BSG: Forever Is Our Today
Title: BSG: Forever Is Our Today
Author: lobselvith8
Characters: Sharon Valerii, Natalie
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: 3.1 "The Occupation"
Summary: A glimmer of hope on New Caprica
Beta: cytaylor
"We need to stop being butchers!" - Sharon Valerii, The Occupation
Sharon Valerii stood at the heart of the Cylon occupation of New Caprica, shadowed by Colonial One and the Heavy Raiders that surrounded it. Cylon Raiders pieced through the dark skies above, looming overhead like an ocean of stars. Her eyes remained focused on the heavens as her right hand unconsciously grasped at the last vestige of her old life; the familiar dog-tags in her hand bled their cold exterior onto her numbed, bare fingertips, giving her the illusion of a humanity that the Cylons stripped away more than a year ago. Her mind focused on New Caprica, the bustle of Cylon transports that brought all seven models to the planet despite the grievances and misgivings of some, the life of powerful Centurions and hurried Cylons walking past her along the green zone of New Caprica that her people made their own. The paved streets and hurried traffic sped by with the focused white lights of New Caprica Police patrolling the tents beyond, illuminating the pitch black of the red zone where humans were causalities of insurgents and hunger alike.
To her left, Sharon saw a Six watching her, her sapphire blues eyes and long, dark blonde hair and black attire contrasted against the white light shining above her that seemed to cascade against her. The Six gave Sharon some idea of how she might appear to the human populace at night in the Cylon light, surreal and ethereal, as something that didn’t belong in their natural world but remained regardless. Sharon turned her gaze towards the humans, huddling together towards a fire, frightened, hungry, desperate, and very cold. She wondered if things would change if she explained why they were here, if she revealed what Simon had deduced: that the remnants of humanity would cease in three generations, unless there was a merging between the species. Human and Cylon was the key. But it was Cavil who thought that this revelation would cause more chaos, more disorder, making their attempts to rein the dangerous elements of the human population more unmanageable.
The Six moved into the darkness, as if she were some ethereal spirit who faded back into the great unknown. Sharon guessed she wouldn't see her again, disillusioned with the rest of the Cylons who were beginning to think that New Caprica was an experiment that had already failed. Sharon couldn't believed that, couldn’t resign herself to the death of humanity because the Cylons were too cold to understand humanity. As cold as midnight, as cold as death, as cold as this night that slowly bled into every human heart on New Caprica that saw the Cylons as intruders instead of liberators.
Curious, Sharon walked into the darkness, her steps drifting against the bitter cold tugging at her. She walked towards the illumination of the post where the Six once stood, wondering whether the person blamed her for this blight, or if she thought Sharon should have been boxed on the bleak and cinder world of Caprica like the Threes had contemplated. She had heard the whispers from the Threes since the insurgency gained ground, talking about placing her memories into cold storage, although whether or not the Threes had intended Sharon to overhear was another matter entirely. The memory fragmented against the thought of Tyrol and Cally together as she cut herself from the memories to look around, feeling nothing but the bitter wind tear against her skin, her hair flowing with the current.
Sharon found warmth in her projection, in the primal fire of an imaged reality of what New Caprica could be - a capital nestled in the heart of a world where human and Cylon lived in peace, honoring the memory of their mistakes but blazing a path toward the future. An imagined reality that seemed to fade further from reality as each day passed, and more bloodshed and mayhem continued. Sharon had known it would likely end like this, smiling sadly at the thought that one day, humanity would be a cultural memory of the Cylon, something the Seven would talk about when they became the progenitors of a new race of Cylon.
“A cubit for your thoughts?” the Six asked as she walked out of the darkness.
Sharon held her breath for a second, energized by the sudden presence of her mysterious Six. “Who are you?” Sharon asked, expecting her to give her numerical name as most of the others typically did.
“My name is Natalie,” she said confidently, “and I wanted to speak to you.”
“Why?” Sharon asked, resigned to hear Natalie berate her for landing on this planet instead of destroying it like Cavil suggested. She could hear his voice now, full of theatrical energy as he enthusiastically said they should ‘eliminate the human pestilence once and for all.’ Maybe this Six wanted her to endure the same, Sharon thought with amused fatalism.
“I’ve been talking to some of the other Sixes, Eights, and Twos,” Natalie said with a smile. “We even have some Fours and Fives on our side. We’ve heard about your disagreements during the meetings, your ideas about integration…”
“Nobody seems too interested in those right now,” Sharon belatedly responded. “I think Doral’s idea about the Resistance losing ground with the people if we gave everyone toilet paper carries more weight in those meetings than my ideas.”
“Not everyone thinks like that,” Natalie said softly. “You were the one who convinced us that the war against humanity was a mistake. You had the courage to say what no one else did. Those of us who were in the Twelve Colonies… we saw a different side of humanity, but we were afraid to say anything. You did, and we think that we’d be able to change things if you represented us in the next meeting.”
“It’d help to have another voice in the meeting,” Sharon responded. “You’ve met these other Cylons, you understand them. Caprica Six and I have tried to get them to listen, but the rest of them think she’s comprised, because of Baltar.” Sharon said sadly.
“I understand,” Natalie responded. “But this wouldn’t be two war heroes voicing their opinion against the war; this would be groups of models going against their line. Cylons have never voted against their line before. What we’re discussing would be… radical.”
Sharon smiled, feeling a tiny ray of hope as her projection of New Caprica faded, and her dream of New Caprica bubbled to the surface. “All right,” she said. “Meet me in one hour, in front of Colonial One. We can talk about how we’ll present this to the rest of them - how we’ll convince them to accept these ideas.”
“We can do this,” Natalie said as she ran two cold fingers along Sharon's numb cheeks and smiled, lingering on her chin before letting them drop. Placing her hand to her side and turning, Natalie was gone, vanishing into the distant lamp lights and darkness ahead. Sharon held her hand to the side of her face where Natalie had brushed her, leaving a breath of warmth. Sharon dropped her hand to her side and looked above at the night sky, Cylon Heavy Raiders dotting the empyrean. For the first time since they found this world, she felt hopeful about the dream of New Caprica.