Fic - The Next Recruit in Lord Iblis's Secret Service part four
Woo! Its part four! This is a stargate/bsg crossover cowritten with the lovely batsojopo and the previous fics in this series is tagged sgfic :) This part is more fun :)
Earth cars were basically piles of crap. They were all underpowered and the engines ran off dirty liquid fuel. Drivable but only just. She grimaced as she had to slow down on a curve. She wasn’t looking forward to the afternoon’s chore but she also knew how poorly it would reflect on her if she didn’t show up.
Kara Thrace grimaced again as the Saturn Vue slid on the icy road. Helo and Gaeta lived in the mountainous woods and the primitive snow plows didn’t do a great job. She had been invited to the Stargate Command Superbowl party and since she was no longer living in the crazy house, or the crazy halfway house, she knew it was a test of sorts. The party was apparently at Felix Gaeta’s home by tradition and local preference. Apparently Felix had become quite the host. It didn’t shock her. The bastard always had a way of landing on his feet.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Intellectually, she understood that she was directing anger at Felix because he had escaped from Iblis’s prison and that had directly led to her capture and torture. And because he had been the stand in for Leoben when she had lost it after New Caprica. The Earthers were big fans of talking and talking and talking about traumatic events. She wasn’t taken with it, but she had to admit, the nightmares had eased off. She didn’t flinch at loud noises. She could walk around in one of the American shopping malls and not react badly to the crowds. It had been a long six months, only the last few weeks had felt normal. She had her own place, admittedly a temporary apartment, and she had her own car and soon there would be flying in the Earth fighters. And she had a party to attend and she suspected it was a test.
She passed the Agathon home, a new home from what she gathered. They had recently moved, to a freshly built home to house the growing family. Then she pulled into the driveway that lead to Felix Gaeta’s home. It was funny, she thought as she pulled up to the large abode. Gaeta had always been clever and he had designed his home in the style of Caprican mountain homes. Similar enough to what the Earthers called chalets to pass but she could see the styling and she hated having to admit that the place reminded her of home. Of the sort of mountain farms that she went to on school trips. For just a moment, she could imagine being on Caprica.
Then she shook it off and got out of the car. It was snowing, real snow, not radioactive crap, and for an instant she reveled in the crisp air and the cold frost her breath made. I wish Sam was here, she thought suddenly. Or Lee. She shook that off too. Sam was dead, and there was next to no chance Lee Adama would ever be found. This was her life. On Earth. And she had to make nice with Gaeta for a few hours.
She rang the doorbell and in an instant, the door swung open, so hard she almost jumped. A little boy, with red curly hair and fair skin, but otherwise a miniature version of Felix. Then a second boy joined him, identical except that the clothes he was wearing were different. “Hello!” the first shouted. “Are you here for the party?”
“Can I take your coat?” the second shouted. They both looked five or six years old, well grown and healthy. Suddenly a third child ran into the hallway, almost half a head taller, followed by a huge, wolfish looking cinnamon and white dog.
“Guys, your dad said the bao is ready! Come on!” Whatever bow was, it was clearly a sought after treat. All three boys ran down the long hallway, and she saw two smaller children follow them, followed by a leggy blond girl and two more girls with the long dark hair that reminded her of Sharon Agathon. Rose and Martha, Kara realized. Sharon’s little girls, the ones that had just been walking and talking when she had been separated from the fleet. And the blonde girl…
She shook it off. If there had been one decision in her life that she had never doubted, it was handing the squalling baby she’d borne to Helo and Sharon. She would have been a frakking awful mother and Sharon had been cooing over the baby as soon she had been born. The shrink thought she had unresolved issues about it. Maybe that was true, she didn’t know, but the kid looked fine. Tall for seven or eight. Being tall was good. It meant she was Sam’s daughter. It meant that the kid might not be like her. A good thing.
She looked to her right, and was surprised to see something she hadn’t seen in years. A shrine, a family shrine, built into the hallway entrance for people to see when they first entered the home. Very Caprican in design, but it surprised her. Felix had never struck her as traditional, and yet there he was with a traditional family altar, with pictures of his children and wife… She put her hand in the bowl of salt and sprinkled it to the deities. Hephaestus, Athena, and Ares, surprising only in that Felix had personal gods at all, and then to the small t figure. His wife’s god or goddess, she had been given lessons but wasn’t entirely certain of how the Earth gods worked.
“I’m sorry,” said a new, adult figure. Kara looked up. It was Janet, Felix’s wife. She looked radiant, her small figured clearly rounded by pregnancy, her red hair up in what the Earthers called a French braid. “The boys weren’t rude, were they? We’re working on their door manners.” Her face brightened. “I hope you’re hungry, Kara. Felix is making his specialty, Delphi noodles.” The red haired woman smiled pleasantly. “He swears it’s what everyone used to eat at sporting events back home.”
“Sounds good,” Kara said, although her skin seemed alive with gooseflesh. That was the smell, a sweet, savory, onion flavor that seemed to override her senses and remind her of home. There were other scents as well, fresh bread and the bitter yet delicious garlic that was new. At least the bastard can cook, she thought as she followed Janet down the hallway.
It led into an expansive kitchen and family room. One wall was devoted to large, sturdy looking windows braced with logs and timber supports. There were glass doors leading to a large deck, and a barbeque grill had been carefully swept free of snow. Grilled meat was a cultural thing for the Americans. They adored it. They adored sugar too, typically insisting on some sort of sweet at every meal. Their kitchens and cafeterias all seemed to reek of sugar. It had been wonderful, at first, to eat food that had some taste to it, any taste, but once the initial fun was gone, it all started tasting the same. Sweet as hell. Of course, some of that was because it was a hospital. Not bad for a crazy house, and she had become aware that the hospital had been an excellent facility even for Earth standards. But the sugar got on her nerves. The occasional meal at Karl and Sharon’s house was relaxing in part because they tended to cook if not Caprican styled food, it was food that was allowed to taste like what it was… not like a bag of sugar.
The horde of children was hopping about the large marble topped kitchen island as Gaeta set down a group of odd little dishes. Some sort of steamed treat, judging by the water droplets on the dishes and the billowing cloud over the stove. Over one of the stoves, she corrected herself. Felix had a giant kitchen. He was smiling, looking just a little older than when the Cylons had attacked. A side effect of the sarcophagus, she knew. She had started to let some of her rage go when she realized he wasn’t lying about his leg being regrown in the sarcophagus. If a broken bone took hours of agony to be healed… It had to have hurt. And she knew it hurt. She should look forty, when she had been captured, she had been thirty seven and she had looked it. Her reflexes had been going, she should have retired from Vipers and hadn’t because they just didn’t have anyone else, and now she felt twenty five and looked twenty five. And would look and feel twenty five for a few years before the clock started ticking again if Felix was any sign. He was dishing out little white bread like puffs from the steaming trays.
“There’s enough for everyone,” he said in a chiding tone to the little children. “And lunch is soon so everyone gets one, ok?” He looked up and smiled at Janet and then at her. “Kara, I’m glad you made it here, despite the snow. Are you hungry? Lunch is in about an hour, and I’ve got the sauce for the noodles simmering. It’s not quite exact, but I think you’ll like it. In the mean time, would you like some bao?” He held out one of the little white puffs.
“Sure,” she said, taking a seat at the island. The bread like white puff ball had that sugary sent but also a meaty aroma, and when she bit into it, she understood why all the kids wanted some. The bread was lightly sweetened, and there was meat inside, with a sweet, yet savory sauce. What the Earthers called barbeque sauce, but not quite so doused in sugar as the barbequed foods she had sampled. “It’s good,” she admitted.
“It’s yum!” one of the children said, the dark haired little boy that had the dog by his side. He handed the treat to a toddler, who had similar features. “Here Georgie, you try it!”
There were more little bread pockets handed out and soon she was alone at the island, with Felix fussing over pots and pans while Karl Agathon sidled up to the marble topped counter. “Got any more, Felix?” he asked. In a second, Sharon was at his side, looking as she always did. Another one that didn’t age, although for different reasons.
“I’m glad you came, Kara,” Sharon said warmly.
“You look good,” Karl added. She nodded to him, and wondered suddenly if it bothered him. She was forty and looked twenty five, and Felix Gaeta was in the same boat, and Sharon was a Cylon who might be aging but also might not be aging all that much in comparison to her husband, who looked his age. He looked at her carefully. “I saw your name on the flight schedule, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I was cleared this week.” Which was nice. The Americans had some quick little fighters. Based on Goa’uld tech for the most part, but she knew Karl was working on a sleeker version of the colonial Raptor for the Air Force. Sharon was involved, and she still wasn’t entirely certain what Gaeta did with SG Command. Scientific research of some sort, she wasn’t sure what. He’d done the initial designs for the Stargate craft, and she had the impression that he was involved in researching how to make Goa’uld and Ancient technology work for humans.
“Well, good,” Helo said, grinning. “I need someone to keep all the damn kids in check. Gods, Kara, all they do is whine about who went the fastest or who got the most kills in the exercise. Were we ever like that?”
“Every day and we were probably worse,” Kara said after a moment. She sensed that Helo was uncomfortable about the age issue. She wondered suddenly if he had the typical reaction to the sarcophagus, if he felt good and invigorated afterward.
“They have so many rules,” Sharon said, her tone scoffing. “It drives me crazy. All the pilots and RTOs have college degrees in engineering. They’re smart, but it’s pretty rare to find someone with combat experience. They’re soft. Try not to beat anyone up when you meet them, Starbuck.” She grinned, and for an instant Kara remembered the fun they used to have in the ready room. Then one of the kids started to get loud and Sharon and Helo were off in an instant to settle the argument, leaving her with Felix.
“So, where are you living, Kara?” Felix asked as he stirred one of the pots.
Making conversation, Kara decided. “Some apartment complex in Colorado City. It’s small but I can afford it.” Her wages weren’t unreasonable. Her Saturn Vue, while hardly a luxury car, was fully paid for.
“Janet and I have a proposition for you. You don‘t have to agree to it, of course.” He said it carefully. “Did you notice the house being built just down the road?”
She nodded, suddenly wary. “Not as big as this place but nice.” She wasn’t sure where he was going.
“Janet and I own it. Janet’s father was planning to move here. We already built a house for him, it’s a log cabin sort of structure, out on our property. I’m sure you noticed the access road.” Gaeta said.
“I did.” It almost made her smile. She hadn’t suspected that Gaeta of all people was so old school. It was a quaint Caprican custom, for those who could still afford it, to have a parent living on owned property but in a separate house.
“Unfortunately,” Gaeta said, sounding genuinely sad, “Patrick had a stroke. He’ll make a full recovery but Janet isn’t comfortable with him living in a house that’s so far off the beaten path. He didn’t know we had already built him a house, so he’s delighted with the house we’re currently building, but that leaves us with a house to rent. I wanted to offer it to you.”
“I don’t need charity, Gaeta. I have a job. I already have an apartment.” It occurred to her, suddenly, that she was alone with Gaeta, that the children and adults had all left although she could still hear the laughing conversation.
“I’m not offering charity.” Gaeta said easily. “I plan to charge you rent, and market value rent. The place is bright and open… Janet’s father used to paint as a hobby so we set up with studio space, and we thought we’d offer it to you before we listed it. It’s out in the woods on our land so it’s pretty private and quiet but not a bad drive to work. Do you want to look at it?”
“I hope you will,” a new voice said. Kara spun around but it was Janet. Janet smiled pleasantly as she walked around the kitchen island and curled around Felix. “I hate to see the place sit empty. Do you want to see it?”
It would look bad if she said no, Kara reasoned.
~*~
Earth cars were basically piles of crap. They were all underpowered and the engines ran off dirty liquid fuel. Drivable but only just. She grimaced as she had to slow down on a curve. She wasn’t looking forward to the afternoon’s chore but she also knew how poorly it would reflect on her if she didn’t show up.
Kara Thrace grimaced again as the Saturn Vue slid on the icy road. Helo and Gaeta lived in the mountainous woods and the primitive snow plows didn’t do a great job. She had been invited to the Stargate Command Superbowl party and since she was no longer living in the crazy house, or the crazy halfway house, she knew it was a test of sorts. The party was apparently at Felix Gaeta’s home by tradition and local preference. Apparently Felix had become quite the host. It didn’t shock her. The bastard always had a way of landing on his feet.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Intellectually, she understood that she was directing anger at Felix because he had escaped from Iblis’s prison and that had directly led to her capture and torture. And because he had been the stand in for Leoben when she had lost it after New Caprica. The Earthers were big fans of talking and talking and talking about traumatic events. She wasn’t taken with it, but she had to admit, the nightmares had eased off. She didn’t flinch at loud noises. She could walk around in one of the American shopping malls and not react badly to the crowds. It had been a long six months, only the last few weeks had felt normal. She had her own place, admittedly a temporary apartment, and she had her own car and soon there would be flying in the Earth fighters. And she had a party to attend and she suspected it was a test.
She passed the Agathon home, a new home from what she gathered. They had recently moved, to a freshly built home to house the growing family. Then she pulled into the driveway that lead to Felix Gaeta’s home. It was funny, she thought as she pulled up to the large abode. Gaeta had always been clever and he had designed his home in the style of Caprican mountain homes. Similar enough to what the Earthers called chalets to pass but she could see the styling and she hated having to admit that the place reminded her of home. Of the sort of mountain farms that she went to on school trips. For just a moment, she could imagine being on Caprica.
Then she shook it off and got out of the car. It was snowing, real snow, not radioactive crap, and for an instant she reveled in the crisp air and the cold frost her breath made. I wish Sam was here, she thought suddenly. Or Lee. She shook that off too. Sam was dead, and there was next to no chance Lee Adama would ever be found. This was her life. On Earth. And she had to make nice with Gaeta for a few hours.
She rang the doorbell and in an instant, the door swung open, so hard she almost jumped. A little boy, with red curly hair and fair skin, but otherwise a miniature version of Felix. Then a second boy joined him, identical except that the clothes he was wearing were different. “Hello!” the first shouted. “Are you here for the party?”
“Can I take your coat?” the second shouted. They both looked five or six years old, well grown and healthy. Suddenly a third child ran into the hallway, almost half a head taller, followed by a huge, wolfish looking cinnamon and white dog.
“Guys, your dad said the bao is ready! Come on!” Whatever bow was, it was clearly a sought after treat. All three boys ran down the long hallway, and she saw two smaller children follow them, followed by a leggy blond girl and two more girls with the long dark hair that reminded her of Sharon Agathon. Rose and Martha, Kara realized. Sharon’s little girls, the ones that had just been walking and talking when she had been separated from the fleet. And the blonde girl…
She shook it off. If there had been one decision in her life that she had never doubted, it was handing the squalling baby she’d borne to Helo and Sharon. She would have been a frakking awful mother and Sharon had been cooing over the baby as soon she had been born. The shrink thought she had unresolved issues about it. Maybe that was true, she didn’t know, but the kid looked fine. Tall for seven or eight. Being tall was good. It meant she was Sam’s daughter. It meant that the kid might not be like her. A good thing.
She looked to her right, and was surprised to see something she hadn’t seen in years. A shrine, a family shrine, built into the hallway entrance for people to see when they first entered the home. Very Caprican in design, but it surprised her. Felix had never struck her as traditional, and yet there he was with a traditional family altar, with pictures of his children and wife… She put her hand in the bowl of salt and sprinkled it to the deities. Hephaestus, Athena, and Ares, surprising only in that Felix had personal gods at all, and then to the small t figure. His wife’s god or goddess, she had been given lessons but wasn’t entirely certain of how the Earth gods worked.
“I’m sorry,” said a new, adult figure. Kara looked up. It was Janet, Felix’s wife. She looked radiant, her small figured clearly rounded by pregnancy, her red hair up in what the Earthers called a French braid. “The boys weren’t rude, were they? We’re working on their door manners.” Her face brightened. “I hope you’re hungry, Kara. Felix is making his specialty, Delphi noodles.” The red haired woman smiled pleasantly. “He swears it’s what everyone used to eat at sporting events back home.”
“Sounds good,” Kara said, although her skin seemed alive with gooseflesh. That was the smell, a sweet, savory, onion flavor that seemed to override her senses and remind her of home. There were other scents as well, fresh bread and the bitter yet delicious garlic that was new. At least the bastard can cook, she thought as she followed Janet down the hallway.
It led into an expansive kitchen and family room. One wall was devoted to large, sturdy looking windows braced with logs and timber supports. There were glass doors leading to a large deck, and a barbeque grill had been carefully swept free of snow. Grilled meat was a cultural thing for the Americans. They adored it. They adored sugar too, typically insisting on some sort of sweet at every meal. Their kitchens and cafeterias all seemed to reek of sugar. It had been wonderful, at first, to eat food that had some taste to it, any taste, but once the initial fun was gone, it all started tasting the same. Sweet as hell. Of course, some of that was because it was a hospital. Not bad for a crazy house, and she had become aware that the hospital had been an excellent facility even for Earth standards. But the sugar got on her nerves. The occasional meal at Karl and Sharon’s house was relaxing in part because they tended to cook if not Caprican styled food, it was food that was allowed to taste like what it was… not like a bag of sugar.
The horde of children was hopping about the large marble topped kitchen island as Gaeta set down a group of odd little dishes. Some sort of steamed treat, judging by the water droplets on the dishes and the billowing cloud over the stove. Over one of the stoves, she corrected herself. Felix had a giant kitchen. He was smiling, looking just a little older than when the Cylons had attacked. A side effect of the sarcophagus, she knew. She had started to let some of her rage go when she realized he wasn’t lying about his leg being regrown in the sarcophagus. If a broken bone took hours of agony to be healed… It had to have hurt. And she knew it hurt. She should look forty, when she had been captured, she had been thirty seven and she had looked it. Her reflexes had been going, she should have retired from Vipers and hadn’t because they just didn’t have anyone else, and now she felt twenty five and looked twenty five. And would look and feel twenty five for a few years before the clock started ticking again if Felix was any sign. He was dishing out little white bread like puffs from the steaming trays.
“There’s enough for everyone,” he said in a chiding tone to the little children. “And lunch is soon so everyone gets one, ok?” He looked up and smiled at Janet and then at her. “Kara, I’m glad you made it here, despite the snow. Are you hungry? Lunch is in about an hour, and I’ve got the sauce for the noodles simmering. It’s not quite exact, but I think you’ll like it. In the mean time, would you like some bao?” He held out one of the little white puffs.
“Sure,” she said, taking a seat at the island. The bread like white puff ball had that sugary sent but also a meaty aroma, and when she bit into it, she understood why all the kids wanted some. The bread was lightly sweetened, and there was meat inside, with a sweet, yet savory sauce. What the Earthers called barbeque sauce, but not quite so doused in sugar as the barbequed foods she had sampled. “It’s good,” she admitted.
“It’s yum!” one of the children said, the dark haired little boy that had the dog by his side. He handed the treat to a toddler, who had similar features. “Here Georgie, you try it!”
There were more little bread pockets handed out and soon she was alone at the island, with Felix fussing over pots and pans while Karl Agathon sidled up to the marble topped counter. “Got any more, Felix?” he asked. In a second, Sharon was at his side, looking as she always did. Another one that didn’t age, although for different reasons.
“I’m glad you came, Kara,” Sharon said warmly.
“You look good,” Karl added. She nodded to him, and wondered suddenly if it bothered him. She was forty and looked twenty five, and Felix Gaeta was in the same boat, and Sharon was a Cylon who might be aging but also might not be aging all that much in comparison to her husband, who looked his age. He looked at her carefully. “I saw your name on the flight schedule, didn’t I?”
“Yes. I was cleared this week.” Which was nice. The Americans had some quick little fighters. Based on Goa’uld tech for the most part, but she knew Karl was working on a sleeker version of the colonial Raptor for the Air Force. Sharon was involved, and she still wasn’t entirely certain what Gaeta did with SG Command. Scientific research of some sort, she wasn’t sure what. He’d done the initial designs for the Stargate craft, and she had the impression that he was involved in researching how to make Goa’uld and Ancient technology work for humans.
“Well, good,” Helo said, grinning. “I need someone to keep all the damn kids in check. Gods, Kara, all they do is whine about who went the fastest or who got the most kills in the exercise. Were we ever like that?”
“Every day and we were probably worse,” Kara said after a moment. She sensed that Helo was uncomfortable about the age issue. She wondered suddenly if he had the typical reaction to the sarcophagus, if he felt good and invigorated afterward.
“They have so many rules,” Sharon said, her tone scoffing. “It drives me crazy. All the pilots and RTOs have college degrees in engineering. They’re smart, but it’s pretty rare to find someone with combat experience. They’re soft. Try not to beat anyone up when you meet them, Starbuck.” She grinned, and for an instant Kara remembered the fun they used to have in the ready room. Then one of the kids started to get loud and Sharon and Helo were off in an instant to settle the argument, leaving her with Felix.
“So, where are you living, Kara?” Felix asked as he stirred one of the pots.
Making conversation, Kara decided. “Some apartment complex in Colorado City. It’s small but I can afford it.” Her wages weren’t unreasonable. Her Saturn Vue, while hardly a luxury car, was fully paid for.
“Janet and I have a proposition for you. You don‘t have to agree to it, of course.” He said it carefully. “Did you notice the house being built just down the road?”
She nodded, suddenly wary. “Not as big as this place but nice.” She wasn’t sure where he was going.
“Janet and I own it. Janet’s father was planning to move here. We already built a house for him, it’s a log cabin sort of structure, out on our property. I’m sure you noticed the access road.” Gaeta said.
“I did.” It almost made her smile. She hadn’t suspected that Gaeta of all people was so old school. It was a quaint Caprican custom, for those who could still afford it, to have a parent living on owned property but in a separate house.
“Unfortunately,” Gaeta said, sounding genuinely sad, “Patrick had a stroke. He’ll make a full recovery but Janet isn’t comfortable with him living in a house that’s so far off the beaten path. He didn’t know we had already built him a house, so he’s delighted with the house we’re currently building, but that leaves us with a house to rent. I wanted to offer it to you.”
“I don’t need charity, Gaeta. I have a job. I already have an apartment.” It occurred to her, suddenly, that she was alone with Gaeta, that the children and adults had all left although she could still hear the laughing conversation.
“I’m not offering charity.” Gaeta said easily. “I plan to charge you rent, and market value rent. The place is bright and open… Janet’s father used to paint as a hobby so we set up with studio space, and we thought we’d offer it to you before we listed it. It’s out in the woods on our land so it’s pretty private and quiet but not a bad drive to work. Do you want to look at it?”
“I hope you will,” a new voice said. Kara spun around but it was Janet. Janet smiled pleasantly as she walked around the kitchen island and curled around Felix. “I hate to see the place sit empty. Do you want to see it?”
It would look bad if she said no, Kara reasoned.
~*~