Edge: 10/30
Author: Lurker2209
Spoilers: Through Razor, a few references to S4. Nothing for 4.5 (Unless name of the Ring ship is a spoiler!)
Characters/pairing: OC heavy, ultimately K/L
Warnings: Overall it's rated 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.”
A/N: I know, it's been almost two months. I think things are going to be better now; I know I've said that before, but this is different. To be really honest with you guys, I was depressed for about a year. Writing was one of the only things I could actually get done for a while. But then the flaws in the manuscript seemed so overwhelming and even writing was a struggle. Everything in real life got really crazy, I finally got a lot of help, and I'm finally myself again. I took some time to really focus on getting my real life grad school stuff back together and now I'm back to writing and editing and enjoying it all so much.
I want to thank my awesome beta's :
artemis90 and uberscribbler ! And I want to dedicate this chapter to two new readers who reviewed in late May and reassured me that people are still reading and still care about this story: greycoupon and lalovesleeadama
Part C
We left the hospital without trouble. They took the badges, checked our names against the visitor’s sign in log, and let us out. We just had to get off the ship. Luckily, we found a ship heading out that would reach the Zephyr after only two stops, which was pretty quick, considering. We boarded the transport - I’d flown around the fleet more in the past two days, than I had in months before- without any sort of incident. For now, it seems we’d lost FleetSec and Lane. In the chaos of the Fleet it seemed crazy that he’d be able to find us. And when Lane realized he was wrong, he’d leave us alone. We just had to not get caught before they found the real bombers. Too bad Lane and Linden would never think to team up on that.
It was almost lunch time when we approached the massive, distinctive ring ship. The hangar bay, in the center of the ship was the only place with artificial, instead of centrifugal gravity. We had to ride an elevator down-or was it out?-to the ring section. The doors to the elevator dimpled out in a curve from the flat wall. When they opened, you could see why. The shaft was a long, round tube, and the elevator itself was a large sphere with a cube set in it. We walked through the round part and into the cube, which had harnesses all around the walls. I walked over to two that seemed a bit smaller and got Simon and myself buckled in. A moment later, the operator came around assisting people and nodded at us in approval.
After we descended a ways, the purpose of the harness became apparent. We slowed to a stop, the gravity switched off, and then we swung around 90 degrees and started to move again. Simon looked a little green, but I thought it was fun.
“We’re going down headfirst!” he moaned.
“No, down's that way,” I pointed to our feet. He frowned at that, but I was right. At first there was an odd spinning sensation and then the feeling of gravity beneath us slowly returned. We were going down, relative to the centrifugal gravity, which was sideways to the artificial gravity in the center. We came to a stop a few minutes later.
“Inner Ring,” the operator announced. The inner ring was said to be the sort of place where things just floated away, and they didn’t just mean that the gravity was weaker closer to the center. The group home was more likely here than on the outer ring, which was still supposed to have a sort of old, shabby elegance to it.
So we got off and stepped into the corridor with the crowd of people. It was lighter here. Not enough to really float, but enough to feel like my bag wasn't so heavy and I could step further or jump higher. The crowd quickly dispersed and we stood back and found our bearings. To either side, the floor seemed to slope down. Planets, they said, were round, like a ring ship. Would Earth be like this, always feeling like you were poised at the top of a very gradual hill? It hadn’t seemed that way in pictures, but it was hard to say.
There was an faded map posted on the wall beside the elevator. It was no doubt terribly out of date, but it was good to have an idea of the layout of a place in case we got into a jam.
“That way is all cabins,” Simon pointed right, “but down there are the old galley and entertainment areas. They’d probably put the school there.”
I agreed and we set off for what the map called the ‘alpha quadrant’ of the ring. It felt as though we were walking downhill to the hatch that left the elevator module, but when stepped into the main corridor, I realized it was all a weird illusion. The floor in the elevator room was flat, but seemed sloped like a hill. The rest of the ship's floor curved up, but felt level. But after a few minutes of walking, you hardly noticed the disconnect.
We finally found the school, but it was still in session. Simon’s impatience was obvious.
“They’ll have lunch in a few minutes. The teacher will let them have recess in the park. We can wait there.”
“Okay.” Simon agreed.
We sat in the back corner. Parks, in their garishly painted, pastel weirdness, were mostly used by kids. Still, there were enough older kids - just barely too old for school or dropouts - that used the space as a hang-out that we didn’t stick out too badly.
Finally, the students started to file into the park with their lunches. The first groups were all older kids, who could elbow their way to the front of the line. Then came the primary kids, kindergarten through 3rd grade. Simon’s looked at each face, hungrily searching for the right one. None of them were right, and when I saw the teacher appear I was sure he was gone. We would never find him. But just in front of her was a tiny boy, the very last in line.
“It’s him!” He started forward, but I held him back.
“Wait for the teacher to get distracted.” I turned back to look at Linus. He had the same coloring as Simon, black hair, bronzed skin despite the lack of sunlight. But while Simon had a tough wiry look and was even starting to put on muscle, Linus seemed frail, fragile. He walked slowly and sat carefully on a bench as if, even at just six years old, he was all too aware of his fragility.
“He’s being careful. That’s good; he’s probably ok.” Simon said softly to me, not taking his eyes from the boy. I could see why he felt that way. But I couldn’t help but feel that it was wrong for Linus to be so careful - that he ought to be able to run around and climb on the tangle of welded pipes someone had made into a rough jungle gym. Maybe the treatments Simon planned would allow that.
We waited for the kids to finish eating and scatter to play. Linus ate fast, but instead of walking to the playground, he turned to the door. A few other students had already left. Simon and I hurried after him and caught up to him in the hall.
“Linus,” his voice was soft, but full of emotion.
“Simon!” Linus wasn’t as quiet and ran towards us, flinging himself into his brother’s arms. Simon adjusted, bending down and hugging his brother gently for a long moment.
I looked away. The hallway was empty, the teacher didn’t seem no notice Linus’s absence, and watching the door that led to the park was a good excuse. Seeing Simon and Linus like this, reunited and so happy, was hard. Hard because despite the fact that Simon and I had become close, I now felt like an outsider. And hard because I knew that everyone I wanted to find-my mom, Kasey, Julia-were dead. I wanted to be happy for Simon, but instead I was jealous. I was a really horrible person.
Simon was running his hands over Linus’ limbs, checking for bruises, “Are you ok, have you fallen down recently?”
“I’m alright, I’m alright. I knew you’d come!” Linus said excitedly. “I told them you promised.”
“Yes, I did. Have you been drinking the tea?”
Linus bit his lip, “One plant died. Alexi didn’t give them enough light. He had to grow ice-weed. Are you going to give me shots?”
“Yes, it will make your knees hurt less.” Simon said.
“I don’t like shots.” Linus whined.
“We’d better get going if we don’t want to be noticed.” I hated interrupting, but I didn’t want them getting caught.
Simon nodded.
“Who are you?” Linus asked.
“This is Petra, she’s my friend. She’s coming with us.”
“So I don’t have to go to work today?”
“Where do they make you work?” Simon asked
“In the factory, spinning thread. I hate it. It hurts my fingers and they hit you on the head with a stick if you fall asleep.”
“They don’t let you go to school all day?” Simon asked. He was getting upset and he was doing a pretty bad job of hiding it.
Linus shook his head, “Everybody in the group home has to work. Aunt Ginny says we have to earn our keep, but she's always at the bar. Alexi's in charge most of the time; he keeps all the money. I don’t like him,” he finished in a whisper. At this point, neither did I, and I figured Simon would like to get a good swing at the guy’s nose. That was the last thing we needed now.
“Let’s get off this ship before Alexi knows you’re missing,” I said.
“But what about Tony?” Linus asked
“Who’s Tony?” I asked.
“His stuffed bear.”
“I can’t leave Tony here. Bobby and Sammy will hurt him.”
“We’ll get Tony and then leave,” Simon agreed.
I stared at him. “How are we going to do that? Simon, it’s a bear.”
“No, it’s Tony and I love him!” Linus insisted. I hated being the bad guy, but we just couldn’t take the risk.
“Petra, it’s not just the bear. We need his clothes and his ID and any of those medical herbs that are still alive. He should be getting those and the transfusions.”
“Okay, we’ll have to think of something.”
“Can you pick the lock, like on the handcuffs?”
I laughed. “Handcuff locks are easy; deadbolts not so much. Besides, Alexi or somebody's probably there… Wait, I got it.” I opened my bag and started pulling things out.
A few minutes later, I knocked on the door of the connected cabins that made up the group home. Linus and Simon were a few corridors over.
The boy who opened the door looked about old enough to get out of the system. Probably Alexi.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Claire Quine. I guess I’m the new girl.”
“Where are you from?” he looked puzzled. Most new kids were brought by a social worker or their unhappy foster parents.
“Gamma Quadrant. Pissed off the foster mom and she threw me out.”
“You could have run off,” he observed.
“So could you,” I shot back.
“You got a smart mouth Claire. I’m Alexi. Come in. Ginny’ll sort it out later. ” I grinned; he was buying it.
Inside the group home was crowded with bunks and cots everywhere. It smelled like sweat and pee and weed. From one of the other rooms, I could hear a baby fussing.
Alexi eyed my bag, “You grab any cash on your way out?”
Of course I knew better and had left all my cash, and everything else valuable, with Simon. But I needed to get along with Alexi so I pulled out the box of all the cigarettes we’d stolen.
“Nice,” he lit one, and offered me one. I’d never smoked much. I’d rather trade cigs for pencils or paper, but I took one and lit it off Alexi.
“So how’d you piss them off?”
“I couldn’t get the baby to shut up and the mom was hungover from being drunk off her ass the night before. She slapped me. I smacked her back. It wasn’t meant to be.” It was easy to lie, cause it had all actually happened. Except that the slap was only the beginning of her rage; I winced at the memory of my dislocated shoulder. And I’d never considered running away to a group home.
“Foster parents are all assholes,” Alexi said. “Stay here. You do what I say, I’ll treat you right.”
“Sounds good to me.” Right now I was Claire, the weak girl, who traded freedom for protection. It was a little easier than I'd expected. Freedom was frakking hard.
The door opened from the nursery and a tall redheaded girl emerged. She was older than me, but not by much.
“Alexi, I need a smoke. Who are you?”
“Shannon, this is Claire; she’s new.”
“Oh,” she gave me a dirty look and wrapped her arms around Alexi to light a cig. She was making it pretty obvious they were together. Maybe I could use that to get rid of them.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to fit right in,” I smiled flirtatiously at Alexi. Shannon glared at me and started kissing his neck.
“Claire, why don’t you make yourself at home. Girls are through that door,” he pointed left. “Pick an empty bunk; there are a few.”
He stood and Shannon kissed him, smirking at me over his shoulder. I held the laugh inside until they disappeared through another door.
As soon as they were gone, I started hunting. The first thing I needed was the most important and probably the hardest to find. The desk by the door was my best bet. There were two drawers; one was locked. I pulled open the other and rifled through it. In the back, I found them: a stack of ID cards. I sorted through them until I found Linus’. Lucky for us, Ginny hadn’t thought to lock them up with the cash.
Then, I pulled open the door on the right. As expected, it was the boy’s dormitory. There were six bunk beds squished in the small room. Linus’ was easy to find, since it had a bright lamp at the foot with two plants. One was definitely close to dead, but it might be revived. Underneath the bed was a crate with his clothes and his carryall bag. I stuffed the clothes, the light and the bear inside the bag. There were some drawings taped above the bed. I recognized Simon’s work and grabbed those too. The plants fit in one of the crates, so I tried to sneak back into the main room without dropping anything.
From the noises coming through the thin walls, Alexi and Shannon were still… ah… going at it. It was disgusting. There were several dozen little kids working their fingers until they bled in that factory while these two smoked and screwed. It could only have been a few years ago when Alexi was just another neglected little kid in the system who nobody looked out for. How could he forget what it was like? I grabbed the box of cigarettes with my free hand and walked out into the hall.
Simon and Linus were waiting around the corner. “You got it?” Simon asked as he took the crate out of my hands.
“Yep, easy.”
“You’re good.”
“Did you get Tony?” Linus asked.
I produced the stuffed bear from his bag and handed it to him.
“Thanks, Petra!” he practically jumped into my arms and I hugged him back. He was such a sweet kid. Simon would do anything for him and I understood why.
We headed up to the hangar for yet another shuttle ride. Simon and I hadn’t even figured out where we were going. We couldn’t go directly to the Persephone for Lily. Everyone wanted to visit the botanical ship - to spend a day wandering through the peaceful gardens and see the lovely plants and trees instead of the drab landscape of steel walls, floors and ceilings. We could put our names on the list for a day pass, but the wait would be weeks if not months. Of course, you could buy a pass on the black market and skip the list entirely, but the cost of something like that was far beyond what we could afford now.
One shuttle was making a run to the Gideon and several other ships. When I heard the name, I realized I couldn’t keep this up. I wasn’t any better than Alexi. I wanted Simon around because he helped me out, but I was ignoring what was best for him, just taking advantage. I couldn’t live with myself like this, even if I had to be all alone.
“Simon, you and Linus should take that ship. Without me, they’ll never suspect you.”
“What, why?”
“Because your mom’s there. I saw her. She was looking for you. I should have told her, but I didn’t - I didn’t want you to go,” I admitted.
“Petra, stop,” Simon glanced over at Linus, who was engrossed watching a crane. “When they took us away, I told Linus and Lily she was dead.”
“What? Why?”
“Because the last thing any of us need is to go back to her. If you had told her where to find me, I would have been pissed.”
“But she was looking for you. She was really upset.” I just didn’t get it.
“She has good days, but they don’t last. Or maybe her pimp just wanted me to run drugs. She’s not going to take care of us; she can’t. All we have is each other.”
And then I really got it. In a way, Simon didn’t have a mom; not a real one like mine. And the fact that I would give anything to get my mom back, didn’t mean he felt the same way at all.
“So you’re not mad at me?”
“No, I’m not. Now come on, let’s find a shuttle off this place.”
It was all mixed up. I thought I was being selfish, not telling him, but he would have been happier if I had never brought it up. If I had known…but I hadn’t known. And really, I couldn’t have known. I figured stuff out by watching people. It was usually more reliable. People lie. They tell you they’ll be good to you if you don’t make trouble and then hit you when the baby cries. But some things you could only know if you asked. And then you had to just believe the answer. It was scary.
I felt Linus reach for my hand, his other one wrapped in Simon’s. I took it and we walked along the deck, all linked together. Maybe all good things were scary.
A/N: I messed up the direction of gravity when I first posted this. Should have checked my notes instead of working off memory. Basically, when you're standing on the ring ship, your head is pointing towards the center of the ring, not out towards space. I've fixed the references now. To be a little technical, the floor of the elevator room is level to allow the elevator to function, but since the edges of that level section are further from the center than the middle, they have less gravitational force and feel 'downhill'. The rest of the ship has a curved floor, so the force of gravity is even everywhere and it feels 'flat'. If you're interested in the details, see this site. http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3u.html Maybe someday I'll come back and play with the weird Coriolis effects. A game of darts in spin gravity would take special skill!