Fic - "The Gobbler of Souls part Seven"
Wow! Hard to believe I am updating this! Here is part seven of "The Gobbler of Souls". Yup, this is a creepy fic based on my odd attachment to the Grooviest Hotel in Wisconsin. See http://www.lileks.com/institute/motel/intro.html for examples of the decor. (this is an updated version of the hotel from hell. This is a Lee fic... about why Lee is cool. Yup - bsg/drwho fic set before the end of season 2 in drwho and after ep 3.14 of bsg.
Its been a while. I have the story tagged with "drwho","Lee", and "gobblerfic". This is actually a prequel of sorts to "The Waystation"(tagged "waystationfic","Drwho", and "Felix" and if you havent read any of my dr who crossover stuff, I really recommend you read The Waystation first, and then the first six parts of the Gobbler of Souls.
And do check out the hotel website above... it was the creepy inspiration....
Lee awoke with a start. He sat up, realizing he was lying on a bed, in the Galactica sickbay. Dee was curled up in a chair by his bed but she woke up as he started to get out of bed.
“Lee, don’t get up.” She signaled for one of the medical assistants. Then she looked at him with real concern. “Do you know what happened? You collapsed in the bar and you’ve been unconscious for the last four hours.”
“Not unconscious,” Cottle grumbled as he walked over. “You were sleeping. Most likely because you *haven’t* been sleeping…” Cottle frowned at him. “I’m a little tired of the psychiatric histrionics centered around you, young man. Do you know why you collapsed?”
“Because…. I wasn’t getting enough sleep?” He knew better than to argue with Cottle.
“Exactly. Now stop being a baby and get out of here. And make sure to come see me if you keep having problems with sleeping.” That was said more kindly and Lee found himself nodded to the older man.
It was almost done, after all. He had his answer… an idea of an answer anyway. And he had an idea of what he needed to do, although on the surface he didn’t really understand why he needed to do it. There was still an urgency but it didn’t seem to overwhelm him.
So he let Dee take him back to their quarters and fuss over him until she went on duty. Then he grabbed what he needed and slipped out.
He wasn’t surprised to find Felix Gaeta in the lab, bent over the many bits of electronic flotsom that Lee remembered from before. Gaeta looked… bad. Dark circles under his eyes, shaking hands, and a certain puffiness in his face that Lee suspected was due to the tranquilizers. “ Did… did you want something?” Gaeta twitched visibly. “Sir?”
A paradox, Lee thought. The curly haired man was Felix Gaeta and somehow, he had been in the hotel that night, looking just a little older than he did right now. Which was impossible.
And yet right. “I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you and… I know things haven’t been easy for you.”
“Someone broke my computer,” Gaeta said dully. He gestured to the metal bits, not seeming to realize he’d had the same conversation before. “I need to fix it, or else everyone will die. I can feel it.” He twitched again.
“Its ok,” Lee said carefully. He held out the silvery hand held computer that had his name engraved on it. “You can have mine. I never use it.” As he held it out, he couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief.
He could see it on Gaeta’s face as well, as though a dark cloud was being lifted. “Major Adama… Lee… Thank you… these are irreplaceable….” He wiped his eyes. “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in… in a long time….”
Lee let himself smile. Somehow, he could feel that everything was going to turn out just fine.
~*~
Except that it didn’t turn out that way. Three months after he gave the little computer to Gaeta, Gaeta and seven others were left behind on an abandoned space station. Dee had cried for weeks, and she hadn’t been the only one. His own father still called the new tactical officer by Gaeta’s name, and would frown darkly when he realized his mistake. Even Kara and Tigh, two people more known for their harassment of Gaeta, still spent evenings in the makeshift bar loudly sharing funny stories about one Felix Gaeta. Dee sometimes joined them.
Lee didn’t. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d screwed something up, somehow. In his mind, no, in his *heart* he knew he’d done the right thing… that somehow giving that little handheld computer to Gaeta was the thing that would save them all. But Gaeta was certainly dead and the only good thing that seemed to come of it was that the Cylons hadn’t been as active since the fleet had left the abandoned space station. He wasn’t fool enough to think that was a good sign. The space station had been in good shape, and the unique design and obvious, if old signs of human habitation had been the first real, tangible clue that the thirteenth tribe existed. The problem was that the station could be used, and he was certain that the Cylons would use it. That meant it was just a matter of time until the Cylons used the space station for their own gain. As a supply point, so that they could continue to chase the fleet.
He somehow thought things were going to be different, but they weren’t different. He didn’t feel tense and upset. He wasn’t having the dream any more… but he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t quite over.
Which was why he was only slightly surprised when he stepped into his quarters and saw a large blue shack structure squeezed into the small space. A blue shack he recognized. “Um… hello?”
The doors opened. The man from his dream, the Doctor, peered out. “Lee! It’s about time! Come on then!” He held open the door. Lee could just see the inside that was somehow spacious….bigger on the inside.
“I can’t just leave…” Although he suddenly wanted to because he *knew* without a doubt that he’d see incredible things if he went. But he couldn’t. The fleet needed him.
The Doctor looked at him, his expression changing almost imperceptivity. “I know,” he said gently. “But a short trip? I’ll have you back before anyone notices. I thought… you might want some answers.”
“All right…but I have to come back.” He stepped inside. It was enormous inside, filled with odd, unusual equipment. The Doctor began to turn knobs while Lee looked around in awe.
“Well, aren’t you a nice addition?” Lee spun, and found himself looking at an attractive red haired woman. She was clearly sizing him up. “Doctor,” she said, her tone one of interest, a familiar tone, “why can’t all of our pick ups be so handsome.”
“Lee, hold up your hands for Donna,” the Doctor said easily. Lee did so, and Donna’s face suddenly fell.
“A wedding ring,” she sniffed. “It bloody figures.” Her accent reminded Lee of Dr. Baltar, as did her attitude. “So where are we going with him?” Donna managed to sound bored and annoyed.
The Doctor looked at him. “A place we’ve been before.” His look became more shrewd. “You figured out what you needed to do, Lee. I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.”
“Where’s… where’s Gaeta?” Because Gaeta had been with the Doctor, looking older, almost twenty five years earlier. “How are you here but not older?”
“He’s a Time Lord,” Donna said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m a Time Lord,” the Doctor added cheerfully. “And this ship, the TARDIS, is my time machine.” His pleasant face dimmed slightly. “Felix told me your brother passed away. I was sorry to hear that.”
Lee nodded. It was strange, after so many other deaths, that Zak’s still seemed to kick him in the gut. But… “That night…that night I met you… He would have died if you hadn’t saved him.”
“If you hadn’t saved him,” the Doctor corrected as he continued turning knobs. The ship seemed to come alive and there was a sensation of movement although Lee wasn’t sure exactly what made him think that. The Doctor looked up from the console. “Zak never would have come to me. And yes… he would have died.” He looked at Lee shrewdly. “How much did you figure out?”
“That Zak wasn’t… my father’s son. My mom had an affair… with the owner of the Gobbler Hotel…and it was bigger on the inside, like this place.” Lee looked at him. “The hotel was a ship, like this….and you said it chose Zak as the heir…”
“The heir to his father’s ship…”The Doctor said it easily. “His father was a Time Lord, Lee… a very evil Time Lord. We live a very long time, and… The Master… wanted more than just an heir… He wanted to use the life of his own child… steal the soul from Zak’s body and then use the remaining shell to house his own lifeforce….”
“The Master was a real charmer,” Donna added, with a disgusted tone. “I have to admit though, I laughed when he killed the president of the United States. I think we all did.”
Lee didn’t quite get the humor, or the reference. “But…if the Master was his father… he would have been using his own child….” He hesitated. “He was going to kill Zac so he could use his body… That’s like science fiction…”
“Says the man who lives in a giant spaceship, running from killer robots,” Donna said, not unkindly. “Its like one of those tv shows I used to watch with Granddad. Where are we going, anyway?”
The Doctor smiled, almost secretively. “We’re going to Caprica. One thousand years in the future.” He eyed Lee. “I thought you’d like to see it.” As he spoke, the ship seemed to come to a halt and all of the whirring noise stopped. The Doctor stepped around and opened the doors of the ship and… sunlight streamed in. He grinned. “Come on then.”
Lee stepped out. They were in a park. In the distance, he could see the ruined skyline of Caprica City but… there were also new buildings and he could see ships flying. There were people in the park as well, kids playing, people having picnics. Yet… Lee looked at the lay of the land, the statue that was clearly the signature fixture, and in his mind’s eye, he could see exactly where he was. “This is where the Gobbler Hotel was,” he said, pointing to the statue. And the people….”
“Some are the descendents of actual survivors…” The Doctor walked as he spoke. “Humanity is brilliant in how it adapts. Some of them lived in caves for an entire generation, waiting for the radiation levels to fall… and then the fleet returned, and the rebuilding began.” He smiled at Lee. “And it all happened, not because the humans found a better weapon or that the Cylons just gave up, but because of a human being’s capacity to love. It was your love, Lee, that saved your brother that night. And that was the nail that saved your people.”
“I…I don’t understand,” Lee said after a moment. “I mean, yes I understand that you’re saying my people will survive… I just don’t understand how. And where is Felix Gaeta? And the blonde woman? Rose? And this….” The statue was a stylized representation of a battlestar and there was a low marble wall and marble paving making circle all around it with pillars rising up every few feet. Names were engraved on the pillars, names he recognized… the crew of the Galactica. And… “This is where the pool was. The paradox… it was that Gaeta was there that night when he should have just been a little boy Zak‘s age… and he had my computer. That had my name and rank engraved on it and I didn‘t even get that until a few days before the invasion.”
“You saw it, and that opened the loop.” The Doctor said it easily. “Felix said that you weren’t friends with him, that he had no idea why you gave him the computer… just that it made him feel better, like… humanity could be saved. And it saved his life. Your people left him on that space station to die, and he spent his time using that computer, sabotaging the station so your friends the Cylons couldn’t chase you. That’s when Rose and I found him…. The Cylon attacks… they haven’t been as frequent have they? The last few months, I mean. More erratic… more desperate seeming?”
“Yes… we’re not sure why.” Lee looked at him, worriedly. “Did you do something?”
The Doctor shrugged. “The Cylons did it to themselves. Rose was ill with a mild Earth disease… Earth is real by the way… and the Cylons could have… acted kindly and instead one of them slapped her, and got infected. And died. I think you have an idea of what happened then.”
“The sickness downloaded into all of them…” Lee thought about the recent battles. “The Raiders and Centurions are still following their last orders but with no one giving new orders….They’re all dead?”
“Dead or dying. I’m sure that one or two figured it out in time to avoid the upload. The little computer helped keep Felix alive and he was doing something that caught my interest and that led to Rose being captured and that led to all of Cylon kind dying.” The Doctor smiled. “And it all started here, with you. You were the nail that saved the kingdom.”
Lee looked around, taking it all in. “It’s… a lot to think about. Can I tell people?” Because if the Cylons were dead then they could… stop running.
“They won’t believe you, not for a bit. And Caprica won’t be truly safe to live on for a few hundred years. Besides… Earth is waiting for you.” The Doctor grinned wickedly. “Do me a favor and take a picture of Laura’s face when you get there. Now come on… I need to get you back.”
“Where is Felix Gaeta,” Lee asked as they walked back to the Tardis. “You avoided answering me…is he dead?” Dee at least would appreciate the closure.
“No he’s on 21st Century Earth.” The Doctor’s expression seemed to darken. “He’s got a project he’s working on…The truth is that he’s not speaking to me right now.”
“Why? I mean,” and Lee found it suddenly amusing. “You seem like the kind of guy he’d like.” Then the words in the dream came back to him and he stopped. “You brought Gaeta here to see if…the ship would accept him as the heir. Because….”
The Doctor stopped walking. “I made a mistake, Lee. We all make them, and that wasn’t the worst I ever made… it’s not even the worst mistake I made with Felix. When you see Felix again, you can ask him what you’re about to ask me… but I assure you, he has valid reasons to be angry with me.” He shrugged again, seeming lost in thought. “Fortunately he’s not his father’s son and can forgive people… but that’s neither here nor there, now is it? But back to the point… You saved your brother that night, and you saved your people, and you did it not with a gun, but with kindness. I wish that was my legacy to my people.” The Doctor sighed. “I mean that. I really do.”
Lee found himself nodding. And wondering. But most of all, he found himself feeling hope for the first time in a very long time.
I feel good getting this one done.
Its been a while. I have the story tagged with "drwho","Lee", and "gobblerfic". This is actually a prequel of sorts to "The Waystation"(tagged "waystationfic","Drwho", and "Felix" and if you havent read any of my dr who crossover stuff, I really recommend you read The Waystation first, and then the first six parts of the Gobbler of Souls.
And do check out the hotel website above... it was the creepy inspiration....
Lee awoke with a start. He sat up, realizing he was lying on a bed, in the Galactica sickbay. Dee was curled up in a chair by his bed but she woke up as he started to get out of bed.
“Lee, don’t get up.” She signaled for one of the medical assistants. Then she looked at him with real concern. “Do you know what happened? You collapsed in the bar and you’ve been unconscious for the last four hours.”
“Not unconscious,” Cottle grumbled as he walked over. “You were sleeping. Most likely because you *haven’t* been sleeping…” Cottle frowned at him. “I’m a little tired of the psychiatric histrionics centered around you, young man. Do you know why you collapsed?”
“Because…. I wasn’t getting enough sleep?” He knew better than to argue with Cottle.
“Exactly. Now stop being a baby and get out of here. And make sure to come see me if you keep having problems with sleeping.” That was said more kindly and Lee found himself nodded to the older man.
It was almost done, after all. He had his answer… an idea of an answer anyway. And he had an idea of what he needed to do, although on the surface he didn’t really understand why he needed to do it. There was still an urgency but it didn’t seem to overwhelm him.
So he let Dee take him back to their quarters and fuss over him until she went on duty. Then he grabbed what he needed and slipped out.
He wasn’t surprised to find Felix Gaeta in the lab, bent over the many bits of electronic flotsom that Lee remembered from before. Gaeta looked… bad. Dark circles under his eyes, shaking hands, and a certain puffiness in his face that Lee suspected was due to the tranquilizers. “ Did… did you want something?” Gaeta twitched visibly. “Sir?”
A paradox, Lee thought. The curly haired man was Felix Gaeta and somehow, he had been in the hotel that night, looking just a little older than he did right now. Which was impossible.
And yet right. “I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you and… I know things haven’t been easy for you.”
“Someone broke my computer,” Gaeta said dully. He gestured to the metal bits, not seeming to realize he’d had the same conversation before. “I need to fix it, or else everyone will die. I can feel it.” He twitched again.
“Its ok,” Lee said carefully. He held out the silvery hand held computer that had his name engraved on it. “You can have mine. I never use it.” As he held it out, he couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of relief.
He could see it on Gaeta’s face as well, as though a dark cloud was being lifted. “Major Adama… Lee… Thank you… these are irreplaceable….” He wiped his eyes. “This is the nicest thing anyone has done for me in… in a long time….”
Lee let himself smile. Somehow, he could feel that everything was going to turn out just fine.
~*~
Except that it didn’t turn out that way. Three months after he gave the little computer to Gaeta, Gaeta and seven others were left behind on an abandoned space station. Dee had cried for weeks, and she hadn’t been the only one. His own father still called the new tactical officer by Gaeta’s name, and would frown darkly when he realized his mistake. Even Kara and Tigh, two people more known for their harassment of Gaeta, still spent evenings in the makeshift bar loudly sharing funny stories about one Felix Gaeta. Dee sometimes joined them.
Lee didn’t. He couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d screwed something up, somehow. In his mind, no, in his *heart* he knew he’d done the right thing… that somehow giving that little handheld computer to Gaeta was the thing that would save them all. But Gaeta was certainly dead and the only good thing that seemed to come of it was that the Cylons hadn’t been as active since the fleet had left the abandoned space station. He wasn’t fool enough to think that was a good sign. The space station had been in good shape, and the unique design and obvious, if old signs of human habitation had been the first real, tangible clue that the thirteenth tribe existed. The problem was that the station could be used, and he was certain that the Cylons would use it. That meant it was just a matter of time until the Cylons used the space station for their own gain. As a supply point, so that they could continue to chase the fleet.
He somehow thought things were going to be different, but they weren’t different. He didn’t feel tense and upset. He wasn’t having the dream any more… but he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t quite over.
Which was why he was only slightly surprised when he stepped into his quarters and saw a large blue shack structure squeezed into the small space. A blue shack he recognized. “Um… hello?”
The doors opened. The man from his dream, the Doctor, peered out. “Lee! It’s about time! Come on then!” He held open the door. Lee could just see the inside that was somehow spacious….bigger on the inside.
“I can’t just leave…” Although he suddenly wanted to because he *knew* without a doubt that he’d see incredible things if he went. But he couldn’t. The fleet needed him.
The Doctor looked at him, his expression changing almost imperceptivity. “I know,” he said gently. “But a short trip? I’ll have you back before anyone notices. I thought… you might want some answers.”
“All right…but I have to come back.” He stepped inside. It was enormous inside, filled with odd, unusual equipment. The Doctor began to turn knobs while Lee looked around in awe.
“Well, aren’t you a nice addition?” Lee spun, and found himself looking at an attractive red haired woman. She was clearly sizing him up. “Doctor,” she said, her tone one of interest, a familiar tone, “why can’t all of our pick ups be so handsome.”
“Lee, hold up your hands for Donna,” the Doctor said easily. Lee did so, and Donna’s face suddenly fell.
“A wedding ring,” she sniffed. “It bloody figures.” Her accent reminded Lee of Dr. Baltar, as did her attitude. “So where are we going with him?” Donna managed to sound bored and annoyed.
The Doctor looked at him. “A place we’ve been before.” His look became more shrewd. “You figured out what you needed to do, Lee. I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t.”
“Where’s… where’s Gaeta?” Because Gaeta had been with the Doctor, looking older, almost twenty five years earlier. “How are you here but not older?”
“He’s a Time Lord,” Donna said, rolling her eyes.
“I’m a Time Lord,” the Doctor added cheerfully. “And this ship, the TARDIS, is my time machine.” His pleasant face dimmed slightly. “Felix told me your brother passed away. I was sorry to hear that.”
Lee nodded. It was strange, after so many other deaths, that Zak’s still seemed to kick him in the gut. But… “That night…that night I met you… He would have died if you hadn’t saved him.”
“If you hadn’t saved him,” the Doctor corrected as he continued turning knobs. The ship seemed to come alive and there was a sensation of movement although Lee wasn’t sure exactly what made him think that. The Doctor looked up from the console. “Zak never would have come to me. And yes… he would have died.” He looked at Lee shrewdly. “How much did you figure out?”
“That Zak wasn’t… my father’s son. My mom had an affair… with the owner of the Gobbler Hotel…and it was bigger on the inside, like this place.” Lee looked at him. “The hotel was a ship, like this….and you said it chose Zak as the heir…”
“The heir to his father’s ship…”The Doctor said it easily. “His father was a Time Lord, Lee… a very evil Time Lord. We live a very long time, and… The Master… wanted more than just an heir… He wanted to use the life of his own child… steal the soul from Zak’s body and then use the remaining shell to house his own lifeforce….”
“The Master was a real charmer,” Donna added, with a disgusted tone. “I have to admit though, I laughed when he killed the president of the United States. I think we all did.”
Lee didn’t quite get the humor, or the reference. “But…if the Master was his father… he would have been using his own child….” He hesitated. “He was going to kill Zac so he could use his body… That’s like science fiction…”
“Says the man who lives in a giant spaceship, running from killer robots,” Donna said, not unkindly. “Its like one of those tv shows I used to watch with Granddad. Where are we going, anyway?”
The Doctor smiled, almost secretively. “We’re going to Caprica. One thousand years in the future.” He eyed Lee. “I thought you’d like to see it.” As he spoke, the ship seemed to come to a halt and all of the whirring noise stopped. The Doctor stepped around and opened the doors of the ship and… sunlight streamed in. He grinned. “Come on then.”
Lee stepped out. They were in a park. In the distance, he could see the ruined skyline of Caprica City but… there were also new buildings and he could see ships flying. There were people in the park as well, kids playing, people having picnics. Yet… Lee looked at the lay of the land, the statue that was clearly the signature fixture, and in his mind’s eye, he could see exactly where he was. “This is where the Gobbler Hotel was,” he said, pointing to the statue. And the people….”
“Some are the descendents of actual survivors…” The Doctor walked as he spoke. “Humanity is brilliant in how it adapts. Some of them lived in caves for an entire generation, waiting for the radiation levels to fall… and then the fleet returned, and the rebuilding began.” He smiled at Lee. “And it all happened, not because the humans found a better weapon or that the Cylons just gave up, but because of a human being’s capacity to love. It was your love, Lee, that saved your brother that night. And that was the nail that saved your people.”
“I…I don’t understand,” Lee said after a moment. “I mean, yes I understand that you’re saying my people will survive… I just don’t understand how. And where is Felix Gaeta? And the blonde woman? Rose? And this….” The statue was a stylized representation of a battlestar and there was a low marble wall and marble paving making circle all around it with pillars rising up every few feet. Names were engraved on the pillars, names he recognized… the crew of the Galactica. And… “This is where the pool was. The paradox… it was that Gaeta was there that night when he should have just been a little boy Zak‘s age… and he had my computer. That had my name and rank engraved on it and I didn‘t even get that until a few days before the invasion.”
“You saw it, and that opened the loop.” The Doctor said it easily. “Felix said that you weren’t friends with him, that he had no idea why you gave him the computer… just that it made him feel better, like… humanity could be saved. And it saved his life. Your people left him on that space station to die, and he spent his time using that computer, sabotaging the station so your friends the Cylons couldn’t chase you. That’s when Rose and I found him…. The Cylon attacks… they haven’t been as frequent have they? The last few months, I mean. More erratic… more desperate seeming?”
“Yes… we’re not sure why.” Lee looked at him, worriedly. “Did you do something?”
The Doctor shrugged. “The Cylons did it to themselves. Rose was ill with a mild Earth disease… Earth is real by the way… and the Cylons could have… acted kindly and instead one of them slapped her, and got infected. And died. I think you have an idea of what happened then.”
“The sickness downloaded into all of them…” Lee thought about the recent battles. “The Raiders and Centurions are still following their last orders but with no one giving new orders….They’re all dead?”
“Dead or dying. I’m sure that one or two figured it out in time to avoid the upload. The little computer helped keep Felix alive and he was doing something that caught my interest and that led to Rose being captured and that led to all of Cylon kind dying.” The Doctor smiled. “And it all started here, with you. You were the nail that saved the kingdom.”
Lee looked around, taking it all in. “It’s… a lot to think about. Can I tell people?” Because if the Cylons were dead then they could… stop running.
“They won’t believe you, not for a bit. And Caprica won’t be truly safe to live on for a few hundred years. Besides… Earth is waiting for you.” The Doctor grinned wickedly. “Do me a favor and take a picture of Laura’s face when you get there. Now come on… I need to get you back.”
“Where is Felix Gaeta,” Lee asked as they walked back to the Tardis. “You avoided answering me…is he dead?” Dee at least would appreciate the closure.
“No he’s on 21st Century Earth.” The Doctor’s expression seemed to darken. “He’s got a project he’s working on…The truth is that he’s not speaking to me right now.”
“Why? I mean,” and Lee found it suddenly amusing. “You seem like the kind of guy he’d like.” Then the words in the dream came back to him and he stopped. “You brought Gaeta here to see if…the ship would accept him as the heir. Because….”
The Doctor stopped walking. “I made a mistake, Lee. We all make them, and that wasn’t the worst I ever made… it’s not even the worst mistake I made with Felix. When you see Felix again, you can ask him what you’re about to ask me… but I assure you, he has valid reasons to be angry with me.” He shrugged again, seeming lost in thought. “Fortunately he’s not his father’s son and can forgive people… but that’s neither here nor there, now is it? But back to the point… You saved your brother that night, and you saved your people, and you did it not with a gun, but with kindness. I wish that was my legacy to my people.” The Doctor sighed. “I mean that. I really do.”
Lee found himself nodding. And wondering. But most of all, he found himself feeling hope for the first time in a very long time.
I feel good getting this one done.