Fic - The Golden Ship part 15
Part 15! I think I might have mojo back on fanfic due to a schedule change so hopefully there will be more soon! So when last we met, Felix had finally gotten Ishay and Tyrol into Thunder Mountain. Tyrol and Felix mend fences a bit and Felix finally clued in that there's one more doppleganger from the fleet, one Anastasia Dualla who looks an awful lot like Kurdy's now dead girlfriend Elizabeth. Meanwhile Kara got Maggie "Racetrack" Edmondsen into Thunder Mountain as well as part of the cool engineering squad. The fleet took off, mostly because the Cylons attacked and everyone is trying to make the best of it. Kara refuses to give up the mission despite the obvious problem of the fleet being gone, and Maggie is grudging going along with it. Felix managed to blab everything about the fleet to Markus, mostly because of all the Cylons who promptly got sick and died of chickenpox. SO there we are - oh and it's tagged Jeremiahfic.
She didn’t like it. It wasn’t impossible, she had stayed awake in enough of the engineering classes to know the plan was workable. The problem, Kara thought darkly as she looked at the map, was that all the maps were out of date by 17 years. “How the hell did this route get approved without someone noticing the gods damned bridge was out?”
Several of the crew snickered. So did Kurdy, who threw up his hands good naturedly. “Don’t blame me, the bridge was here when I did the survey last month. Jeremiah, didn’t you and Smith use this route on your last trip? Last week?”
Kara wasn’t surprised to see Jeremiah nod. “I’m no building expert,” he said as he strode over to them, “But we drove the truck across it and it seemed fine. We did have that bad storm the other day but I don’t think it could have this.”
“Well, no frakking shit, Jeremiah,” she said, losing her temper. “We used this route to go to Clarefield, and everyone who comes to Thunder Mountain from the north uses this route. We checked this bridge. A rain storm did not break the center of the span perfectly. Someone blew the bridge.”
“Garrettstown,” Kurdy said, snapping his fingers. He looked at Jeremiah. “Garrettstown was supposed to be first, and they were pissed. And with this road shut down, we have to circle around with the wiring and go through Garrettstown to get to Clarefield.”
“And all our work so far is wasted,” Kara muttered. “We can fix the bridge, we *have* to fix the bridge because this is the quickest route to the allied towns past Clarefield, but it will put us behind schedule. We’re supposed to have the lights turned on in Clarefield in days.” It was surprising just how enraged she felt, but it had been a lot of damn work and despite being a little undisciplined about working, the people in Clarefield had been grateful and generous and almost hopping with excitement over the idea of having the power back on. The kids fought over who could run errands for the engineering squads, and people offered them drinks and hospitality. It was good. It felt good to be doing something good. “This will put us weeks behind.”
“And it rewards Garretstown for acting shitty,” Kurdy said after a moment, “but we can’t prove it was them. So which is faster, rerouting through Garrettstown or rebuilding the bridge?”
“Rerouting,” Racetrack chimed in. “You need to have Tyrol… that expert guy, get out here and work up a plan to rebuild. If you want to use the bridge on a permanent basis, anyway.”
“No,” a new voice chimed. Amanda stepped forward, holding the clipboard of the plans that seemed to always be attached to her. The nineteen year old looked at them all with exsasperation on her face. “You’re all thinking harder not smarter. What are we doing right now? We’re running wires across a river. We don’t have to rebuild the bridge to do that. Yes, the bridge has to be rebuilt for supply and logistic purposes but we chose this route because it would get us across the river with the least amount of wire used. All we need is a line across the river. It will take longer than just using the bridge, but if we send a team now, they’ll be on the other side of the bridge in two hours. We can use a crossbow to shoot a rope across, and once we have a rope, we can get a pulley and wires. We’ll have to replace it when the bridge is rebuilt to make it last longer, but… you’re just making this so hard.” She looked at Kara. “Is there something I’m missing?”
It made Kara laugh. “The kid’s right. If we do it her way, we stay on schedule.” It was a relief, it was a big relief. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted to see it succeed until it had been thwarted. “We’ll need to split in two teams. Amanda, you stay here and get to work on the pulley system we’ll need. Have Ra.. Maggie help you.” A slip up but she caught herself. Racetrack had been promoted to her squad almost immediately, and that made it harder. It would be even more difficult when Tyrol was able to work so she needed to get into practice.
“I know the shortest way to get there,” Jeremiah said. “Kara, why don’t you ride with me and the crew can follow us.”
It was cute, she thought, how he arranged getting her alone. The Earther men, when they weren’t just grunting their demands for sex, were surprisingly romantic.
~*~
It all comes down to frakking, Jeremiah thought as Kara got into the truck seat beside him. Kara used the word all the time, and the engineering squads had picked it up from her. Most of them thought it was a cute quirk, that Kara Thrace the otherwise tough as nails leader of the engineers didn’t like cussing, an example of her soft side. She did have one, he’d seen it. She didn’t like to admit to having a soft side, that was obvious, but the kids in the engineering squads followed her around and imitated her, and the engineering kids were chosen in part because they were smart. Smart enough at least to figure out whether someone was a violent jerk or not, and most of the engineers liked Kara. Kurdy liked Kara, thought she was trustworthy. Not the best idea person, Kurdy had said, but the one who kept things in perspective when everyone was throwing their increasingly outlandish building ideas around. She came off experienced, the old hand that the younger ones looked up to.
That, and her not knowing the constellations was what had made him suspicious. There were other things. Kara wasn’t friendly, the only one in the squads that he’d call her friend was Amanda, and he knew that was more because the kid had latched onto Kara like a barnacle to a boat. He was probably the next person to know her well, and Kurdy. It was odd that she was suddenly so chummy with the new woman, Maggie, and he’d been suspicious about Margaret Edmondsen as soon as he saw her test scores. He had become especially suspicious of Edmondsen when he saw Felix Gaeta make a special point of talking with her, complete with pointing out Sarah to Maggie, who had, Jeremiah recalled, been badly frightened. The problem was that he could remember something similar with Kara, and Felix. Quick talks in the cafeteria, always brief… He’d put it off as Felix being an outsider and wanting to talk to someone not directly in Markus’s sphere of influence but…
He’d first heard the word frakking from Felix. After the blow up with the Centurions, Felix had used it several times while talking to him and later had apologized for being vulgar. That had led to an amusing discussion on what passed for vulgarity on Earth. Felix and Markus had talked for hours on the topic, and Kurdy oddly had been interested as well, but once the relationship between “frak” and “fuck” was established, Jeremiah had tuned it out. The problem was that Felix didn’t curse much, and the discussion had taken place when Felix was still rather isolated from the population of Thunder Mountain. The engineers couldn’t have picked it up from him. They got it from Kara, who came off more educated than the average survivor of the plague, and who had been having furtive chats with Felix almost from the moment she entered Thunder Mountain.
The question he had, that he hoped to get answered, was why she was there and what she was going to do. He had an idea of why she was there. It was his fault, after all was said and done. He had beaten the shit out of Felix and kidnapped him and taken him to Thunder Mountain. Felix had been in a team. When he and Kurdy traveled as a team, if something happened to him, Kurdy had his back and vice versa. She was smart, clever enough to have tracked them to Thunder Mountain, and certainly smart enough to have realized that it was easier to walk in through the front door than try to break in. The plan had been to rescue Felix, and she had needed to wait because Felix had been badly injured. And then their fleet left them. Felix had embraced Markus’s dream of rebuilding, and embraced Markus, and had started bringing in the remaining survivors. But he hadn’t told anyone about Kara, and he hadn’t outed the new one Maggie Edmundsen either. He trusted Felix enough to know that if there was a threat, the man would have told Markus. A safety net, Jeremiah mused. Felix was smart, Kara was smart, and the three others were smart, and the plan to keep Kara’s identity a secret would have begun before Felix had told them what he really was. Awkward, Jeremiah thought, having to explain how he’d forgotten to mention a spy was going to be an awkward conversation for Felix to have with Markus, but it had to happen. They needed everyone with education to step up and he’d already gotten the sense that Kara covered up her abilities and knowledge and Maggie was even more talented. At the same time, he also knew that Felix had only broken his cover because he genuinely believed that Thunder Mountain had been infiltrated by the enemy. Kara’s loyalty might not be so easy to sway. But he had to try, and he saw a way to do it.
“I’m glad I got you alone,” he said as he steered the truck. “I have a little problem.”
“I think we have a bigger problem to worry about.” Kara said it matter of factly. “You know that bridge didn’t go down without some help. I didn’t trust those bastards in Garrettstown before and if they’ll do this, then cutting the lines down isn’t going to be hard for them. We need security.”
“I’m going to talk to Markus about that,” Jeremiah said. “A lot of the troops recruited for the war with Daniel don’t have all that much to do these days.” Markus has integrated the soldiers from the war well, but the mountain was overstaffed. It wasn’t a bad idea to put a few squads at the hydroelectric plant, they were going to have to keep it staffed full time once the power was officially turned back on. “I’m no military expert but it might be a bad idea to have some people at the plant.”
“We need roving patrols,” Kara said, her voice suddenly hard. “People need to learn some discipline, too.” She laughed suddenly, as if she was cynically amused. “I never thought I’d be saying that, but let me tell you something. Most of the people you put in my squad aren’t any smarter than the ones in 2nd or 3rd or 4th squad, they just don’t need constant supervision.” She seemed to carefully consider her words. “I know I’m new, so maybe it’s easier for me to see it.”
“See what?” It was turning into an interesting discussion all on its own, and it was a two hour drive so he decided to roll with it.
She pulled her jacket around herself. “The flowery speeches about the joys of electricity aside, there’s no real motivation to work. I get a warm place to sleep, showers, and food, and if I decide to stop working… What’s going to happen to me? There’s no real rules about work here. I don’t think you’ve ever needed them until recently but you do need them now.”
It was a fair point. He’d had similar thoughts. “We’d kick you out.”
“Not for a while,” she shot back. “There’s sixty people right now in the engineering squads. About twenty five want to be here but need more education and they can’t be trusted with tricky tasks. About fifteen know what they are doing or at least know how to find the answers if they don’t. That leaves ten people who are completely useless and who spend most of their time doing nothing. They don’t break rules, they aren’t stupid. We all know fighting, killing someone, rape, stealing, those things get you kicked out. But just being useless, no one seems to care, and there’s no penalty.” Kara seemed to seethe in frustration. “I get it, I do. Everyone in the mountain is used to having to work to survive. If you don’t do your job, everyone dies so people just naturally work and do their best because it is necessary. But now you’re bringing people in who are here for specialized jobs like your army or the engineering teams, and you don’t have any… punishment for people who just do nothing. Take the useless ones in the engineering squads. I can’t make them work without threatening them, which is technically me violating the violence rules, and I can’t make them do the work well, and they get to eat and sleep someplace warm regardless. Eventually Kurdy is going to complain enough and Markus will stop giving them second chances but…. It would be easier if there were expected standards, where someone could say ‘this is what a good job is, this is what a bad job is’ and people are either up to standard or not. The ones who aren’t working might wise up and if they didn’t, you could get rid of them without anyone thinking it was unfair.” She laughed again. “I never ever thought I’d be saying this but this place needs rules and the rules need to be enforced.”
“Why me? Kurdy is your boss.” He was curious about her reasoning in talking to him. She was certainly making him think. She was right as well. Markus’s system of recruitment worked on the idea of everyone pulling together. They had similar problems to what she was describing with the military recruits. “Or Markus?”
“Kurdy has too much on his plate. He’s a good leader. Better than you and better than Markus when it comes to the grunt work of having to make people work. He’s a good executive officer. And Markus is a good leader, but he’s frakking naïve about people.”
Jeremiah saw the way to lead the conversation where he wanted. “You think he’s trusting the wrong people? Some people don’t like that he’s… you know, with a guy. Felix has a weird background but he seems trustworthy.” He shuddered, remembering the incident with the Centurian. “He saved my life at least once. And Markus’s and Erin’s.”
Kara sniffed derisively. “What difference does it make whether a guy is with a girl or a guy? And Felix… doesn’t seem like a bad guy. He brought those two in, the doctor and the engineer from his group. Seems like that was a good thing.”
“I think the new woman on your team is from that group, that group Felix is from.” He said coolly. He didn’t think she was going to flip out in the truck but as he shot a furtive glance at her, he wondered. She had gone pale and she was clenching her jaw. “She’s not in trouble. I was just thinking about it, that she probably figured out that this was the safest place to be and didn’t know the others were here.” He made a point of sounding calm. “I can trust you with this, Kara. The place Felix is from, they have some serious tech education and some serious problems. He and the two others, and possibly Maggie, they were scouts from this high tech group… getting the lay of the land, looking for potential allies and then some shit went down. Their group disappeared.”
“Convenient for them,” Kara said after a long moment. She gave him a look, a dark look. “That doesn’t concern you?” She said it in a tone of voice that suggested she found it suspicious. A nice bit of acting, Jeremiah thought. She was good, he’d give her that, but she was clearly put off by what he’d just said. She also had a point.
“Yes, it concerns me,” he said softly. “But without getting into the details I’m not supposed to discuss, I’m certain Felix’s group went away and abandoned their scouts. I would be surprised if they came back. And if they did come back, they would be in even worse shape and Markus would probably try to assist them since they have people with real training.”
“If they have people with real training, why would they need help?” Kara asked, her tone cross. Cross and suspicious and Jeremiah felt a sudden chill run down his spine. She’s military, he remembered suddenly, and while Felix might consider their mission over, Kara might not. And he was alone in the truck with her.
“I don’t know,” he said, “that’s why I am asking you for ideas. You’re smart, after all.” He waited to see if she was going to play it cool or not. Because if she didn’t play it cool, the only chance he had was to jump out of the truck. He could see that in her eyes.
~*~
Son of a bitch, Kara thought. I should have known he’d figure it out. Jeremiah was smart, and unlike the average nitwit on Earth, he could put things together and had. She wondered what sort of game he was playing. He was one of the power players in the mountain and he had a good reputation. Honest and fair, but temperamental. Loyal to Thunder Mountain, that was unstated but understood. Was he testing her or warning her, or was he really just sounding her out on a concern about Racetrack?
Could I kill him and run, she asked herself. Yes, easily. They were well ahead of the truck bringing the rest of the squad. At the very least she could overpower him and run. But was it necessary? That was the thought that stayed her hands. Gaeta had brought Ishay and Tyrol in, and they were treated well. Jeremiah was in the inner circle. The story he was telling her, about a special group of survivors, worked because it explained how well educated they were, but Gaeta had told them about the fleet. Jeremiah knew about the fleet and believed that if the fleet returned that Markus would help them. That was what he was telling her. That if she and if Racetrack was from the special group, that it wasn’t a big deal. Everything about how Markus had handled Gaeta, Ishay, and Tyrol told her that there was no plan to kill fleet scouts. If anything, she thought sourly, Gaeta will probably be in hack with his boyfriend, and that’s about it. And not much hack. Markus was practically glowing all of the time.
It meant giving up the mission. The mission that in retrospect had been pointless. They could have landed safely. She had thought about it, more than Gaeta. Gaeta had mentally thrown up his hands and said ‘frak it’ once the fleet had left. She was sure he twinged a bit over missed friends, he wasn’t the friendless pariah he made himself out to be when he was feeling sorry for himself, but he had already moved on. The fleet was gone, and Gaeta had moved on with a snap of his fingers, but she wasn’t Felix. Maybe he wasn’t a friendless pariah, but there hadn’t been much left to keep him loyal. And she could see her own hand in that.
And four months on Earth with the fleet missing for two, there was a point where…. She shook her head, warding off the thought. Jeremiah was testing her, he was sounding her out to see how she would react. That meant he wasn’t certain about her.
That meant she had time to consider her options. She knew how to get out of the mountain if she needed to, and it was still winter which meant it was smarter to sneak out with some supplies. So give him some ideas on how to flush Racetrack out. She almost said her first thought, have Markus get it out of Felix. She managed to choke it back before she spat it out. The problem was that Felix *had* moved on. Markus pushing Felix to tell meant that Felix would tell eventually. Because Felix already had told, and telling Markus about Racetrack would just make his school project go more easily. “Why don’t you just ask her? If she’s with their group, she has to see they’re treated pretty good.”
“That is a thought.” Jeremiah said it carefully, like he was expecting more.
“Besides, how helpful can these people be? If they abandoned their scout teams, then maybe this is it… these are all the survivors you’re going to see.” Which was more likely closer to the truth than anyone needed to know. And now to see just how far he’ll go, she thought, she added, “Are you certain that these high tech people aren’t trying to screw you? Have you thought of that? That maybe these people are lying to you?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “Yes. I can’t say that hasn’t crossed my mind. I don’t think it’s likely but I can’t rule it out. But… If the plan was to fuck us over, Felix had the chance to do it and didn’t.”
“That thing none of you talk about,” Kara said helpfully. “Where people got killed.” Casting suspicion on Gaeta was a habit, and she didn’t feel bad about it because she knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. She had Gaeta’s version of what happened. Gaeta was many things but he wasn’t especially brave and he didn’t brag. That meant his story of leaping on Marcus to pull him down and out of the line of fire and then grabbing the free weapon of someone already injured was true. It was the sort of story that impressed even her simply because of how nonchalantly Felix had told the story. He wasn’t a naturally brave man but if he felt something was necessary, he could master his fear. From being around Jeremiah and Kurdy, she knew they were more bold like her, but they would have seen the same thing she had. That would make them more inclined to trust Gaeta, they knew he would do the right thing when things were hard.
Something she had been willing to give him credit for, but that was over and done.
“Yeah,” Jeremiah said, “where those people got killed. I can’t give you the details but like I said, I don’t have many doubts about him. Or the other two. Or Maggie when it comes down to it.” He hesitated, clearly carefully considering his words. Stopping himself from making the accusation, she realized.
“Then just ask her.” Racetrack wouldn’t give her up. She might throw in the towel and admit to knowing Felix, there was no real danger in that but Racetrack wouldn’t betray her. It was time to consider leaving the mountain though. Someone had to stay on mission.
And there was still a bridge to build. They reached the fallen bridge, and Jeremiah didn’t press the topic. She was glad about that. The wiring was tricky and even though Amanda was a damn genius , it was still dangerous work. Fortunately the crew was ready and waiting and they had the wires across in a matter of minutes. It would have to be redone when the bridge was remade but they would be able to get the power on as is. Hopefully, she mused as they tied everything down and secured the wires, Jeremiah will take my advice about security and get some damn guards up.
She was about to suggest leaving the squad of people that were basically warm bodies anyway to guard the place until a group of real soldiers could be sent, when it happened. As she watched, it was almost like time slowed down as the remains of the bridge on the opposite side crumbled and slid down the steep gully, taking three of the squad with it. Including Amanda, who was the only one still moving when the dust settled. “Frak! Someone get the ropes!”
“What are you planning to do?” Jeremiah asked. She took the rope he proffered.
“Rappel down, see if anyone’s alive.” She secured the rope to a nearby tree quickly. “You coming?”
After a moment he nodded. She checked the rope one more time and then went over the cliff. Rappelling was more flashy than dangerous and she was at the bottom of the gully in seconds. Jeremiah was right behind her, but he had taken the time to grab the emergency medical gear and a hand held radio. “I thought you might want this,” he said.
He reminded her of Lee. Not in looks, Lee was, after all was said and done, a remarkably pretty man, while Jeremiah had a more worn, older look despite the reality that he was probably years younger than Lee. He had that practical side though, and the inner steel. “Good,” she said. “Check on the others, I’m going to check on Amanda.”
It was bad, she realized, as she came up on the teenager’s broken body. The girl’s legs looked broken, and there was blood seeping from a wound on her head. Still, her eyes were open and she was cradling her left hand, crying. “Hey kid,” Kara said with forced good cheer, “There’s better ways to get down here than riding the debris down.”
The girl tried to smile and then winced. “Kara… my fingers….” Kara knelt down and got her to open her left hand. Two of the four fingers were broken, and two more, the pinkie and the ring finger, were simply missing the last joints. Sheared off by a sharp outcropping, no doubt.
“Yeah, that frakking sucks,” she said calmly as Jeremiah came up upon them. He shook his head, indicating there were no other survivors. “But listen. You’re right handed, and this is your left, and you still have all the fingers that matter for tools and holding a clip board. Now,” she began to apply some of the bandages from the emergency kit, “you need to stay calm. We’ll get you back to the mountain. There’s a good doctor there. You’ll be fine.”
Jeremiah pulled her aside. “I appreciate your optimism, but how do you propose we get her back to the mountain? Pulling her up on a rope would kill her. We don’t have those emergency stretchers they used to use here, we’d have to send someone back to the mountain and that’s two hours away. She’ll die of shock before they get back, if we don’t kill her hauling her up the cliff. We could call for one of the helicopters but they aren’t trained for this sort of thing.”
The problem was that he was right. In a better world, the world she grew up in, even the world he’d been a child in, a rescue would be tricky but possible. Her first thought had been for Markus’s vaunted secret helicopter corps to come to the rescue but she realized the flaws in that plan before Jeremiah pointed them out. The pilots were more theoretically trained than anything else. Landing, taking off, firing the weapons, they knew the basics of flying the awkward, slow machines but for a rescue like this, they would have to hover over the gully while Amanda was hauled up. The wind alone made it tricky even for a Raptor.
But not impossible. A Raptor, with a good pilot, could land in the gully and be back at the mountain in under a half hour. A good kid with a clever mind and the wish to rebuild could survive… If she gave up the mission. Kara looked down at the wounded girl and made her choice.
“Give me the frakking radio,” she said to Jeremiah. He eyed her but he handed it over. She clicked it on. “Kurdy, listen to me, put Maggie on, now.” It was only a second before Racetrack was there.
“What’s your idea?” Racetrack asked.
“How quickly can you get the Raptor here? Don’t argue with me about it. How fast?” There was only a momentary pause.
“It’s close. A half hour if I run. Five minutes if someone will drive me. Kara, are you… ok with this?” It was surprising, just how concerned Racetrack sounded.
“I am.” She handed the radio back to Jeremiah. “I lied. I know Maggie. I know Felix. Hell, I’ve frakked Felix. We’re from a different planet. We’re scouts, and you know the fleet took off. I know about the Cylon in the lab, I know it damn near killed you and Felix risked his life to stop it. The scout vehicle we came in is hidden close by and it can get down here, and get Amanda back to Thunder Mountain in maybe a half hour instead five or six hours where we risk a bunch of lives and most likely get more people killed. Tell Kurdy to take Maggie wherever she tells him and not to get in her way. She’ll bring the Raptor, we’ll get her back to Thunder Mountain and then you and Kurdy and Marcus can ask all the frakking questions you want.”
Jeremiah looked at her and then smiled slightly. “Sounds like a plan.”
She didn’t like it. It wasn’t impossible, she had stayed awake in enough of the engineering classes to know the plan was workable. The problem, Kara thought darkly as she looked at the map, was that all the maps were out of date by 17 years. “How the hell did this route get approved without someone noticing the gods damned bridge was out?”
Several of the crew snickered. So did Kurdy, who threw up his hands good naturedly. “Don’t blame me, the bridge was here when I did the survey last month. Jeremiah, didn’t you and Smith use this route on your last trip? Last week?”
Kara wasn’t surprised to see Jeremiah nod. “I’m no building expert,” he said as he strode over to them, “But we drove the truck across it and it seemed fine. We did have that bad storm the other day but I don’t think it could have this.”
“Well, no frakking shit, Jeremiah,” she said, losing her temper. “We used this route to go to Clarefield, and everyone who comes to Thunder Mountain from the north uses this route. We checked this bridge. A rain storm did not break the center of the span perfectly. Someone blew the bridge.”
“Garrettstown,” Kurdy said, snapping his fingers. He looked at Jeremiah. “Garrettstown was supposed to be first, and they were pissed. And with this road shut down, we have to circle around with the wiring and go through Garrettstown to get to Clarefield.”
“And all our work so far is wasted,” Kara muttered. “We can fix the bridge, we *have* to fix the bridge because this is the quickest route to the allied towns past Clarefield, but it will put us behind schedule. We’re supposed to have the lights turned on in Clarefield in days.” It was surprising just how enraged she felt, but it had been a lot of damn work and despite being a little undisciplined about working, the people in Clarefield had been grateful and generous and almost hopping with excitement over the idea of having the power back on. The kids fought over who could run errands for the engineering squads, and people offered them drinks and hospitality. It was good. It felt good to be doing something good. “This will put us weeks behind.”
“And it rewards Garretstown for acting shitty,” Kurdy said after a moment, “but we can’t prove it was them. So which is faster, rerouting through Garrettstown or rebuilding the bridge?”
“Rerouting,” Racetrack chimed in. “You need to have Tyrol… that expert guy, get out here and work up a plan to rebuild. If you want to use the bridge on a permanent basis, anyway.”
“No,” a new voice chimed. Amanda stepped forward, holding the clipboard of the plans that seemed to always be attached to her. The nineteen year old looked at them all with exsasperation on her face. “You’re all thinking harder not smarter. What are we doing right now? We’re running wires across a river. We don’t have to rebuild the bridge to do that. Yes, the bridge has to be rebuilt for supply and logistic purposes but we chose this route because it would get us across the river with the least amount of wire used. All we need is a line across the river. It will take longer than just using the bridge, but if we send a team now, they’ll be on the other side of the bridge in two hours. We can use a crossbow to shoot a rope across, and once we have a rope, we can get a pulley and wires. We’ll have to replace it when the bridge is rebuilt to make it last longer, but… you’re just making this so hard.” She looked at Kara. “Is there something I’m missing?”
It made Kara laugh. “The kid’s right. If we do it her way, we stay on schedule.” It was a relief, it was a big relief. She hadn’t realized how much she wanted to see it succeed until it had been thwarted. “We’ll need to split in two teams. Amanda, you stay here and get to work on the pulley system we’ll need. Have Ra.. Maggie help you.” A slip up but she caught herself. Racetrack had been promoted to her squad almost immediately, and that made it harder. It would be even more difficult when Tyrol was able to work so she needed to get into practice.
“I know the shortest way to get there,” Jeremiah said. “Kara, why don’t you ride with me and the crew can follow us.”
It was cute, she thought, how he arranged getting her alone. The Earther men, when they weren’t just grunting their demands for sex, were surprisingly romantic.
~*~
It all comes down to frakking, Jeremiah thought as Kara got into the truck seat beside him. Kara used the word all the time, and the engineering squads had picked it up from her. Most of them thought it was a cute quirk, that Kara Thrace the otherwise tough as nails leader of the engineers didn’t like cussing, an example of her soft side. She did have one, he’d seen it. She didn’t like to admit to having a soft side, that was obvious, but the kids in the engineering squads followed her around and imitated her, and the engineering kids were chosen in part because they were smart. Smart enough at least to figure out whether someone was a violent jerk or not, and most of the engineers liked Kara. Kurdy liked Kara, thought she was trustworthy. Not the best idea person, Kurdy had said, but the one who kept things in perspective when everyone was throwing their increasingly outlandish building ideas around. She came off experienced, the old hand that the younger ones looked up to.
That, and her not knowing the constellations was what had made him suspicious. There were other things. Kara wasn’t friendly, the only one in the squads that he’d call her friend was Amanda, and he knew that was more because the kid had latched onto Kara like a barnacle to a boat. He was probably the next person to know her well, and Kurdy. It was odd that she was suddenly so chummy with the new woman, Maggie, and he’d been suspicious about Margaret Edmondsen as soon as he saw her test scores. He had become especially suspicious of Edmondsen when he saw Felix Gaeta make a special point of talking with her, complete with pointing out Sarah to Maggie, who had, Jeremiah recalled, been badly frightened. The problem was that he could remember something similar with Kara, and Felix. Quick talks in the cafeteria, always brief… He’d put it off as Felix being an outsider and wanting to talk to someone not directly in Markus’s sphere of influence but…
He’d first heard the word frakking from Felix. After the blow up with the Centurions, Felix had used it several times while talking to him and later had apologized for being vulgar. That had led to an amusing discussion on what passed for vulgarity on Earth. Felix and Markus had talked for hours on the topic, and Kurdy oddly had been interested as well, but once the relationship between “frak” and “fuck” was established, Jeremiah had tuned it out. The problem was that Felix didn’t curse much, and the discussion had taken place when Felix was still rather isolated from the population of Thunder Mountain. The engineers couldn’t have picked it up from him. They got it from Kara, who came off more educated than the average survivor of the plague, and who had been having furtive chats with Felix almost from the moment she entered Thunder Mountain.
The question he had, that he hoped to get answered, was why she was there and what she was going to do. He had an idea of why she was there. It was his fault, after all was said and done. He had beaten the shit out of Felix and kidnapped him and taken him to Thunder Mountain. Felix had been in a team. When he and Kurdy traveled as a team, if something happened to him, Kurdy had his back and vice versa. She was smart, clever enough to have tracked them to Thunder Mountain, and certainly smart enough to have realized that it was easier to walk in through the front door than try to break in. The plan had been to rescue Felix, and she had needed to wait because Felix had been badly injured. And then their fleet left them. Felix had embraced Markus’s dream of rebuilding, and embraced Markus, and had started bringing in the remaining survivors. But he hadn’t told anyone about Kara, and he hadn’t outed the new one Maggie Edmundsen either. He trusted Felix enough to know that if there was a threat, the man would have told Markus. A safety net, Jeremiah mused. Felix was smart, Kara was smart, and the three others were smart, and the plan to keep Kara’s identity a secret would have begun before Felix had told them what he really was. Awkward, Jeremiah thought, having to explain how he’d forgotten to mention a spy was going to be an awkward conversation for Felix to have with Markus, but it had to happen. They needed everyone with education to step up and he’d already gotten the sense that Kara covered up her abilities and knowledge and Maggie was even more talented. At the same time, he also knew that Felix had only broken his cover because he genuinely believed that Thunder Mountain had been infiltrated by the enemy. Kara’s loyalty might not be so easy to sway. But he had to try, and he saw a way to do it.
“I’m glad I got you alone,” he said as he steered the truck. “I have a little problem.”
“I think we have a bigger problem to worry about.” Kara said it matter of factly. “You know that bridge didn’t go down without some help. I didn’t trust those bastards in Garrettstown before and if they’ll do this, then cutting the lines down isn’t going to be hard for them. We need security.”
“I’m going to talk to Markus about that,” Jeremiah said. “A lot of the troops recruited for the war with Daniel don’t have all that much to do these days.” Markus has integrated the soldiers from the war well, but the mountain was overstaffed. It wasn’t a bad idea to put a few squads at the hydroelectric plant, they were going to have to keep it staffed full time once the power was officially turned back on. “I’m no military expert but it might be a bad idea to have some people at the plant.”
“We need roving patrols,” Kara said, her voice suddenly hard. “People need to learn some discipline, too.” She laughed suddenly, as if she was cynically amused. “I never thought I’d be saying that, but let me tell you something. Most of the people you put in my squad aren’t any smarter than the ones in 2nd or 3rd or 4th squad, they just don’t need constant supervision.” She seemed to carefully consider her words. “I know I’m new, so maybe it’s easier for me to see it.”
“See what?” It was turning into an interesting discussion all on its own, and it was a two hour drive so he decided to roll with it.
She pulled her jacket around herself. “The flowery speeches about the joys of electricity aside, there’s no real motivation to work. I get a warm place to sleep, showers, and food, and if I decide to stop working… What’s going to happen to me? There’s no real rules about work here. I don’t think you’ve ever needed them until recently but you do need them now.”
It was a fair point. He’d had similar thoughts. “We’d kick you out.”
“Not for a while,” she shot back. “There’s sixty people right now in the engineering squads. About twenty five want to be here but need more education and they can’t be trusted with tricky tasks. About fifteen know what they are doing or at least know how to find the answers if they don’t. That leaves ten people who are completely useless and who spend most of their time doing nothing. They don’t break rules, they aren’t stupid. We all know fighting, killing someone, rape, stealing, those things get you kicked out. But just being useless, no one seems to care, and there’s no penalty.” Kara seemed to seethe in frustration. “I get it, I do. Everyone in the mountain is used to having to work to survive. If you don’t do your job, everyone dies so people just naturally work and do their best because it is necessary. But now you’re bringing people in who are here for specialized jobs like your army or the engineering teams, and you don’t have any… punishment for people who just do nothing. Take the useless ones in the engineering squads. I can’t make them work without threatening them, which is technically me violating the violence rules, and I can’t make them do the work well, and they get to eat and sleep someplace warm regardless. Eventually Kurdy is going to complain enough and Markus will stop giving them second chances but…. It would be easier if there were expected standards, where someone could say ‘this is what a good job is, this is what a bad job is’ and people are either up to standard or not. The ones who aren’t working might wise up and if they didn’t, you could get rid of them without anyone thinking it was unfair.” She laughed again. “I never ever thought I’d be saying this but this place needs rules and the rules need to be enforced.”
“Why me? Kurdy is your boss.” He was curious about her reasoning in talking to him. She was certainly making him think. She was right as well. Markus’s system of recruitment worked on the idea of everyone pulling together. They had similar problems to what she was describing with the military recruits. “Or Markus?”
“Kurdy has too much on his plate. He’s a good leader. Better than you and better than Markus when it comes to the grunt work of having to make people work. He’s a good executive officer. And Markus is a good leader, but he’s frakking naïve about people.”
Jeremiah saw the way to lead the conversation where he wanted. “You think he’s trusting the wrong people? Some people don’t like that he’s… you know, with a guy. Felix has a weird background but he seems trustworthy.” He shuddered, remembering the incident with the Centurian. “He saved my life at least once. And Markus’s and Erin’s.”
Kara sniffed derisively. “What difference does it make whether a guy is with a girl or a guy? And Felix… doesn’t seem like a bad guy. He brought those two in, the doctor and the engineer from his group. Seems like that was a good thing.”
“I think the new woman on your team is from that group, that group Felix is from.” He said coolly. He didn’t think she was going to flip out in the truck but as he shot a furtive glance at her, he wondered. She had gone pale and she was clenching her jaw. “She’s not in trouble. I was just thinking about it, that she probably figured out that this was the safest place to be and didn’t know the others were here.” He made a point of sounding calm. “I can trust you with this, Kara. The place Felix is from, they have some serious tech education and some serious problems. He and the two others, and possibly Maggie, they were scouts from this high tech group… getting the lay of the land, looking for potential allies and then some shit went down. Their group disappeared.”
“Convenient for them,” Kara said after a long moment. She gave him a look, a dark look. “That doesn’t concern you?” She said it in a tone of voice that suggested she found it suspicious. A nice bit of acting, Jeremiah thought. She was good, he’d give her that, but she was clearly put off by what he’d just said. She also had a point.
“Yes, it concerns me,” he said softly. “But without getting into the details I’m not supposed to discuss, I’m certain Felix’s group went away and abandoned their scouts. I would be surprised if they came back. And if they did come back, they would be in even worse shape and Markus would probably try to assist them since they have people with real training.”
“If they have people with real training, why would they need help?” Kara asked, her tone cross. Cross and suspicious and Jeremiah felt a sudden chill run down his spine. She’s military, he remembered suddenly, and while Felix might consider their mission over, Kara might not. And he was alone in the truck with her.
“I don’t know,” he said, “that’s why I am asking you for ideas. You’re smart, after all.” He waited to see if she was going to play it cool or not. Because if she didn’t play it cool, the only chance he had was to jump out of the truck. He could see that in her eyes.
~*~
Son of a bitch, Kara thought. I should have known he’d figure it out. Jeremiah was smart, and unlike the average nitwit on Earth, he could put things together and had. She wondered what sort of game he was playing. He was one of the power players in the mountain and he had a good reputation. Honest and fair, but temperamental. Loyal to Thunder Mountain, that was unstated but understood. Was he testing her or warning her, or was he really just sounding her out on a concern about Racetrack?
Could I kill him and run, she asked herself. Yes, easily. They were well ahead of the truck bringing the rest of the squad. At the very least she could overpower him and run. But was it necessary? That was the thought that stayed her hands. Gaeta had brought Ishay and Tyrol in, and they were treated well. Jeremiah was in the inner circle. The story he was telling her, about a special group of survivors, worked because it explained how well educated they were, but Gaeta had told them about the fleet. Jeremiah knew about the fleet and believed that if the fleet returned that Markus would help them. That was what he was telling her. That if she and if Racetrack was from the special group, that it wasn’t a big deal. Everything about how Markus had handled Gaeta, Ishay, and Tyrol told her that there was no plan to kill fleet scouts. If anything, she thought sourly, Gaeta will probably be in hack with his boyfriend, and that’s about it. And not much hack. Markus was practically glowing all of the time.
It meant giving up the mission. The mission that in retrospect had been pointless. They could have landed safely. She had thought about it, more than Gaeta. Gaeta had mentally thrown up his hands and said ‘frak it’ once the fleet had left. She was sure he twinged a bit over missed friends, he wasn’t the friendless pariah he made himself out to be when he was feeling sorry for himself, but he had already moved on. The fleet was gone, and Gaeta had moved on with a snap of his fingers, but she wasn’t Felix. Maybe he wasn’t a friendless pariah, but there hadn’t been much left to keep him loyal. And she could see her own hand in that.
And four months on Earth with the fleet missing for two, there was a point where…. She shook her head, warding off the thought. Jeremiah was testing her, he was sounding her out to see how she would react. That meant he wasn’t certain about her.
That meant she had time to consider her options. She knew how to get out of the mountain if she needed to, and it was still winter which meant it was smarter to sneak out with some supplies. So give him some ideas on how to flush Racetrack out. She almost said her first thought, have Markus get it out of Felix. She managed to choke it back before she spat it out. The problem was that Felix *had* moved on. Markus pushing Felix to tell meant that Felix would tell eventually. Because Felix already had told, and telling Markus about Racetrack would just make his school project go more easily. “Why don’t you just ask her? If she’s with their group, she has to see they’re treated pretty good.”
“That is a thought.” Jeremiah said it carefully, like he was expecting more.
“Besides, how helpful can these people be? If they abandoned their scout teams, then maybe this is it… these are all the survivors you’re going to see.” Which was more likely closer to the truth than anyone needed to know. And now to see just how far he’ll go, she thought, she added, “Are you certain that these high tech people aren’t trying to screw you? Have you thought of that? That maybe these people are lying to you?”
Jeremiah shrugged. “Yes. I can’t say that hasn’t crossed my mind. I don’t think it’s likely but I can’t rule it out. But… If the plan was to fuck us over, Felix had the chance to do it and didn’t.”
“That thing none of you talk about,” Kara said helpfully. “Where people got killed.” Casting suspicion on Gaeta was a habit, and she didn’t feel bad about it because she knew it wouldn’t go anywhere. She had Gaeta’s version of what happened. Gaeta was many things but he wasn’t especially brave and he didn’t brag. That meant his story of leaping on Marcus to pull him down and out of the line of fire and then grabbing the free weapon of someone already injured was true. It was the sort of story that impressed even her simply because of how nonchalantly Felix had told the story. He wasn’t a naturally brave man but if he felt something was necessary, he could master his fear. From being around Jeremiah and Kurdy, she knew they were more bold like her, but they would have seen the same thing she had. That would make them more inclined to trust Gaeta, they knew he would do the right thing when things were hard.
Something she had been willing to give him credit for, but that was over and done.
“Yeah,” Jeremiah said, “where those people got killed. I can’t give you the details but like I said, I don’t have many doubts about him. Or the other two. Or Maggie when it comes down to it.” He hesitated, clearly carefully considering his words. Stopping himself from making the accusation, she realized.
“Then just ask her.” Racetrack wouldn’t give her up. She might throw in the towel and admit to knowing Felix, there was no real danger in that but Racetrack wouldn’t betray her. It was time to consider leaving the mountain though. Someone had to stay on mission.
And there was still a bridge to build. They reached the fallen bridge, and Jeremiah didn’t press the topic. She was glad about that. The wiring was tricky and even though Amanda was a damn genius , it was still dangerous work. Fortunately the crew was ready and waiting and they had the wires across in a matter of minutes. It would have to be redone when the bridge was remade but they would be able to get the power on as is. Hopefully, she mused as they tied everything down and secured the wires, Jeremiah will take my advice about security and get some damn guards up.
She was about to suggest leaving the squad of people that were basically warm bodies anyway to guard the place until a group of real soldiers could be sent, when it happened. As she watched, it was almost like time slowed down as the remains of the bridge on the opposite side crumbled and slid down the steep gully, taking three of the squad with it. Including Amanda, who was the only one still moving when the dust settled. “Frak! Someone get the ropes!”
“What are you planning to do?” Jeremiah asked. She took the rope he proffered.
“Rappel down, see if anyone’s alive.” She secured the rope to a nearby tree quickly. “You coming?”
After a moment he nodded. She checked the rope one more time and then went over the cliff. Rappelling was more flashy than dangerous and she was at the bottom of the gully in seconds. Jeremiah was right behind her, but he had taken the time to grab the emergency medical gear and a hand held radio. “I thought you might want this,” he said.
He reminded her of Lee. Not in looks, Lee was, after all was said and done, a remarkably pretty man, while Jeremiah had a more worn, older look despite the reality that he was probably years younger than Lee. He had that practical side though, and the inner steel. “Good,” she said. “Check on the others, I’m going to check on Amanda.”
It was bad, she realized, as she came up on the teenager’s broken body. The girl’s legs looked broken, and there was blood seeping from a wound on her head. Still, her eyes were open and she was cradling her left hand, crying. “Hey kid,” Kara said with forced good cheer, “There’s better ways to get down here than riding the debris down.”
The girl tried to smile and then winced. “Kara… my fingers….” Kara knelt down and got her to open her left hand. Two of the four fingers were broken, and two more, the pinkie and the ring finger, were simply missing the last joints. Sheared off by a sharp outcropping, no doubt.
“Yeah, that frakking sucks,” she said calmly as Jeremiah came up upon them. He shook his head, indicating there were no other survivors. “But listen. You’re right handed, and this is your left, and you still have all the fingers that matter for tools and holding a clip board. Now,” she began to apply some of the bandages from the emergency kit, “you need to stay calm. We’ll get you back to the mountain. There’s a good doctor there. You’ll be fine.”
Jeremiah pulled her aside. “I appreciate your optimism, but how do you propose we get her back to the mountain? Pulling her up on a rope would kill her. We don’t have those emergency stretchers they used to use here, we’d have to send someone back to the mountain and that’s two hours away. She’ll die of shock before they get back, if we don’t kill her hauling her up the cliff. We could call for one of the helicopters but they aren’t trained for this sort of thing.”
The problem was that he was right. In a better world, the world she grew up in, even the world he’d been a child in, a rescue would be tricky but possible. Her first thought had been for Markus’s vaunted secret helicopter corps to come to the rescue but she realized the flaws in that plan before Jeremiah pointed them out. The pilots were more theoretically trained than anything else. Landing, taking off, firing the weapons, they knew the basics of flying the awkward, slow machines but for a rescue like this, they would have to hover over the gully while Amanda was hauled up. The wind alone made it tricky even for a Raptor.
But not impossible. A Raptor, with a good pilot, could land in the gully and be back at the mountain in under a half hour. A good kid with a clever mind and the wish to rebuild could survive… If she gave up the mission. Kara looked down at the wounded girl and made her choice.
“Give me the frakking radio,” she said to Jeremiah. He eyed her but he handed it over. She clicked it on. “Kurdy, listen to me, put Maggie on, now.” It was only a second before Racetrack was there.
“What’s your idea?” Racetrack asked.
“How quickly can you get the Raptor here? Don’t argue with me about it. How fast?” There was only a momentary pause.
“It’s close. A half hour if I run. Five minutes if someone will drive me. Kara, are you… ok with this?” It was surprising, just how concerned Racetrack sounded.
“I am.” She handed the radio back to Jeremiah. “I lied. I know Maggie. I know Felix. Hell, I’ve frakked Felix. We’re from a different planet. We’re scouts, and you know the fleet took off. I know about the Cylon in the lab, I know it damn near killed you and Felix risked his life to stop it. The scout vehicle we came in is hidden close by and it can get down here, and get Amanda back to Thunder Mountain in maybe a half hour instead five or six hours where we risk a bunch of lives and most likely get more people killed. Tell Kurdy to take Maggie wherever she tells him and not to get in her way. She’ll bring the Raptor, we’ll get her back to Thunder Mountain and then you and Kurdy and Marcus can ask all the frakking questions you want.”
Jeremiah looked at her and then smiled slightly. “Sounds like a plan.”