the legacy of her former self, a self she had never really known. Had the other Sharon felt so lost and alone on Galactica towards the end? Had the world she loved disappeared around her until she was left gasping and choking on the air in her lungs? Looking at the way the Chief looked at her now, it would appear that the two had not parted on good terms so at the end of all things she had even been without the man she loved.
Sharon tried to summon up hatred for the people who held her captive. There was no thanks or gratitude in humans....
Doctor Cottle entered and to her surprise there was no hostility in his eyes. He merely sat beside her and attended to her injury, his words low and conversational, apologising for hurting her even though not a flicker of emotion or pain crossed her face despite what she felt within. To the eye, she was the cold, heartless machine they thought she was.
When he left, Sharon stared down at the snowy white bandage. She couldn't hate them. It didn't work that way ....
She closed her eyes. "Were you scared ... were you frightened?" She wondered. "I have Helo .... did you have ... anybody?" A tear slid down Sharon's cheek despite herself. She brushed it away, deploring the human weakness. She stared at the moisture on her fingertips. She wondered whether human sorrow felt more painful than what she was feeling. She'd never know. She wasn't human, she'd never been human. All she knew was that she felt pain and remorse for something she had never done or known and she felt sorry for the girl she had never been.
"I know you must have felt lost ... You never knew who or what you were ..... I know who and what we are ... " She knew that the person she had been and the person she was now, felt pain at the response of their former family. How quickly fond, gentle feelings and memories could convert to hate and bitterness which tainted everything.
"You can count on me .... I'll leave a new legacy behind for us ..." she whispered to her former self, and it was a promise she intended to keep.
The End
My 15 minute ficlet based on Word #124 is behind the cut, and the entry posted here to 15minuteficlets.
Title: Never Enough
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (of course)
Set just after episode 9, "Flight of the Phoenix" and so there are spoilers up until that point.
Word #124
Note: sabaceanbabe has written a much better version of the CIC scene and you can read it here.
"Officers - take this thing back to its cell".
Sharon remained crouched on the ground, perspiration cooling on her face, the blood trickling from the slash in her palm which had developed in the space of seconds from a sharp pain to a throbbing agony.
That pain was nothing compared to the pain she felt when she heard Adama's words.
She kept her face expressionless, her eyes meeting his. His face was impassive.
Again ... again ..... The gun pointed at her head again, Tigh shouting at Adama to do it, to kill her, that she had double-crossed them. Adama hadn't killed her, though. This was the second time that he had held a gun but had not killed her. Why had he hesitated? Did he still remember?
Sharon closed her eyes as they cuffed her wrists again, bound her ankles and reattached the metal rod to her collar. She shuffled down the corridor, no one in CIC even caring that her palm was still bleeding, the red blood staining her hands and cuffs.
"Make sure Doc Cottle fixes her hand up," Adama called out abruptly but when Sharon turned her head to look at him sharply, he had turned away again. If she had been Leoben or Doral ... would he have shot her?
Pain washed over her again. Dee staring at her with such shocked wariness ... only sweet, awkward Gaeta and his thoughtless use of her name before he cut it off....
Her name .... would she ever hear anyone call her by her name again? Would the word only ever come from Helo's lips? For everyone else it was that thing ... Cylon .... that creature... her ... the Cylon prisoner ... Toaster, the prisoner ....
It hurt. She understood why they did this. The thing was, she had no memory of pulling the trigger on Adama, no memory of so many of the devastating actions of her predecessor.
Her own memories of Adama were warm ... tinged with love and comfort. He was like the father of all of them, particularly Sharon whose family had in every practical sense been the Galactica fleet.
The Old Man had always had a kind word and a smile for her. Even though she wasn't as brilliant or flamboyant as Starbuck, he had appreciated her for her quiet and conscientious dedication to her work. He had smiled at her and called her dependable, and from Adama that wasn't damning you with faint praise.
He had known the name of each of his people ....
Thing.
It was a cold shock even though she was expecting it to see the warmth in his eyes vanish and become filled with hate. This was the legacy of her former self, a self she had never really known. Had the other Sharon felt so lost and alone on Galactica towards the end? Had the world she loved disappeared around her until she was left gasping and choking on the air in her lungs? Looking at the way the Chief looked at her now, it would appear that the two had not parted on good terms so at the end of all things she had even been without the man she loved.
Sharon tried to summon up hatred for the people who held her captive. There was no thanks or gratitude in humans....
Doctor Cottle entered and to her surprise there was no hostility in his eyes. He merely sat beside her and attended to her injury, his words low and conversational, apologising for hurting her even though not a flicker of emotion or pain crossed her face despite what she felt within. To the eye, she was the cold, heartless machine they thought she was.
When he left, Sharon stared down at the snowy white bandage. She couldn't hate them. It didn't work that way ....
She closed her eyes. "Were you scared ... were you frightened?" She wondered. "I have Helo .... did you have ... anybody?" A tear slid down Sharon's cheek despite herself. She brushed it away, deploring the human weakness. She stared at the moisture on her fingertips. She wondered whether human sorrow felt more painful than what she was feeling. She'd never know. She wasn't human, she'd never been human. All she knew was that she felt pain and remorse for something she had never done or known and she felt sorry for the girl she had never been.
"I know you must have felt lost ... You never knew who or what you were ..... I know who and what we are ... " She knew that the person she had been and the person she was now, felt pain at the response of their former family. How quickly fond, gentle feelings and memories could convert to hate and bitterness which tainted everything.
"You can count on me .... I'll leave a new legacy behind for us ..." she whispered to her former self, and it was a promise she intended to keep.
The End