Fic - "The Golden Ship part 9"
Wow, I feel really bad that I haven't worked on this in a while so here we are. When last we left our merry band, things were awkward. Earth had been found, only it was post Big Death Earth, thanks to our US tax dollars at work, and the fleet had sent scout teams to basically act as canaries in a coal mine. Felix Gaeta, who suspiciously looks like David the Prophet, was captured by Jeremiah, who suspects Gaeta/David of mass murder, and drags him to Thunder Mountain. Kara Thrace promptly decides to sneak into Thunder Mountain because she's feeling a twinge of guilt about how poorly she handles her rage issues. Meanwhile the Cylons actually got to Earth first and ran into some unpleasant issues of their own. Felix, noticing that Sarah, Markus's aide, is a dead ringer for Number Six, promptly spilled the truth about the space ships floating above to Markus, Jeremiah and Kurdy. Both Felix and Kara get the unpleasant, shocking news that the fleet has taken off. Markus, sensing that Felix might be useful, has taken a personal interest in Felix....
Tagged with Jeremiahfic
He was cold. It was almost laughable, really. The Galactica was hardly warm, but when he was on board, he was in a warm uniform, and not a thin t-shirt and pair of sweat pants. Worse, while Thunder Mountain was certainly warmer than the icy winter weather outside that he and Kara had been sleeping in, it was essentially a hollowed out mountain, and only small rooms ever really got warm. The ambient temperature was a few degrees lower than the Galactica and he just couldn’t seem to adjust when he wasn’t covered by blankets.
He had spent the last four days ensconced in Markus’s private quarters. It was a breakdown of sorts. It had been necessary, he realized that after the second day. He had spent so much time running and solving problems and trying to save people… The fleet leaving had broken something inside of him. He had no mission left, not really. He could tell himself that he had to keep on mission all he wanted, but without a fleet to report back to, it was meaningless. He was stuck, on Earth. If they had left, because of the disease or because of the Cylons… it didn’t matter, not really. The Admiral wasn’t one to backtrack once he had made a decision. The only dim hope he had was that it would hurt Adama to leave Kara behind. And even that was reaching. They had been abandoned. He had been abandoned, and for the first time since he had joined the military, he had no orders. There was no point in reconnoitering for people who would never come back. He was on his own, free to make his own decisions about how he was going to live the rest of his life.
That was frightening.
At least Cassie had taken the heavy plaster cast off the night before. She had replaced with a softer cast, what she called a walking cast. She had been chiding Markus, he had heard that through the closed door, for keeping him confined and not encouraging him to exercise. There had been more of an argument than that, but they had either lowered their voices or moved to a different room. He hadn’t felt like chasing them, and he understood Cassie’s point. So had Markus, who had awakened him that morning with a quick shake and a suggestion that if he wanted breakfast, it was downstairs in the cafeteria. The man had left almost immediately after and Felix understood that it was a test of sorts. He had caught enough of the argument to know that Cassie was worried about his mental state. A lot of psychobabble nonsense about regression, but he understood her point. She was nicer about the truth than Dr. Cottle would have been. It was time to stop crying and start coping.
Cottle would have already slapped him a few times, that was the truth. Four days of doing nothing but sleeping and eating and talking with Markus was enough. He was reasonably healthy, the Cylons were a concern but he had been around them long enough to know that the sickness that had killed them would certainly frighten them. The fleet would come back or not. For a change, he was the lucky one. He was in the one place on Earth that seemed to be interested in advancing forward. He was even becoming convinced that Markus genuinely liked him. He was wary about it, if he had learned anything from being Gauis Baltar’s aide, it was that politicians used people. And Markus was a politician, not naïve about people at all. He had suspected the friendliness and concern was an act, at least as first. He wasn’t as certain of that anymore. What he had expected, that Markus would at some point invite himself into the bed for sex, hadn’t happened.
It surprised him, because he could tell Markus was interested. At first he assumed that Markus just had scruples about using sex as a tool, which had surprised Felix. It was a primitive society, and he understood implicitly why Markus had put him in his own quarters. The man was declaring to his people that he was protecting Felix. It had been handled subtly but the few people he had seen seemed to understand exactly what Markus was doing as well, and seemingly approved or at least weren‘t bothered. The problem with protection was that it usually involved some obligation. He had expected Markus to want sex in return for the protection from his lieutenants. He had been prepared to do whatever Markus wanted, he understood how the game was played. He had just been pleased that it didn’t seem like Markus was going to force him, or be violent, and that the man hadn’t just jumped into bed with him. He didn’t exactly like the idea of exchanging sex for protection, but it wasn’t the worst thing and he was still a prisoner. A choice between having a frak in a clean bed with someone reasonably attractive, or being thrown in a cell and beaten again, he knew what the smart choice was. But as the days had passed, he began to get the feeling he had misread the situation. Markus seemed to like him… but the man seemed almost hyper aware every time they touched, to the point where Felix was uncomfortably aware that Markus was nervous about physical contact. It was confusing, that was the truth.
Confusing, but certainly not the worst problem he was facing. If Markus didn’t want obligatory sex, he was fine with that, and if Markus did want that… Markus was attractive and running the show. He could see liking Markus, he did like Markus. He’d had sex with much worse people, for much worse reasons.
The cafeteria was almost empty. It really was rather early, he realized as he grabbed a tray. Markus had been working every morning when he had awakened. He wondered about that as well. Markus took the job of leading the people seriously, and it was obvious how his people loved him. If I’m stuck here, he told himself as he sat down at an empty table, it could be worse. They could use someone with his education and skills. He could be a part of the rebuilding that they all talked about, that Markus talked about. Building a new society…. That was a dream he had given up on when the Cylons invaded and as much as the fleet leaving him behind hurt, he couldn’t stop himself from starting to think about the possibilities. Markus had so few people but so much more to work with. The plan to get the hydroelectric plant working so that the local villages could be powered… Not only would it build good will and new allies, it would free people from manual labor for other work.
He was scooping the corned beef hash and eggs onto his toast when Kara Thrace took the seat across from him. “I’ve got bad news,” she said quietly as she looked around furtively. “The fleet’s gone. About six days ago.”
“I know,” he said equally quietly.
“You know?” She seemed taken back. He almost smiled but stopped himself in time. Kara didn’t handle anything that even hinted of teasing well.
In an even lower voice, mindful of the people who were starting to file in for breakfast, he said, “I know. And more importantly the people here know.”
Her eyes blazed. “You told. You bastard.”
“No,” he said as he sipped his cup of coffee, relishing the taste. “The higher up people here…. They have a telescope and a camera. They took pictures of the fleet. They were watching it. They thought the fleet was Cylons.” He knew in a matter of seconds that someone else would join them at the table. Kara knew how to turn on the charm and lead, he would never say otherwise, and her new teammates seemed to defer to her and look up to her. He could see them in the line forming for breakfast.
“What about the Cylons?” she hissed.
“They have two dormant Centurions somewhere in this facility,” he shot back. “The skin jobs died pretty quick from some disease that isn’t the Big Death, and the Centurions were left behind. The people here thought I was a Cylon skinjob.” He hesitated. Kara would understand soon enough. He could see in her eyes that she hadn’t yet accepted that the fleet was gone. She would, he could see the possibility dawning on her even as she looked at him. Until then, he was simply glad she couldn’t lay a hand on him without breaking her own cover. “I had to tell them what the fleet was. They’ve been attacked by Cylons. They’re in danger and part of this mission was keeping Earth safe.” He waited a moment. “They know about me because I had to convince them that the Cylon threat is real. They don’t know about you or anyone else.”
He hoped that would keep her from leaping over the table and strangling him.
After a long moment, she nodded. “We would have had to reveal ourselves eventually and they know what space travel is. If they have pictures…” She seemed to consider something and then shook it off. “Doesn’t matter. You look better. There’s a couple different ways out. As soon as you lose the cast, we can get out and regroup with Racetrack, Ishay and Tyrol and figure out what to do next.”
Felix sighed. “Kara… has it occurred to you that they might have been allowed to rejoin the fleet?” The time period of the quarantine was almost up. No one had gotten sick and Cottle had agreed with their findings, that the sickness seemed to have burned itself out. “If they are still here, and not dead, then what? The five of us rebuild colonial society in some cabin in the woods?” He let his hands rest on the table. “I’m still under lockdown here. If you get outside, and you will, I know the hydroelectric project is heading out soon, then if you find the others, get them to volunteer here.”
Kara’s eyes flashed again. “Are you giving me orders, Gaeta?”
At that moment, the young teenager that had been with Kara before also took a seat at the table. Amy or Amanda, he wasn’t sure of her name, he had still been on painkillers. The young woman was pretty, in a gangly teenager way and she smiled brightly at him. “Hey! You don’t look so bad anymore. Are we still not supposed to talk to you since you’re a suspected murderer?”
He let himself smile. “It has been decided that I couldn’t be the person they thought and since I know some useful skills, Markus has decided to allow me to stay.” Kara sniffed derisively but he didn’t let it bother him. Kara would come around, or not. He thought she would, as soon as she accepted that Bill Adama wasn’t coming back for her.
Amanda nodded and began talking excitedly about the hydroelectric project. It was obvious that Amanda was on board with Thunder Mountain’s plan to restart the electric plant. It was easy to just nod to the patter, and even Kara seemed resigned to letting it flow over her. He continued eating, pausing only when Amanda’s stream of conscious chatter trailed off with, “ Oh look, that’s Markus.”
She said it in a way that implied awe. He wasn’t surprised. If even half of what people in Thunder Mountain said was true, Markus had almost single handedly preserved Thunder Mountain as the last remnant of the world before the massive die off. Markus was, from talking with him, an intellect on Baltar’s level. Which both fascinated him and worried him. He turned at where Amanda was pointing. Sure enough it was Markus striding through the cafeteria, nodding at wellwishers and carrying a green military styled jacket. His eyes actually it up when he spotted their table, and Felix wondered again what Markus’s intent was.
“Felix, I saw you shivering from up in my main office.” Markus gestured to the second level glass enclosure that overlooked the cafeteria. He held out the jacket. “The mountain is chilly and you’re barely recovered from what happened. Put this on, finish up your breakfast and then I’d like to see you in my office. I have some research I’d like you to work on.” Markus glanced at the two women at the table and smiled pleasantly. “Aren’t the two of you part of the new power team? Everyone is very impressed with how well you’re coming. The project is vital and I am glad you both were willing to join us.” He held out his hand for a handshake, and Amanda was quick to grasp it. Nicely done, Felix thought suddenly as he watched Kara’s face. Markus had the touch of a true leader, knowing just how to handle people.
Except of course, Kara was barely functional as a human being and was assuming the worse as she glared at him while he put on the jacket.
Tagged with Jeremiahfic
He was cold. It was almost laughable, really. The Galactica was hardly warm, but when he was on board, he was in a warm uniform, and not a thin t-shirt and pair of sweat pants. Worse, while Thunder Mountain was certainly warmer than the icy winter weather outside that he and Kara had been sleeping in, it was essentially a hollowed out mountain, and only small rooms ever really got warm. The ambient temperature was a few degrees lower than the Galactica and he just couldn’t seem to adjust when he wasn’t covered by blankets.
He had spent the last four days ensconced in Markus’s private quarters. It was a breakdown of sorts. It had been necessary, he realized that after the second day. He had spent so much time running and solving problems and trying to save people… The fleet leaving had broken something inside of him. He had no mission left, not really. He could tell himself that he had to keep on mission all he wanted, but without a fleet to report back to, it was meaningless. He was stuck, on Earth. If they had left, because of the disease or because of the Cylons… it didn’t matter, not really. The Admiral wasn’t one to backtrack once he had made a decision. The only dim hope he had was that it would hurt Adama to leave Kara behind. And even that was reaching. They had been abandoned. He had been abandoned, and for the first time since he had joined the military, he had no orders. There was no point in reconnoitering for people who would never come back. He was on his own, free to make his own decisions about how he was going to live the rest of his life.
That was frightening.
At least Cassie had taken the heavy plaster cast off the night before. She had replaced with a softer cast, what she called a walking cast. She had been chiding Markus, he had heard that through the closed door, for keeping him confined and not encouraging him to exercise. There had been more of an argument than that, but they had either lowered their voices or moved to a different room. He hadn’t felt like chasing them, and he understood Cassie’s point. So had Markus, who had awakened him that morning with a quick shake and a suggestion that if he wanted breakfast, it was downstairs in the cafeteria. The man had left almost immediately after and Felix understood that it was a test of sorts. He had caught enough of the argument to know that Cassie was worried about his mental state. A lot of psychobabble nonsense about regression, but he understood her point. She was nicer about the truth than Dr. Cottle would have been. It was time to stop crying and start coping.
Cottle would have already slapped him a few times, that was the truth. Four days of doing nothing but sleeping and eating and talking with Markus was enough. He was reasonably healthy, the Cylons were a concern but he had been around them long enough to know that the sickness that had killed them would certainly frighten them. The fleet would come back or not. For a change, he was the lucky one. He was in the one place on Earth that seemed to be interested in advancing forward. He was even becoming convinced that Markus genuinely liked him. He was wary about it, if he had learned anything from being Gauis Baltar’s aide, it was that politicians used people. And Markus was a politician, not naïve about people at all. He had suspected the friendliness and concern was an act, at least as first. He wasn’t as certain of that anymore. What he had expected, that Markus would at some point invite himself into the bed for sex, hadn’t happened.
It surprised him, because he could tell Markus was interested. At first he assumed that Markus just had scruples about using sex as a tool, which had surprised Felix. It was a primitive society, and he understood implicitly why Markus had put him in his own quarters. The man was declaring to his people that he was protecting Felix. It had been handled subtly but the few people he had seen seemed to understand exactly what Markus was doing as well, and seemingly approved or at least weren‘t bothered. The problem with protection was that it usually involved some obligation. He had expected Markus to want sex in return for the protection from his lieutenants. He had been prepared to do whatever Markus wanted, he understood how the game was played. He had just been pleased that it didn’t seem like Markus was going to force him, or be violent, and that the man hadn’t just jumped into bed with him. He didn’t exactly like the idea of exchanging sex for protection, but it wasn’t the worst thing and he was still a prisoner. A choice between having a frak in a clean bed with someone reasonably attractive, or being thrown in a cell and beaten again, he knew what the smart choice was. But as the days had passed, he began to get the feeling he had misread the situation. Markus seemed to like him… but the man seemed almost hyper aware every time they touched, to the point where Felix was uncomfortably aware that Markus was nervous about physical contact. It was confusing, that was the truth.
Confusing, but certainly not the worst problem he was facing. If Markus didn’t want obligatory sex, he was fine with that, and if Markus did want that… Markus was attractive and running the show. He could see liking Markus, he did like Markus. He’d had sex with much worse people, for much worse reasons.
The cafeteria was almost empty. It really was rather early, he realized as he grabbed a tray. Markus had been working every morning when he had awakened. He wondered about that as well. Markus took the job of leading the people seriously, and it was obvious how his people loved him. If I’m stuck here, he told himself as he sat down at an empty table, it could be worse. They could use someone with his education and skills. He could be a part of the rebuilding that they all talked about, that Markus talked about. Building a new society…. That was a dream he had given up on when the Cylons invaded and as much as the fleet leaving him behind hurt, he couldn’t stop himself from starting to think about the possibilities. Markus had so few people but so much more to work with. The plan to get the hydroelectric plant working so that the local villages could be powered… Not only would it build good will and new allies, it would free people from manual labor for other work.
He was scooping the corned beef hash and eggs onto his toast when Kara Thrace took the seat across from him. “I’ve got bad news,” she said quietly as she looked around furtively. “The fleet’s gone. About six days ago.”
“I know,” he said equally quietly.
“You know?” She seemed taken back. He almost smiled but stopped himself in time. Kara didn’t handle anything that even hinted of teasing well.
In an even lower voice, mindful of the people who were starting to file in for breakfast, he said, “I know. And more importantly the people here know.”
Her eyes blazed. “You told. You bastard.”
“No,” he said as he sipped his cup of coffee, relishing the taste. “The higher up people here…. They have a telescope and a camera. They took pictures of the fleet. They were watching it. They thought the fleet was Cylons.” He knew in a matter of seconds that someone else would join them at the table. Kara knew how to turn on the charm and lead, he would never say otherwise, and her new teammates seemed to defer to her and look up to her. He could see them in the line forming for breakfast.
“What about the Cylons?” she hissed.
“They have two dormant Centurions somewhere in this facility,” he shot back. “The skin jobs died pretty quick from some disease that isn’t the Big Death, and the Centurions were left behind. The people here thought I was a Cylon skinjob.” He hesitated. Kara would understand soon enough. He could see in her eyes that she hadn’t yet accepted that the fleet was gone. She would, he could see the possibility dawning on her even as she looked at him. Until then, he was simply glad she couldn’t lay a hand on him without breaking her own cover. “I had to tell them what the fleet was. They’ve been attacked by Cylons. They’re in danger and part of this mission was keeping Earth safe.” He waited a moment. “They know about me because I had to convince them that the Cylon threat is real. They don’t know about you or anyone else.”
He hoped that would keep her from leaping over the table and strangling him.
After a long moment, she nodded. “We would have had to reveal ourselves eventually and they know what space travel is. If they have pictures…” She seemed to consider something and then shook it off. “Doesn’t matter. You look better. There’s a couple different ways out. As soon as you lose the cast, we can get out and regroup with Racetrack, Ishay and Tyrol and figure out what to do next.”
Felix sighed. “Kara… has it occurred to you that they might have been allowed to rejoin the fleet?” The time period of the quarantine was almost up. No one had gotten sick and Cottle had agreed with their findings, that the sickness seemed to have burned itself out. “If they are still here, and not dead, then what? The five of us rebuild colonial society in some cabin in the woods?” He let his hands rest on the table. “I’m still under lockdown here. If you get outside, and you will, I know the hydroelectric project is heading out soon, then if you find the others, get them to volunteer here.”
Kara’s eyes flashed again. “Are you giving me orders, Gaeta?”
At that moment, the young teenager that had been with Kara before also took a seat at the table. Amy or Amanda, he wasn’t sure of her name, he had still been on painkillers. The young woman was pretty, in a gangly teenager way and she smiled brightly at him. “Hey! You don’t look so bad anymore. Are we still not supposed to talk to you since you’re a suspected murderer?”
He let himself smile. “It has been decided that I couldn’t be the person they thought and since I know some useful skills, Markus has decided to allow me to stay.” Kara sniffed derisively but he didn’t let it bother him. Kara would come around, or not. He thought she would, as soon as she accepted that Bill Adama wasn’t coming back for her.
Amanda nodded and began talking excitedly about the hydroelectric project. It was obvious that Amanda was on board with Thunder Mountain’s plan to restart the electric plant. It was easy to just nod to the patter, and even Kara seemed resigned to letting it flow over her. He continued eating, pausing only when Amanda’s stream of conscious chatter trailed off with, “ Oh look, that’s Markus.”
She said it in a way that implied awe. He wasn’t surprised. If even half of what people in Thunder Mountain said was true, Markus had almost single handedly preserved Thunder Mountain as the last remnant of the world before the massive die off. Markus was, from talking with him, an intellect on Baltar’s level. Which both fascinated him and worried him. He turned at where Amanda was pointing. Sure enough it was Markus striding through the cafeteria, nodding at wellwishers and carrying a green military styled jacket. His eyes actually it up when he spotted their table, and Felix wondered again what Markus’s intent was.
“Felix, I saw you shivering from up in my main office.” Markus gestured to the second level glass enclosure that overlooked the cafeteria. He held out the jacket. “The mountain is chilly and you’re barely recovered from what happened. Put this on, finish up your breakfast and then I’d like to see you in my office. I have some research I’d like you to work on.” Markus glanced at the two women at the table and smiled pleasantly. “Aren’t the two of you part of the new power team? Everyone is very impressed with how well you’re coming. The project is vital and I am glad you both were willing to join us.” He held out his hand for a handshake, and Amanda was quick to grasp it. Nicely done, Felix thought suddenly as he watched Kara’s face. Markus had the touch of a true leader, knowing just how to handle people.
Except of course, Kara was barely functional as a human being and was assuming the worse as she glared at him while he put on the jacket.