Second Skin
part ii: Kobol
“We've been here too long.”
Adama was at the other end of the table, his XO between them. Whether that was his ideas or Tigh's, Laura could have cared less. She needed to be able to reach him, and if that meant shouting across the Colonel, so be it.
“We've been here long enough to know that the cylons aren't coming back.”
Tigh scoffed. “We can't know that for sure.”
“No, but for now it appears they aren't. We need to take the opportunity to properly explore the surface.”
“And if they're waiting to attack the moment we deploy ships?”
“Then we'll leave, but for us to do that before we've learned what we can would be wasteful.”
Adama finally looked down the table towards her. “Do you really believe archeology is going to help the fleet now?”
“This is the only habitable planet we've come across since we left the Colonies. It just might.”
-
It was a kind of euphoria she hadn't felt in years. Overwhelming, almost unprecedented. Elosha was smiling broadly, caught up in her own elation.
“I can't ask for him, but find a way to get Meier on the landing party.”
“Many of the prisoners pray with me, and have come to help me throughout the fleet.”
Meier obviously didn't, but no one needed to know that.
“I believe taking someone like him would be a good sign of faith for the Commander to send to the fleet."
“Perfect.” Her body was humming, and maybe she was herself, but it was getting harder to focus. Home. They were about to go home. She wanted to stretch out, be able to land on Kobol and see it properly. Be able to smell and hear everything as she was supposed to, but she couldn't risk it. There would be time for that later. There had to be. “How many others are in the landing party?”
“I'm not sure. I don't have much of a network within the military. The doctor would know better.”
“Yes.” There wouldn't be time to talk to him, and he wouldn't have a reason to go down with the landing party.
Elosha was smiling. “The planet isn't going anywhere.”
“Can't you feel it though?”
“Yes.”
“Home.”
Skies and den and Kobol.
-
“Shouldn't you be on Galactica?”
“And miss all this sunshine?”
Lee barely managed to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Kara seemed able to sense it, smirking at him. The tarp they were under was set up to keep the equipment boxes dry, but just about everyone who didn't belong in the command tent had taken shelter under it during the deluge. Lee could spot at least one marine happily making their patrol under the weeping skies, completely unbothered by the wet.
“How's your knee?”
Her smile vanished. “Fine.”
“Well, they let you down here.”
“Yeah.”
He stared down at the mud on his boots. “I'm.. I'm glad you're alright, Kara.”
“What else would I be?”
“Dust after being too close to a nuclear explosion if you couldn't get away from the basestar?”
“Well I'm not.”
“I'm glad.”
“Okay.”
-
“Galactica's sensors say the storm should let up soon.”
“Good.”
Roslin was restless, hardly keeping still, moving from table to table, map to map, but hardly spending a moment studying them. The haphazard assortment of gear she had been given for this venture only helped to add to her manic look. Saul hadn't been too happy with Bill's decision to go down to the surface with the survey party, but if the president had been so insistent on going, he wanted to be there.
It wasn't so much that he wanted to keep an eye on her, as he wanted to watch her. By all accounts she was something other, and he wanted to know more about her.
“Mr. Gaeta.”
The young man's eyes pulled away from the president before they went to him. Even if she hadn't been drawing attention to herself, it would have been difficult to keep focus away from her. The announcement from Colonial One announcing her continuation in the presidency had been mostly met with confusion. Very few people seemed to believe what the quorum had to say about her. What she was reported to have done while on Galactica.
“Yes sir?”
“I want to go over the data we collected before the rain started, find the-”
There was a distinct crack of something breaking, and all eyes suddenly darted around the tent, trying to find what had snapped. Bill found confused rather than guilty stares, mind trying to piece together what could have possibly-
Roslin leaned close to his side and he almost reached for his gun.
“The temple seems a distinctive place to start.” She didn't reach for the map as she had earlier, hands stuffed into her pockets.
Gaeta's eyes flickered towards her in panic a moment before he answered. “Uh, yes ma'am, but there is some worry about the structural integrity of the building, though. As you can see here...”
Bill hardly paid any attention to where Gaeta was pointing on the map. From the unfocused look in Roslin's eyes, she was just as distracted.
-
They didn't talk, but they found themselves crossing each others paths more frequently. There were others, finally. Meier and the marine had to have a little staring match. Had they somehow missed each other when the Astral Queen had been boarded during the riot? Had he even been in that party? The idea of him as a solider was one hard to hold onto, he was simply someone else, someone who meant they weren't alone.
The two botanists from the Rising Star knew each other, and Meier had tamped down a spark of jealousy at that. They had never feared being so alone. He had helped them move boxes so that he could stand close to them, breathe in a healthy scent of something other than human.
All of them were excited. The marine even wandered out into the rain, letting the planet soak into his skin.
Kobol.
Elosha had been right, it seemed. This was home.
He wanted to get out of his human shape, be what he was supposed to be, but the rational part of his mind still managed to convince him of the idiocy in that.
He kept moving boxes to distract himself. The botanists held their hands so tight their knuckles were turning white, and the marine went on another patrol.
-
The rain had stopped and the survey teams were splitting up. Laura couldn't spot the shock of white hair she was looking for amongst the groups, but she did spot Lee. When the captain noticed her approach, he froze. Whether or not he had decided to hide didn't matter, she reached him before he could start moving away.
“Cottle came down?”
Adama had mentioned the doctor was heading one of the survey teams and panic had almost flooded through her.
“Yes.” The young man's face was stiff, and he licked his lips before managing to speak again. “He wanted to head a group in collecting samples from the surface. Maybe bring some plants back up into the fleet.”
“Where is he?” She could still hear her bones cracking from earlier. Her hand barely fit into the pocket of her borrowed coat, but she made sure it stayed out of sight.
Instead of asking the question she could read on his face, he simple said, “I'll take you to him.”
His pace was slow, but she couldn't risk making him hurry without alerting him to anything. She didn't need him or anyone else on edge, not more than they already were around her. Too many others had been unable to avoid staring at her in the tent.
“So... what are your thoughts on the planet so far?”
“It's beautiful,” she answered truthfully. “And dangerous. It runs the risk of making people want to settle, and this place isn't safe. "Two basestars in the area, the cylons are obviously keeping an eye on it.”
It hurt to say that. She could feel a hollow ache through her body at the thought of abandoning the green world. If anyone were to try and take it, she should be defending it, tearing them apart-
-she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to clear her head.
Skyandhomenaddenand... Kobol.
“Yes. It's strange that they haven't put down a larger force.”
Maybe they felt it. Whatever was calling Laura home, maybe it kept them away. Could the gods be alive down here, in their own way?
She picked up her pace, nearly matching Lee step for step when she noticed the others' eyes on her. How would they react when she told them they could not stay?
-
“I've just gotten a message saying that nine people are coming back up. What's going on down there?”
“Who gave the order?”
The silence on the other end of the com told Bill that Saul suddenly understood something was wrong.
“Cottle.”
The doctor had been a last minute addition to the survey teams, at his own request.
“Who did he mention?”
“No one by name. He just said there would be nine of them.”
“Detain anyone who comes back aboard.” He cut the connection, turning towards the quiet lieutenants who were gathered around him. “Find me Doctor Cottle.”
“Of course sir.”
-
When he had set his sights on her, she had taken them to the first clearing she could find before he burst into yelling.
“You sent out an order for us all to go back up.”
“It's for the best.”
“You can't force us off this planet.”
He stood less than a foot from her, body taught, posturing for a fight.
“Do you even realize what's happening?” She reached out, but stopped herself short of touching him. “It's dangerous for us to stay here.”
It was wonderful. Overwhelming. Dangerous because she felt her control slipping, and she knew the others had to feel it to.
“I know what's happening.” Meier grabbed her wrist, bringing it up to display her hand. Her fingers were long and spindly with fat knuckles, still without fur though dark claws protruded from the ends rather than nails. “We're returning to the way we're supposed to be. Kobol is reminding us of what we are.”
Laura yanked her hand free, anger boiling up inside her. “We're losing control, and that is not our natural state.”
“What gives you the right to decide what the natural order is? Whatever the rest of them believe, you are not a god.”
One of the worst labels to come from sharing what she was.
“I know what I am and it isn't a beast.”
“You think your own kind are monsters?”
“No.” The pull in her bones started, the itch to stretch out and become what she really was.
“Is that why you hide in your second skin so much? Trying to hide the monster?”
“No.” She tried to ball her hand into a fist, but her muscles and tendons started snapping, giving way to the growth under them. She trembled, trying to reign the shift back under her control.
“Skin too tight?”
Laura struck out with the hand that was already changed, catching her claws in Meier's cheek and forcing his head to to turn. He looked back to her with a snarl, and his jaw came free from the rest of his skull as it began stretching out into a muzzle. She fumbled for the zipper of her heavy jacket, needing to get out of the restrictive clothes. He leapt at her before she could get any purchase, knocking them both to the ground. Her boots pinched at her feet as her bones shifted in the confinement, and she kicked up at him, trying to dislodge him. He snapped his long jaws towards her but she caught his face and bit into the thickening fur at his neck. Her own jaw popped from its hinge, forcing her to let go. His hand scratched down her side, cutting apart the coat and tearing the shirt under it. The tears allowed her expanding ribcage the space it needed as she took a new breath.
Meier tore his face from her grasp, pointed ears laying back as his skull finished shifting. She flailed and kicked at his shin, managing to lose one of her boots, which had started splitting from the pressure inside of it. He bit down on her shoulder through her clothes, jagged teeth puncturing her skin. She wrapped her arms around him, and with his clothing a restriction for him now fully changed, she gained enough leverage to roll him over. She struck her claws across his ears until he released her and she scrambled off his chest, tugging at her shredded jacket and shirt to be free of them. Laura wasn't even standing before she crashed back to the ground, legs no longer shaped for her jeans. The dampness of the earth barely had a moment to soak her skin before her fur spread across her body, insulating her.
The world warped as her skull expanded and she squeezed her eyes shut to combat the dizziness. Her claws tore clumsy gashes into the jeans, trying to damage them enough to just be able to rip them off. She shook her foot until the remaining boot split and released her.
A growl sounded and she perked up her ears and forced her eyes open, seeing Meier tearing off the last of his clothes with his teeth. Some blood was matted in the dark gray hair on his face, oozed from the gashes on his ears, but his neck seemed undamaged.
She scrambled to stand, pants finally falling away in scraps.
-
“Do you hear that?”
Kara looked at Lee sideways. “You've been in space too long. It's just the planet.”
“No, I mean-”
He didn't need to finish his sentence, as the crash of broken trees echoed towards their clearing. Kara pulled her gun from her holster and he did the same.
“Just the planet?”
“It could be a native.” She threw him an awkward smile.
Part of Lee hoped it was. The last thing they needed was people fighting on the surface. The sounds reaching him weren't noises he heard people make though.
An explosion of branches and gray fur tumbled into their clearing. The beast staggered onto its hind legs only to be knocked back to the ground by another. The brown fur was more auburn under the light of the sun, but Lee recognized her. Roslin. Roslin was fighting the frak knew who.
“Shit.” Kara sounded more awed than startled.
The pair didn't seem to notice them. It gave him time to study them, let him see there was more than twigs and leaves stuck to their fur. There was blood and dirt.
He leveled his gun and tried to keep it steady as they dove and twisted around each other.
“Sure this wont just piss them off?”
She had leapt onto the backs of centurions, but he had still seen her bleed. Kara had too. Which meant the other one had to bleed too.
“You sure about this?”
“No.”
If they waited too long the noise would draw others. There was no way to know if they would automatically open fire on the fighting pair, or if the soldiers wouldn't get torn apart instead. The fleet was strained enough without a new mountain of bodies to break it.
He fired.
The bullet clipped the gray one's shoulder. It turned to him, and instead of attacking, so did Roslin.
Shit.
Kara fired and it crumpled.
Lips pulled back over her muzzle and the sharp blood stained teeth were bared. She was gorgeous and horrifying in the light of a sun.
“Don't shoot.”
“What?” Kara didn't dare take her eyes off the threat.
She crouched, ready to jump at them. Either would be crushed if she landed on them.
“Don't shoot.”
“She's gunna frakkin-”
Roslin jumped and Lee fired his gun.
She rolled when she hit the ground, landing several feet away from them.
A low whine turned into a hacking cough, and the bundle of bloodied gray fur shuddered.
Auburn fur receded and fell to the ground as Roslin crawled towards the one she had been fighting. She jerked with every moment, long limbs pulling back into a human size, and the sight made Lee's stomach twist.
He jammed his gun back into his holster.
Kara holstered her own weapon. “We.. we should help.... Right?”
Lee's feet moved before his mind could tell them where to go. He zigzagged a moment before heading towards what was slowly becoming man, Kara was already at Roslin's side.
With each breath his body expanded a little less, and under his skin Lee could see his ribs popping back into place. His arms remained long, stretching down towards his knees, clawed fingers digging into the grass. There were faint scratches all across his body, almost as if he had stumbled across some thorns, but nothing to account for the state he had been in when covered in fur. Except for the bullet wound to his chest. Lee dropped to the earth and his hands hovered over the wound a moment before pressing down on it.
“Someone will have heard us. Help is on the way.”
Blood was welling at the corner of his lips, and one of his cheek bones jutted forward under his skin, distorting his face. He still managed to glare at Lee through half-lidded eyes.
“You should probably stay- okay frak, let me help.”
He looked over his shoulder and the sound of her voice to see Kara wrapping an arm around Roslin's waist and helping her move forward. When the president raised her head, he could see her jaw popping into place. He pushed down harder and the man grunted.
“Meier.” Roslin fell out of Kara's grip and almost on top of him.
“Home.” His voice was raspy and he sounded as if he choked on the word. Lee could feel him shaking.
Her hands shook as she clutched his leg. “Home.” She sounded like she was agreeing to something. “Can you feel-”
“Yes.”
He started coughing and blood splattered against Lee.
“Go back to how you should be.”
She sounded panicked. Lee never imagined he would hear Laura Roslin sound panicked, not after she handled the apocalypse with such grace.
Meier lolled his head to the side, possibly in an effort to shake it 'no'. It exposed the side of his skull to Lee, where he could see his ear protruded from his head in a sharp, fleshy point.
“You can't die in this skin.” Blood ran from under Roslin's fingers. Her nails had darkened, and as they stretched longer they cut into Meier leg. “You can't.”
-
Someone had draped a jacket over her, but she was naked under it. It smelled faintly of Thrace. It was probably hers. Laura's knees were pulled up to her chest, and she stared down over them.
Her toes were muddy, stained green with grass and streaked with blood. She tilted her head up, looking towards the clouds, and the jacket slid across her shoulders, threatening to fall.
Sky and earth and home.
The itch was back under her skin. She wanted to stay. Her instincts screamed at her that this was the place to be. The cylons had left for a reason and her people belonged here. They would be as they should here, not trapped in human skins aboard cramped ships with an increasingly desperate humanity.
The increase in voices pulled her from her thoughts, and she made herself look back towards the earth and trees.
Soldiers were emerging from the woods, Adama at the head. His son moved to meet him, halting the party's progress.
Thrace hovered awkwardly by her shoulder.
Laura looked down to her side where Meier's twisted body lay. How terrible would it be to die the same way? Stuck inbetween what you were and your disguise? It was wrong. Fighting him had been wrong. Kobol had brought that on them.
She stood, resisting the pull in her muscles to keep stretching until she was herself again, fang and fur.
-
part iii: home
“Cottle was naked when you found him?”
“If only.”
Wrinkles gathered at the corner of Saul's eyes as his face scrunched up, trying to interpret what Bill was saying. The decanter of whiskey clicked against the glass as he poured. Three fingers for himself, two for Saul.
“What are you saying, Bill?”
“That that man's fur is the same color as the hair on his head.” He knocked back his drink, pouring another before offering the second cup to his XO.
“Don't start telling jokes now.”
“I wish I was.”
He took the offered glass. “The people he had returned to Galactica-”
“It's better that they've returned to the fleet.”
He had ordered Saul to release them without an explanation. It was simpler to explain things now, without other lives hanging in the balance.
“Gods Bill, how many of them do you think are out there?”
“I don't care.”
The two he had in his sickbay were the only ones he could allow himself to think about at the moment.
-
“Has she said anything?”
Kara stared over Cottle's shoulder as he examined her knee, watching Billy hover awkwardly at the president's bedside. The doctor looked up from his exam.
“Are you expecting something from her?”
She stared back at him. When they had left Kobol, he had been wearing nothing except a rain poncho, his uniform tucked under his arm. He was just like Roslin. It was disconcerting how it was easier to accept from someone she knew rather than a near stranger.
“No.”
“She's going to be alright Starbuck, and so's your knee. Now get out of my sickbay.”
-
Lee had perfected just how long he needed to maintain eye contact with someone to steer them away form talking to him without making it seem like he was challenging them. Others were finally learning from word of mouth not to approach him about what happened on Kobol. Dee had been the only one to broach his perimeter, and she didn't speak, but simple laid a hand on his arm a moment before going back to her post.
He slumped on one of the crates in the corridor, Galactica was still a mess in the aftermath of the cylon boarding party. Was it two or three days ago now? Surely, it had to be longer.
There was very little resistance about abandoning Kobol the second time around, but there were questions as to why it had happened so abruptly. His father and the president would have to answer to it, but people wanted it from him first hand. He had nothing to give them. He had no explanations to give himself.
He hadn't gotten any explanation as to why Roslin and that man had been fighting. The dying words between them of home had him uneasy. How was that ill fated place supposed to be tied to something like a home?
Lee stood, ready to start up his aimless wander again. He needed to check for orders, find out the flight rotation- needed to make the damn flight rotation- but his mind was too scattered.
The steady march of feet drew him to the end of the corridor, where a marine detail was gathered around Roslin and his father. Billy Keikeya hovered behind the guards with Saul Tigh. No one was in manacles and they weren't heading for the brig.
They were moving towards his father's quarters.
-
“We're continuing on this course.”
Running faster and faster towards the lie he had spun about Earth. What was left for them to do?
“Blind, but moving forward.” She ran her fingers around the lip of the glass he had handed to her.
“Yes.”
Laura smiled. It made her face hurt. “It's about time. We can't have something holding us back.”
He raised his eyebrows at that, but Adama continued with, “we're heading towards a fantasy.”
“We may find something substantial on the way, have hope Commander. Home isn't always what you expect it to be.”
-
A/N
This story and I had a long and bloody battle in order to get anywhere. It ended up doing all sorts of things I didn't want and in this final draft the explanation involving Luperca and the origin of the werewolves doesn't even fit and so I ended up cutting it. A part of me feels like apologizing as this ended feeling like a rough draft for something much longer and more detailed which I'm not going to ever have time to do. If you read this whole thing I tip my hat to you because it's probably more than a little confusing.