Fic: Edge 7/30
Author: Lurker2209
Spoilers: Through Razor, a few references to S4. Nothing for 4.5
Characters/pairing: OC heavy, ultimately K/L
Warnings: This chapter is rated PG-13, as a whole the story is R, for mature themes, violence, profanity, etc
Disclaimer: The show belongs to Ron and Sci-fi, et al. But Petra is all mine!
Summary: What if rough patches are all you’ve ever known? For more a decade the fleet has wandered the wilderness of stars. The hope of promised Earth dims. Destruction seems inevitable, either by the overwhelming force of the cylon armada, or the ravage of cold space. Humanity grows desperate, none so desperate as young Petra Thrace. Survival is a game she knows well, even if it is always rigged against her. “If you wanna to survive here, you gotta always remember one thing: Nobody gives a frak.”
Cross-posted: to beyond_insane and bsg2003fics
A/N: This post ends Chapter Two. The first post of Chapter Three should be up within two weeks, if not sooner. Each of the chapters will be three or four posts, due to their length.
Thanks goes to artemis90 and uberscribbler for being awesome beta's. Also for everyone who has ever commented on the story. You are all awesome!
Previous Chapters
Chapter 1, Orphans: A, B, C
Chapter 2, Sharps: A, B, C
Part D
I sat on the bottom step of the stairs I was cuffed to, trying to ignore the knot in my stomach. FleetSec had just shot a man for yelling about freedom or something. And they thought I was a bomber. What would they do to me? The crowd that stood nearby seemed just as scared as I was. Hardly anyone even whispered. Most of them didn’t even look around; they just focused on the ground.
Lane returned a few minutes later, with the FleetSec Sergeant in tow. The Sergeant was an older, heavy man with a bald spot in the middle of his head. He ignored the frightened crowd and looked at me skeptically.
“Do your parents live here?” He asked.
“They’re dead.” I didn’t elaborate. Insisting I was sixteen wouldn’t get me anywhere, but involving the Child Welfare System wasn’t going to help. Either way I was on my own.
“Are you sure you saw her at the scene?” the Sergeant asked Lane.
“I’m positive. It was her. Looked just like her: blonde hair, right height, school uniform. She was running away from the office where the bomb was set off.”
“I wasn’t there. I swear. I was talking to the Recruiter.”
“The Recruiting Office doesn’t open until eight. Where were you before?”
“In a bathroom.”
“And before that?”
“I was in there all night,” I admitted. “I didn’t have anywhere else to sleep.”
The Sergeant shook his head, as if all girls who slept in bathrooms had to be criminals. “Lane, I’m going to trust your gut on this one. Put her on the transport. Adama wants to question any suspects himself on the auxiliary office on Colonial One.”
Adama. Not the Old Man, but Lee. The man who created chaos. No way did I want to see Lee. I never knew what to expect from him. Some days, back when my mother had been alive, we’d run into him and he’d be friendly and kind. And then there were the days when he would simply pretend we didn’t exist; he’d walk past me and Mom while we were on leave and act as if we were invisible. At her memorial, I’d clung to him and cried and cried and cried. That was the last time I saw him. I was not going to let them haul me into his office and accuse me of being a terrorist. I couldn’t handle that. Besides, if Lee had wanted to see me he would have found me.
Lane uncuffed me from the stairwell as a shuttle descended into the hangar bay on the large flight elevator. At least the trip might give me a chance to get out of this mess. There had to be a way out. I looked around, desperate for any form of escape that might make itself apparent. The shuttle they marched me to was old, like everything else. The idling engines sounded like the timing was off; whoever last serviced this hunk of junk had done a really lousy job. Inside the cabin had the usual rows of tattered seats. It looked like it would hold about 20 to 25 people, but right now it was empty. For the first time in my life I was a VIP. But Lane escorted me past the larger seats in first class to the very back of the shuttle and cuffed me to the window seat.
“You’re gonna wish you just told me everything when Adama’s through with you,” he threatened. He was probably right, but I didn’t plan on letting that happen, so I said nothing. He waited for a minute for me to suddenly confess and then gave up and walked off the shuttle. I waited for a few minutes, wondering how long this would take.
The cabin’s hatch opened again with a bang, and I winced as the hinges shrieked in response. The bearded cop came first, followed by a shabby-looking bunch of ‘detainees’. They packed into the rows ahead of us, cramming four or five people into the three seats in each row. Parents clutched their children in their laps. FleetSec was in a hurry, cramming this many people into each shuttle. Sure looked like the Thin Man had been right. I didn’t see any rich people who were ‘security risks’. None of the others got cuffed to the seats. I guessed I was the only ‘suspect.’ FleetSec was just getting them off the Star, out of sight. The politicians and businessmen would at least feel safer.
Then I saw Simon. His eyes widened as they met mine, but then he looked away. To my surprise, he took the aisle seat beside me. I ignored him. I wasn’t supposed to know him, so talking to him about anything could be dangerous with the officers not that far away. And what would I say anyway?
“I guess I thought you’d have made it off-ship by now,” Simon whispered, eyes ahead. Apparently he didn’t share my compulsion for silence.
“I guess I got held up,” No way would I tell him I’d decided to join the Fleet and gotten rejected. Besides, I was still pissed at him.
“Why are you handcuffed?”
I shrugged. “Some delusional FleetSec officer saw a blonde girl at the scene of the bombing. He found me a few decks up and thinks I’m her. It’s a mistake. I wasn’t even near the President’s Office on the Star.”
“You can’t use me as an alibi. Don’t even mention my name,” Simon said.
Jerk.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I said sharply.
“No, I mean, if you tell them I’m involved, and they figure out who I am, you’ll only look more guilty.” He paused. “I’m one of The Forgotten.”
I gasped. The Forgotten were left on New Caprica years ago. They’d been cylon prisoners for years until the Old Man had traded two hundred of them for a Six, the one who called herself Caprica. A lot of the Forgotten had been prisoners of the cylons for so long, they switched sides. Rumor was The Forgotten held high positions in the Soldiers of Perfection. I should have figured it from just Simon’s name-who else named their kid after a cylon?
“So what now, you kill me to keep me quiet?” How could I possibly defend myself? I was handcuffed. And he probably had a syringe with poison or something. I’d seen that in an old movie once.
“What? No! I hate the Cylons as much as anyone. I don’t want anything to do with the Soldiers; the idea that we’re all perfect is just nuts!”
“Yeah, you got that right.” If he was a terrorist, would he lie about it? I frowned; I didn’t think there was any way he could have got a bomb on the Star without me seeing it.
“I… I am sorry about last night; I really am. I just overreacted.”
“Overreacted, my ass!” No way was I letting that go so with some lame excuse.
“Hey, you were holding out on me.”
I couldn’t believe he’d gone there, of all places. I didn’t owe him anything, certainly not halfsies on all my stuff!
“They were my needles,” I hissed.
“Fine. I won’t apologize.”
“Whatever.” Some apology.
Then I felt guilty. Right now Simon was the only person in existence who seemed remotely interested in having me around. That had to count for something. But what if he really was the bomber? No, I couldn’t believe that. Maybe it was stupid, but he sounded like he was telling the truth.
“Did you find your brother?” I asked.
“Why should you care?” I guess I deserved that.
“Well you might be a pompous ass, but he looked like a nice little kid.”
Simon cracked a smile.
“Two months ago he was on the Zephyr. I couldn’t find anything more recent before I got worried people would start showing up for work.”
“Ernest ever come back?” Ernest had wanted us gone before he finished mopping.
“Yeah, I hid in the ceiling. All those offices used to be staterooms and had bunks that folded out of the ceiling. There was space where the mattress used to be.”
“You know, two months isn’t that long.” I was trying to be nice and make up. “He’s probably still there. Or someone might know where he is now.”
“Yeah, that’s my plan. We could also go to the Amduatey and ask around there.”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t sure I could handle hearing someone tell me about Kasey’s death.
“I’m really sorry about your friend. Kasey, right?”
“Yeah. She was…” I didn’t have words. I didn’t really want to think about this now.
“Yeah. I get it.”
Simon reached over and patted my arm. It was sort of awkward, but it made me feel better somehow. Huh. Simon touching me never made me feel jumpy or anything. It was weird; he was a guy. Maybe it was that he wasn’t grown up yet, or maybe it was just him.
The ‘detainees’ ahead of me started to get restless. They didn’t like getting kicked off the luxurious Rising Star, but no one else wanted to get shot. Better to just pack up their belongings and their kids and get to whichever government ship we were headed for and get on with their lives. But something was delaying us. Outside the tiny window by my seat, I could see a man in a flight suit arguing with the Sergeant. I guessed he was concerned about the shuttle’s being overweighed. It wouldn’t matter in space, but it would make navigating the hangar difficult.
“Excuse me! Excuse me!” One lady shouted to make herself heard over the rest. She was seated in the middle of a right side row about halfway down.
“What is it?” One of the officers - the guy with the beard from before - stood and walked towards her.
“My son. He has to pee.”
“He’ll have to hold it till we get to the Gideon,” said the bearded officer. So that’s where we were headed. On the plus side, we knew our way around. On the negative, there were still people there who had it out for Simon.
“He can’t. We’ve been waiting on that hangar for hours now. Do you really want him to pee his pants?”
“Just let the kid pee for the Gods’ sake!” said the man next to him. The officers didn’t have much choice. In these crowded rows, the mess would be nasty. And the smell would stink up the entire cabin, which already smelled like sweat and unwashed bodies. The officer looked around at the nearly rioting crowd and nodded.
“I’ll take him. You stay in your seat.” He took the boy by the hand and half-dragged him down past us to the shuttle’s tiny head.
Of course, he wasn’t the only one. When he was done, four more kids had to pee. Lane and the bearded officer looked annoyed at first, then just bored. Obviously we’d weren’t going to get underway all that quickly.
When Lane slipped out to talk to the Sergeant, I put up my hand. They had pretty much ignored me once they got me into my seat. But the bearded officer didn’t seem to believe I was that much of a threat.
“You gotta pee too?”
I nodded.
“Well, alright.” He reached over and unlocked the cuffs that held me to the armrest. I flinched at his firm grip on my elbow, but managed to avoid going to pieces as I squeezed past Simon and out of the seat.
“No funny business.”
I nodded. The head was tiny and falling apart like everything else. Even the toilet paper dispenser was broken. I fiddled with the pieces for a few minutes. It was one of those fancy models that was supposed to hold two rolls. A little wire pin once held one roll up inside until the bottom one was used up.
I broke the pin off and pulled off my shoe. Inside was the ID card I’d hidden. They hadn’t searched me yet, but it was probably only a matter of time. It’d be smart just to flush it. But if I did make it, I’d need ID to get around. Simon might have another in his bag that would look sort of like me, but his bag was on the Zuesuda. If we didn’t escape, I’d try to get rid of it later. I could always swallow it, I guess. I’d seen that in a really old pre-‘caust film that someone had gotten a hold of and charged everyone a few cubits to see.
Back in my seat, I just needed an opportunity. I wasn’t sure if I could get the cuffs off without FleetSec noticing. Maybe they’d sit down once we got moving.
“Look, about the needles...” Simon began. I guess he wanted to completely clear the air.
“Yeah?”
“I suppose I said that because of my mum. She - she’s addicted to ace.”
“She’s alive? But you’re in the system…”
He shook his head, “When Linus got really sick, the social worker took us all away from her.”
“O Gods! They took you away from your mom. That’s horrible.”
Simon shrugged, “I’m not sure she even missed us. She’s an addict. All she cares about is her next high.”
“I’m sorry.” I was in shock. I couldn’t imagine anyone thinking the system was better than living with their mom.
“She’d take the needles and supplies I used to get for Linus - to give him transfusions - and use them to shoot up,” Simon said, with his eyes focused on the back of the seat in front of us. He turned to me, “I guess that’s why I freaked out at you.”
“I get it.” But, I didn’t really; knowing my mom had cared was the only thing I had. Without that… It hit me again how wrong things were. It shouldn’t be like this. Mothers weren’t supposed to buy drugs instead of food and clothes and medicine. Mothers were supposed to love you and hug you and teach you how to draw and show you how to replace fuses. Mothers weren’t supposed to hurt kids. And they sure as frak weren’t supposed to get into a viper and fly into a freak storm and never come back.
“So, how do we get out of this one?” Simon changed the subject, refocusing on our current predicament.
There was something about the way he said ‘we’ that made me want to smile suddenly. I realized I wanted that more than anything. To escape with Simon. To do something about all the awful things that had happened. I was supposed to find things, or they were supposed to be found, whatever. The Oracle had said so and here Simon was trying to find Lily and Linus all along.
I held up the wire I’d smuggled out of the bathroom.
“I think I can pick the lock on the cuffs,” I whispered.
It took me about five minutes to get myself free. Hot Dog had showed me how once, as a joke. It had been a long time, but I still remembered. The shuttle took off a few minutes later. I wrapped the cuff loosely around my wrist when the officer made a final check. Finally we took off.
“How are we going to distract them?” I asked.
“I’ve got an idea,” Simon said.
He fiddled with something in the ceiling above, where most of the reading lights were burned out. It was a pretty short trip to the Gideon, only ten minutes. Just as everyone was gathering their stuff to get off the shuttle, Simon pulled two wires out of the panel and touched them together. Instantly, the fire alarms went off. Around us everyone in the crowd panicked, pushing their way off the ship.
“Hey, hey, no shoving!” The bearded officer yelled. “Everyone stay calm.” No one paid any attention to him, as Simon and I slipped into the crazy, chaotic crowd. We were almost down the stairs when I heard Lane shout.
“Hey, stop them! Don’t let that kid get away!”
Simon and I took off running, out of the hanger deck, down a corridor, and into the nearest bolt-hole we could find. We were free.