Future, Part IIa (2a/6)
Title- Future (Part 2a/6) (Yep, you read that right. ;)
Rating - PG-13 or T for language
Pairing- Lee/Kara, a tiny bit of Helo/Boomer
Spoilers- Seasons 1 and 2 (however, the spoilers are interspersed with lots stuff from my brain so… ;-)
Disclaimers- I don't own these characters and I am not making any profit off them. I’m just borrowing them for fun (well, maybe not the poor characters’...). ;)
Many thanks go to Audrey for the great beta:-)
Summary part 2a- What happened to Starbuck, Helo and Boomer on Caprica?
*****
-Cylon Occupied Caprica-
Lieutenant Kara Thrace
Call Sign ‘Starbuck’
Day 3 on Caprica
Kara nodded as Carlos, a heavyset man somewhere in his sixties, told her of his life since the Cylon attacks. He had been a successful businessman with a pleasant home in an affluent neighborhood, and had arrived at work one morning only to learn that the Cylons were attacking the colonies. He had rushed home only to see his entire neighborhood destroyed by one of the enemy strikes. Somehow he had escaped unscathed, but his entire family had been lost.
“Anyway -” Carlos cut himself off and smiled somewhat sheepishly. “Sorry for going on like that, girlie. Guess everyone’s got a story like that or worse, these days.”
She smiled back. The man had a sweet way about him -and according to him, she reminded him of his daughter.
“Don’t worry about it. Tell me, are you doing okay here? Is there anything you need?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m luckier than most of the poor SOB’s you’ll find here, actually.”
“Okay.” She patted his hand and stood, ready to move on to the next person she hadn’t talked to.
“Starbuck?” Helo.
She walked over to him. “Yep?”
He was fishing around their supplies bag as he pitched his voice low. “You know, we won’t have much food left at the rate we’re handing stuff out here.”
“I know that.” She replied quietly.
“Well, I just want to know this. Do you want me to keep any for us or not?”
She pointed to the people around them. “Look at these people Helo. They’re starving.”
Helo nodded sadly, but still had a determined expression on his face. “Kara, there isn’t that much food to go around any more. Once this is gone, I don’t know that we can get more. You know that, right?”
She was silent for a moment. Then she looked him in the eye. “I know. And I know that getting all these people away instead of just us is gonna be hell, but I’ve got to try.” She shook her head. “I’ve got to.” She looked around at the carpet of misery around their feet. “I can’t explain why at this point, even to myself. But I’ve just got to.”
He looked at her for a moment, then finally nodded. “Okay.” Then he smiled. “It’s your call anyways, right sir?”
She groaned and laughed at the same time. “Yeah well, do me a favor, huh? Don’t start saluting me any time soon ‘cause there’s only so much I can take. The only thing I ever wantedto be top of was the triad table food chain.” He laughed at that. Leaning back against a cave wall, she turned her mind back to her inventory.
After a few hours the day before spent mentally kicking herself for getting roped into the responsibility, she’d begun torturing herself trying to figure out how to get these people off this hunk of rock. She’d finally decided that the only place to begin was at the beginning. With that in mind, she had begun taking a kind of inventory of the people here and of their needs. Besides, talking to everyone was also the way to figure out what she had to work with in the way of assets -i.e. people with certain talents, equipment, and so on.
So far she had found a few people who could be useful on the technical side of things -engineers and such, as well as one former commercial pilot- but nothing in the way of equipment. And she had no ship, obviously.
Yep, they were all frakked, but what the heck. A promise was a promise, right? Never mind that it was impossible and she was completely mindfrakked for even considering this whole venture, never mind the Cylons would never miss this crew leaving even if they did have a ship. And-
Frak. What she wouldn’t give for a stogie at this point. She sighed.
She’d counted about seventy bodies so far -only about thirty or forty of whom would be able to help when it came to getting things moving. From what she had gathered, the able-bodied people among the group had managed to sneak into the city on occasion and steal a little food. There wasn’t much to go around but it seemed the sick were getting some of it. Which was quite unusual in Kara’s opinion, since privation in her experience tended to make people degenerate to the level of ‘me, me and me again’.
Another fact she’d been able to glean was that several of the sicker people had already been badly off even before the Cylons attacked -some sick, some poor. It appeared that in some cases the attacks had simply made a bad situation worse. None of that surprised Kara -she knew from personal experience that a society with a nice comfortable per capita income didn’t mean that a per capita income was what everyone got. She’d been part of the dregs of humanity herself, once upon a time.
Turning around, she noticed Denn staring at her from the other end of the caves. Seeing her look, he turned on his heel and began to walk away. “Hey wait a minute!” She called after him. He stopped and turned towards her. She ambled up to him, ignoring her aching side.
“What do you want?” He growled.
“Lots of things. More than I can count, actually. But right now, I’ll start with wanting to bury her.” She pointed in the direction of Sara’s body. He didn’t look too happy with that idea.
“What the frak for? She’s not your mother. What the frak so you care?”
“I just do, pal. Doesn’t look like you do, though. I just thought I’d try and do my part to honor the dead, you know?” He gave her a truly dark look.
“Or we could just leave her to the worms. But I guess that’s up to you, like you said.” She looked him up and down. “’Cause she is your mother, not mine.”
He laughed at her -a desperate, dark sound. “You’re really something, you know that?” There was a wild expression on his face. “Don’t you get it? We’re all dying in here. That’s all that’s left for us now. That’s all we have. Why the frack do you think burying one person the traditional way is important? After all that’s happened to us, do you really think there are Gods out there who give a damn?”
Kara shrugged, then responded calmly in the face of his agitation. “Are there Gods? Who knows? I don’t have a clue about that. But I do about this -we’re still people, not animals.” She paused.
“Take it from someone who’s fought them. The toasters can take everything else away from us, but they can’t take away who we are.” She pointed a finger at him. “I want you to think about what you want to say when we bury her. That’s all you have to do, okay? I’ll fix the rest.” And she would. She already had, in fact.
She had sent two people among the many she had scouting the terrain (another of her current projects) to choose a site far enough away from the caves that it wouldn’t lead the Cylons right back to them.
“You just do what I tell you. I’ll do the rest.” She told him quietly.
*****
-Cylon Occupied Caprica-
Lieutenant Kara Thrace
Call Sign ‘Starbuck’
Day 4 on Caprica
The morning sun shone brightly through the trees, illuminating what remained of the rainfall so that it shone like delicate pearls. The only sounds to be heard were those of the early morning forest, and the sad sound of the traditional blessing for the dead. In stark contrast to the joyfulness of their surroundings, the gathering of ragged humanity stood silent as Denn spoke. “And so we remit the soul of your daughter, Sara, into your care… As it has always been, so shall it always be…”
“So say we all.”
“So say we all.” They whispered their reply into the sighing wind. Like the wind, most of the people around the grave began quickly disappearing now that the service was completed.
Looking down at the mound of dirt, Kara bowed her head. She wondered idly what the old woman had meant at the end, about seeing things. Seeing what?
She looked up as Helo walked up to her. “I’ll try and find some way to hide this.” He said as he indicated the burial site, “Not that the toasters couldn’t find it or us if they really wanted to, I guess, but…” She nodded. That ever-present threat was the reason why, despite insisting on the funeral, she had also insisted that a site far from the cave be used for it.
She looked up to see Denn walk off into the trees. “I’ll see you later at the cave.” Kara said to Helo as she followed.
She caught sight of him a few minutes later, walking away at a brisk pace. She followed as best she could. “Hey! Hey Denn!” She called out. She thought he hadn’t heard her at first, but then he simply stopped, his back to her.
She walked up to him. “Are you okay?”
He laughed, without humor. “I would have thought you’d already have the answer to that, you know.”
“What are you talking about?” She asked as he turned to face her, and the desperation she had seen in this entire group of people in the last few days was burning in his eyes.
“Well, it’s just that you seem to know what’s better for the group better than I do. You’ve been staying with us for what -two days? Three days? And already, everywhere I turn, you’re giving orders.” She rolled her eyes.
“Hey, pal, I’m sorry if your macho’s hurt or something, but I was just trying to help. And don’t you think it’s a little stupid to be worrying over who’s head honcho right now? I had some ideas, so I suggested. People acted. Deal with it.” She shot back.
She was surprised when he didn’t answer right away, almost as if he hadn’t heard her.
“But you know what’s worse than that?” He finally continued, without looking up. “What’s worse is that everyone follows them. They follow you in a way they don’t follow me.” His voice shook. “Don’t you understand? I’m not a leader. I’m not a fighter. I’m an engineer. Heck, the only time I ever fought with anyone was when someone tried to steal my wallet ten years ago.” He raised his eyes back to her.
“But it’s the only thing I have left. It’s the only thing I have left in this crazy universe where nothing makes sense to me anymore. I lost everything I ever cared about, lady. I don’t frakking care about being a leader. But it’s… all I have left.” He had tears in his eyes. When she didn’t answer, he turned to go back, wiping his eyes.
She caught his arm. “Wait. Wait a minute.” She said. “Look…I’m sorry if I made you feel like you aren’t good enough. I… I didn’t mean to do that. I was just trying to help, okay?”
She took a deep breath as she came to a decision. “I’ll tell you something I’d like for you to keep for yourself just now.”
“Oh?”
“I want to get all of us off this frakking planet.” She continued, cutting him off, when he seemed to be about to protest the craziness of that idea. “What you don’t know is that there’s somewhere we can go -all go- where you can all be safe. But I need your help to get there. I need your help to get everyone there.”
He still looked skeptical. She sighed. “Look, you know that my friends and I were Colonial military, right?” He nodded. “Well, let me put it to you this way. What makes you think that we’re the only ones that survived?”
She stopped, seeing his arrested expression. He looked like a man afraid to hope. She looked him right in the eyes as she continued. “I swear on the Gods that I’m telling the truth…” She said softly.
He stood there, facing her, for a few moments while she waited for him to digest it all.
“Look, I’m not trying to take over or cause trouble. This is your show, okay? I just want to help.” She added finally.
He looked at her gravely, and shook his head. But was it her imagination when she thought she saw a faint glimmer in those eyes where before there had been only despair?
“I swear I must be crazy to just believe you…” He paused and smiled ironically. “But it’s not like we’ve got anything else to believe in at this point -except for the fact that if we continue this way we’re all going to die. So let me tell you lady, if there’s a way you can get these people away from this hell, then it’s your show. You just tell me what you need.”
She smiled at that, and clapped him on the shoulder. “I just need… your help.”
*****
By the time she returned to the gravesite all the people had left aside from Helo, who was finishing up with his self-appointed camouflage work. Sharon was standing off to one side, silent. For obvious reasons, neither of them wanted to let her out of their sight.
“Missed a spot.” She said as she came up behind him.
“Hmm? Where?”
She pointed and he flattened the spot in question, covering it with leaves. He stood, surveying his work. Finally he turned to her, apparently satisfied.
She waved ‘Sharon’ ahead and waited until she was a short way ahead, but still in sight, before setting out as well.
“How are you doing?” She asked him quietly. He looked away. “I’m okay. I’ll survive.” He waved a hand at their surroundings and laughed bitterly. “It’s not like any of us have a choice, do we?”
“Nope. I am sorry though.” He nodded. As they began to walk back towards the cave, she considered how to ask what she had to ask next. “Helo, what do you want to do about her?” She asked, pitching her voice so it wouldn’t carry. He stopped and stared at her.
“You’re asking me what I want to do with a frakking toaster?” Ouch. Yep, that whole subject was still a sore spot. Still, she had to ask.
“You haven’t killed her yet. You’ve kept her alive, and I figure the kid has to count for something in that. So I’m asking -what do you want to do? Take her with us? Leave her behind? I’m really sorry if this hurts you, Helo, but I think we need to be on the same page on this if we’re going to swing getting away from this place.” She waved her arms. “Talk to me, here.”
He sighed and leaned back against a tree. Further ahead, ‘Sharon’ stopped and began to wait for them.
“I don’t know.” He answered finally, more quietly. “I can’t kill her, and I don’t think I should leave her here. I think… The Cylons seemed to want her back pretty badly, for some reason. I guess I’m figuring that if they want something that much, we should probably try to see to it that they don’t get it.” He shrugged. “As for the rest, I just… don’t know. I guess I’m… too numb to know how I feel at this point. Does that make any sense?” He asked.
She nodded. “Yeah. That’s what I needed to know. When we leave, she comes too.” And with that, they resumed their walk back to the cave.
*****
Their journey was uneventful, their footsteps punctuated only by the sun bobbing through the canopy of trees and the chirping of a few birds. Not as many as she remembered from summers past, Kara reflected. It seemed the Cylons had killed off more than just people.
When they reached the cave, the general mood was subdued. Helo walked off without a word. ‘Sharon’ (Kara still had trouble thinking of her without italics), watched him go.
“Sit.” Kara waved her away from the others, indicating she should take a seat near the mouth of the cave. Rather than obey, her ‘companion’ walked off, heading out of the cave. “Frak.” Kara swore under her breath, hurrying in pursuit. “Damn.”
When she stepped outside, the other was heading out of the clearing. Kara followed, giving up all pretense now that she was out of sight of the others. She ran.
Surprisingly, given what she knew of Cylon physical capacity, she didn’t have any trouble catching up. ‘Sharon’ had stopped, and was standing silently amidst yet more trees.
“What the frak do you think you’re doing?” Kara snarled.
“Getting some air.” The other replied nonchalantly, without turning around.
“Not on my watch.”
Sharon turned towards her. “You know, I’ve really had enough of both your crap. I’m cooperating. I haven’t tried to escape, and I certainly haven’t attacked you in your sleep or sucked the blood out of any small children.”
“So? What do you want, a medal?”
“Tell me, is a little politeness just too much to ask? And, you know, being able to pee without and audience would be nice too.”
Kara smirked at that. “You know, until recently I was really wondering if toasters did that. Thanks for being so instructive.”
“Frak you.” Sharon replied.
“Right back at ya.” Kara shot off promptly.
The other turned, leaning her/its head against a tree. “Is it really so hard for you -both of you- to get that I am a person? I think, I feel… And right now I suffer. Okay?” Her voice wavered slightly at that. She paused and looked back in Kara’s direction. “Not that you’d care.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Sharon snorted and looked away again. Deciding she might be here for a while, Kara sat down, her hand still on her trusty sidearm. She picked a blade of grass with her other hand, twirling it idly.
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Kara asked, more quietly.
“Get what? That I want to get my child to away from here -because I don’t want the others of my race to take it from me? That that’s my priority right now? That I do actually love that asshole in there? That I don’t believe in the same God you do?”
“Gods.”
“Whatever.” She waved that off with a shrug.
“Nope.” Kara shook her head. “Not whatever. It’s something.”
“What are you talking about?”
Kara leaned her head back against the tree behind her. “What I’m trying to say is that you might look human, feel human, frakking bleed like a human, but you still don’t get it. What it is to be us.”
“Frak you.”
“You keep saying that. Is it a standard programmed response or something? Whatever.” She raised her voice when it seemed that what she was saying was going to get dismissed again.
“The point is, what you’re not getting, is this. You -the Cylons- came here and attacked us. No rhyme, no reason. Somehow, Helo was lucky or unlucky enough to survive. You show up at some point, convince him it’s just you two against the world. And for what?” She looked down at ‘Sharon’s abdomen. “For some crazy-ass experiment? And when he finds out you think saying ‘sorry’ is gonna make it all okay?”
“You lied, and you took something from him you had no right to. Hell,” She snorted sarcastically, “you took something from all of us. Sharon was my friend. Don’t you even care about how that frakking makes me feel?”
“The point is that you seem to think you’re entitled to something. Well, you aren’t. You screwed us. What you are is damn lucky we aren’t telling those people in there what you are and leaving you to them.”
“So those are my options, huh? Shut up and take your crap, or get wasted? What about Helo wanting to keep me alive?” Sharon asked.
“Heard that, did you? Thought you might. Well, as far as I’m concerned, that works if you cooperate… Got it?”
“Yeah I got it.” Sharon sneered. Kara smiled back, a nice show of teeth.
They were both silent for a moment.
“Look…” The other began, hesitant. “I’ve thought about this a lot…and I want to make a deal with you.” She paused.
“And I should believe anything you say because?” Sharon snorted.
“Listen, I want off this frakking planet, and so do you. I figure my best chance of ever seeing my child after I have it is with you, not them. So, I’ll cooperate… and I’ll make you a promise. You get me out of here, and I’ll help your fleet fight the Cylons.”
Kara stopped at that. “You’d actually help us against your own people?”
Sharon nodded. “Yeah.”
“Why?”
“Many reasons, not the least of which being that if I’m useful to you after we leave here, I might be allowed to see my child.” A sad look crossed her face. “And that’s not a small consideration to me, like I’ve just told you.” She smiled. “Who knows? I might even see Helo once in a while too.”
Kara sighed. She’d never wanted to be a leader, and she’d never asked for this kind of responsibility. In fact, she’d avoided it like the plague.
She thought it through. It wasn’t like she and Helo were going to relax their guard anyway (and she’d make a point of reminding Helo of that next time she saw him) so what did it really change in her plans? The toaster could be useful if she meant it.
Of course, that was a pretty big if, but what the heck.
“Fine. But you’d better not be lying to us. Because if you are I swear to the Gods -I’ll find you and kill you myself. And you can count that as a promise.” Her voice was deadly serious.
Sharon nodded. “Fair enough.”
*****
Part 2b/6