Throw the First Stone Pt 2 (Eris is Lurking: Episode 1)
Title: Throw the First Stone (Eris is Lurking: Episode 1)
Part: 2/11
Pairing/Characters: Gen. All characters.
Rating: M
Summary: As Cain awaits trial for the deaths of innocent civilians, those with the power over her fate confront frightening personal demons.
Sharon’s eyes were soft with concern as she reached for the phone. The man she loved was every shade of shame and distress, and she felt dread slither down her back. “Karl? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“They’ve arrested Cain,” he said
Sharon couldn’t understand why this concerned him. She’d never seen him look so worried. Even when they were stuck on Caprica running for their lives.
“There’s gonna be a trial. She’s facing the death penalty,” Helo went on, voice shallow.
“Good riddance,” Sharon said, but then knew it was the wrong thing to say. Her lover grimaced, his brow tensing, jaw clenching.
“Helo, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”
He wiped his mouth as though he could regain composure, but it was a while before he spoke. When he did, his voice trembled on a pitch of fear. “I keep thinking about the day of the attack. We…The other Sharon and I,” he corrected himself regrettably, but Sharon only urged him on with a gentle expression.
He looked away for a moment, biting his lips. Sharon knew he was trying not to cry. She wished she could hold him. She wished she could offer more comfort than her hand pressed against the window separating them.
“We had a Raptor. There was a crowd of civilians,” Helo said, turning back to her after a breath. “They wanted rescuing. There were too many so…we drew a lottery. I gave up my seat for Gaius Baltar so I stayed behind.” Sharon winced as his voice got higher. “The people were angry and desperate. There was no telling…I had to protect the ship.”
Sharon pressed her hand more forcefully against the glass. She ached not being able to touch him, to cup his cheek and soothe his brow.
“I threatened to shoot those people. I threatened to kill innocent people.” Helo grit his teeth. “I basically decided who lived and who we left behind. Just like Cain. I’m just like her and she’s…”
He leaned forward and his forehead gently struck the window. His free hand hit the pane feebly in despair and Sharon tried to hush him.
“Helo. Helo, listen to me. You are not like Helena Cain. You are nothing like her, you hear me? You did what you could to save as many people as possible.”
He leaned to the side and he eyes screwed shut helplessly. “Cain saved who she could.”
“That’s bullshit. She could have protected that whole ship. Galactica protected a whole fleet by herself every frakking day before the Pegasus came along. Cain is a heartless coward.”
She tried to touch his face through the window as he grimaced again. “You are a good man, Karl Agathon. You save people. You saved me.”
Helo sniffed and breathed deeply, eyes closed and head down, still leaning on the window.
“You and Starbuck are going back, right? Back to Caprica to save those survivors. That’s a good thing, Helo. That’s a brave and noble thing.” She stroked the glass with a finger where the skin of his forehead touched the window.
The man was just breathing now. Slowly, in and out, in and out, and his breath crackled through the receiver. Sharon tried to smile so that when he finally looked up at her, he could believe in what she said.
“I hate that they keep you here,” Helo murmured into the phone. He pressed his hand flat against the window and Sharon moved her hand to reflect it. “It’s wrong. You deserve better than this. Adama…the whole frakking fleet owes you.”
He still had not looked up at her and Sharon worried that her smile had become stale and grim. She couldn’t deny the feeling she was being treated unfairly, but she would be patient. She believed in humanity and she believed in herself.
Helo backed off the window to lift his head. “I’m going to get you out of here. Adama has to listen to me. He has to see what you’ve done for this fleet.”
She couldn’t stop him. He hung up the phone and strode off purposefully before she could utter a sound. She wanted to save him the disappointment. Sharon knew now was not the time to pester the Old Man with matters of that pregnant Cylon they had in the brig. The one who looked like Boomer.
Sharon sighed and shuffled to her bed, straining in discomfort. She eased herself down, lay back and thought about Boomer. It was odd having her memories. It was like remembering two lives. There was the life of her training as a Cylon soldier, and the life of the little girl who lost her parents in a mining tragedy.
She had memories of being a child, knowing she had never looked younger than she did now. She remembered her parents, their faces, their voices, the smell of the perfume her mother liked to wear and the way her father always made stupid jokes. She remembered they would hold her hands and swing her between them and could remember how she thought things would be like that for ever.
But it wasn’t her. Even the memories that were actually Boomer’s, the ones she made after the false memories, were not her. Sometimes Sharon felt she was Boomer. It was difficult sharing your head with a whole other identity. Boomer had more memories than she did; A whole life with a childhood, awkward teenage years, first boyfriends, first kisses, stupid mistakes, and achievements that made her parents proud.
Sharon had a much different life. It began when she was activated, sensing instantly her true nature and that everything she knew had been planted. She understood so much at once. A memory of suddenly knowing everything about herself was a lot different to memories of gradually discovering the kind of person she was and learning about the world. It was a lot different to actually having experiences.
Boomer had a memory of learning not to touch fire because it burned, and how her father had run her finger under cold water and kissed it better. Sharon remembered being submerged in warm goo and a Three tenderly stroking her face saying, “Welcome to life, sister.”
Boomer had a memory of learning how to ride a bike and grazing her knees and how much it stung. Sharon remembered sitting in a room with a One who was telling her she had been chosen for a special mission.
It wasn’t until she had been given Boomer’s memories that Sharon ever thought about what it was to learn and experience. She could appreciate it would have been difficult for Boomer to learn that everything she knew and believed in was a lie. The parents she had loved with all her heart and believed were watching over her in death had never existed to begin with. Thinking about it made her angry. So she knew Boomer would be too, wherever she was.
But those memories were only a comfort in times when Sharon felt her faith slipping. Sharon knew who she was. No one was going to tell her who she wasn’t.
Lee was sick of learning the hard way. He learned he could sacrifice the few for the sake of the many when he shot down the Olympic Carrier. He learned he would sacrifice the many for the sake of friendship when Kara was lost on that moon. He learned that Human and Cylon were not the clear indicators he wished they could be for who he could trust and who he could not.
When he was just a lowly CAG he could scoff at the leadership of his father and doubt he possessed the qualities necessary for fair and efficient command of a Battlestar. He could question Saul Tigh as his choice of XO. He could call his father’s response to Roslin’s Arrow of Apollo crusade a failure of heart and the despotic, irresponsible soothing of his poor wounded ego.
Lee could stroll down the corridors on Galactica insisting that he would never lose sight of what was important, that he would never sacrifice his integrity the way his father had done. He could think, in private moments, that he would make a better leader.
Now he was the Commander and the universe was waiting for him to make good on his claims. The rumors of Cain’s arrest spread like wildfire across his ship. The outrage was palpable. The riots were frequent. The conscripted civilians from the Scylla and other ships Cain encountered in those early weeks after the Cylons attacked needed to be isolated for their own safety. Yesterday they were all sharing drinks, sharing racks, working together as a crew. Today half his crew were outsiders, traitors.
Again Lee cursed his father, furious that he had not come to him first, allowed him to form some kind of strategy to deal with the consequences of slapping the former Admiral, to whom all but a fraction of his crew were still unconditionally loyal, in chains and throwing her in a cell. He was livid that the old man had never stopped to consider the danger he had put him and his crew in, danger from ensuing violence and unrest.
He’d needed to station extra Marines outside his door just to feel safe and he hated the weakness it showed to his men. He was grateful when a brisk knock interrupted his internal rampage and gave him a moment to relax his eyes from the log book he was reading.
“Come in.”
Shaw walked in, clipping her heels and saluting militantly. Lee smiled, acknowledging how unused to such displays of military discipline he had become being so long onboard Galactica. There was something to be said about Cain’s leadership. She never let her crew forget who they were.
“Galactica has just sent over these files. They contain the revised conditions for the transfer of deckhands.” Shaw held the folder in both hands, waiting for the signal to approach his desk. If it were Kara, she would have sauntered up to him already, tossed the folder in front of him and leaned over it, grinning like Lee was supposed to want something else, something more.
“Oh, good. We might finally get some work done when my pilots don’t want to kill the deck staff.”
Shaw approached and handed the folder to Lee. He opened it and scanned it briefly. On the final pages were the signatures of Roslin and his father. He spat in contempt and cast it aside. “You know what’s ironic?” he said, looking up at his XO, “Is from what I’ve read,” and he tapped his finger down on the open log, “Cain would never have stood for this kind of behavior.”
“No she would not, Sir.” Shaw agreed with a dutiful nod.
Lee regarded her for a moment and leaned back in his seat. He could see her eyes darting from him to the pile of log books. “Something on your mind, Major?”
The woman hesitated and Lee saw the muscles tensing in her jaw. He remained calm, not wanting her to think her opinion was not welcome.
“What’s your assessment of Cain?” she asked finally, and for a moment her features no longer looked so stern, “I’m curious.”
“So far?” Lee was relieved and amused at her question. “Actually, she’s nothing like I expected her to be.” He smiled genuinely and was pleased at the fleeting smile that flickered on Shaw’s lips. “She writes so candidly, and her affection for her Battlestar and her crew is…moving.”
“Will you use her logs as evidence in her trial?” Shaw asked. That was obviously what she was most interested in.
“When Cain agrees to a lawyer I will put forth my interest in her defense.”
“You think she’s innocent?” Shaw’s brows came together curiously.
“I didn’t say that,” said Lee, carefully, “But…we’ve all done things…terrible things…in the name of survival.”
Shaw eyed him steadily, her dark eyes penetrating uncomfortably. But Lee didn’t falter. He deserved and welcomed the scrutiny. He wanted to be accountable and he was glad he had an XO who would keep him honest instead of one that would keep him drunk.
The number of times he had been called before Saul Tigh and his father while the two of them sat there drinking and laughing were too numerous. It was the reason he had left in the first place.
“When is the trial?” Shaw asked.
“President Roslin hasn’t decided. There’s trouble with Gaius Baltar. He insists on adding charges of abuse to the Cylon prisoner. But you can’t condemn Cain and not the other soldiers involved, and the fleet will have trouble accepting that a Cylon is anything more than a machine. It’s…tricky.”
But Lee didn’t think so. If he allowed himself for one minute to think of the Cylon as a woman he would never be able to look his crew in the eyes again.
“Sir, I’m going to visit Cain on Galactica,” said Shaw, standing stiff.
Lee frowned. “I understand your loyalty, Major, but do you think that’s a good idea with everything that’s going on. I really need you here.”
“She was my Commanding Officer. She deserves at least a bit of my time.”
Lee smiled, knowing he’d made the right decision making her his XO. “Of course. Whenever you’d like.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“You’re welcome.”
Shaw reached for the log that lay open on his desk and turned it about. He didn’t protest as she scanned the contents of the pages. He wasn’t about to deny her such a small strand of connection to her former commanding officer.
“Wow. You’ve really gone back to where it all began haven’t you?” she said. Her tone made it clear she was skeptical of the benefit such extensive reading could be to him. Lee just smiled.
“I believe I owe it to my predecessor to acknowledge the years she spent nurturing my crew.”
Shaw nodded, smirking. “So she writes candidly, huh? You might be in for a real treat, then.”
Lee tilted his head. “Why’s that?”
Shaw spun the log back around and pushed it towards him. “This is around the time the Cylon comes aboard.”
Part: 2/11
Pairing/Characters: Gen. All characters.
Rating: M
Summary: As Cain awaits trial for the deaths of innocent civilians, those with the power over her fate confront frightening personal demons.
Sharon’s eyes were soft with concern as she reached for the phone. The man she loved was every shade of shame and distress, and she felt dread slither down her back. “Karl? What’s wrong? What’s happening?”
“They’ve arrested Cain,” he said
Sharon couldn’t understand why this concerned him. She’d never seen him look so worried. Even when they were stuck on Caprica running for their lives.
“There’s gonna be a trial. She’s facing the death penalty,” Helo went on, voice shallow.
“Good riddance,” Sharon said, but then knew it was the wrong thing to say. Her lover grimaced, his brow tensing, jaw clenching.
“Helo, what’s wrong? Talk to me.”
He wiped his mouth as though he could regain composure, but it was a while before he spoke. When he did, his voice trembled on a pitch of fear. “I keep thinking about the day of the attack. We…The other Sharon and I,” he corrected himself regrettably, but Sharon only urged him on with a gentle expression.
He looked away for a moment, biting his lips. Sharon knew he was trying not to cry. She wished she could hold him. She wished she could offer more comfort than her hand pressed against the window separating them.
“We had a Raptor. There was a crowd of civilians,” Helo said, turning back to her after a breath. “They wanted rescuing. There were too many so…we drew a lottery. I gave up my seat for Gaius Baltar so I stayed behind.” Sharon winced as his voice got higher. “The people were angry and desperate. There was no telling…I had to protect the ship.”
Sharon pressed her hand more forcefully against the glass. She ached not being able to touch him, to cup his cheek and soothe his brow.
“I threatened to shoot those people. I threatened to kill innocent people.” Helo grit his teeth. “I basically decided who lived and who we left behind. Just like Cain. I’m just like her and she’s…”
He leaned forward and his forehead gently struck the window. His free hand hit the pane feebly in despair and Sharon tried to hush him.
“Helo. Helo, listen to me. You are not like Helena Cain. You are nothing like her, you hear me? You did what you could to save as many people as possible.”
He leaned to the side and he eyes screwed shut helplessly. “Cain saved who she could.”
“That’s bullshit. She could have protected that whole ship. Galactica protected a whole fleet by herself every frakking day before the Pegasus came along. Cain is a heartless coward.”
She tried to touch his face through the window as he grimaced again. “You are a good man, Karl Agathon. You save people. You saved me.”
Helo sniffed and breathed deeply, eyes closed and head down, still leaning on the window.
“You and Starbuck are going back, right? Back to Caprica to save those survivors. That’s a good thing, Helo. That’s a brave and noble thing.” She stroked the glass with a finger where the skin of his forehead touched the window.
The man was just breathing now. Slowly, in and out, in and out, and his breath crackled through the receiver. Sharon tried to smile so that when he finally looked up at her, he could believe in what she said.
“I hate that they keep you here,” Helo murmured into the phone. He pressed his hand flat against the window and Sharon moved her hand to reflect it. “It’s wrong. You deserve better than this. Adama…the whole frakking fleet owes you.”
He still had not looked up at her and Sharon worried that her smile had become stale and grim. She couldn’t deny the feeling she was being treated unfairly, but she would be patient. She believed in humanity and she believed in herself.
Helo backed off the window to lift his head. “I’m going to get you out of here. Adama has to listen to me. He has to see what you’ve done for this fleet.”
She couldn’t stop him. He hung up the phone and strode off purposefully before she could utter a sound. She wanted to save him the disappointment. Sharon knew now was not the time to pester the Old Man with matters of that pregnant Cylon they had in the brig. The one who looked like Boomer.
Sharon sighed and shuffled to her bed, straining in discomfort. She eased herself down, lay back and thought about Boomer. It was odd having her memories. It was like remembering two lives. There was the life of her training as a Cylon soldier, and the life of the little girl who lost her parents in a mining tragedy.
She had memories of being a child, knowing she had never looked younger than she did now. She remembered her parents, their faces, their voices, the smell of the perfume her mother liked to wear and the way her father always made stupid jokes. She remembered they would hold her hands and swing her between them and could remember how she thought things would be like that for ever.
But it wasn’t her. Even the memories that were actually Boomer’s, the ones she made after the false memories, were not her. Sometimes Sharon felt she was Boomer. It was difficult sharing your head with a whole other identity. Boomer had more memories than she did; A whole life with a childhood, awkward teenage years, first boyfriends, first kisses, stupid mistakes, and achievements that made her parents proud.
Sharon had a much different life. It began when she was activated, sensing instantly her true nature and that everything she knew had been planted. She understood so much at once. A memory of suddenly knowing everything about herself was a lot different to memories of gradually discovering the kind of person she was and learning about the world. It was a lot different to actually having experiences.
Boomer had a memory of learning not to touch fire because it burned, and how her father had run her finger under cold water and kissed it better. Sharon remembered being submerged in warm goo and a Three tenderly stroking her face saying, “Welcome to life, sister.”
Boomer had a memory of learning how to ride a bike and grazing her knees and how much it stung. Sharon remembered sitting in a room with a One who was telling her she had been chosen for a special mission.
It wasn’t until she had been given Boomer’s memories that Sharon ever thought about what it was to learn and experience. She could appreciate it would have been difficult for Boomer to learn that everything she knew and believed in was a lie. The parents she had loved with all her heart and believed were watching over her in death had never existed to begin with. Thinking about it made her angry. So she knew Boomer would be too, wherever she was.
But those memories were only a comfort in times when Sharon felt her faith slipping. Sharon knew who she was. No one was going to tell her who she wasn’t.
Lee was sick of learning the hard way. He learned he could sacrifice the few for the sake of the many when he shot down the Olympic Carrier. He learned he would sacrifice the many for the sake of friendship when Kara was lost on that moon. He learned that Human and Cylon were not the clear indicators he wished they could be for who he could trust and who he could not.
When he was just a lowly CAG he could scoff at the leadership of his father and doubt he possessed the qualities necessary for fair and efficient command of a Battlestar. He could question Saul Tigh as his choice of XO. He could call his father’s response to Roslin’s Arrow of Apollo crusade a failure of heart and the despotic, irresponsible soothing of his poor wounded ego.
Lee could stroll down the corridors on Galactica insisting that he would never lose sight of what was important, that he would never sacrifice his integrity the way his father had done. He could think, in private moments, that he would make a better leader.
Now he was the Commander and the universe was waiting for him to make good on his claims. The rumors of Cain’s arrest spread like wildfire across his ship. The outrage was palpable. The riots were frequent. The conscripted civilians from the Scylla and other ships Cain encountered in those early weeks after the Cylons attacked needed to be isolated for their own safety. Yesterday they were all sharing drinks, sharing racks, working together as a crew. Today half his crew were outsiders, traitors.
Again Lee cursed his father, furious that he had not come to him first, allowed him to form some kind of strategy to deal with the consequences of slapping the former Admiral, to whom all but a fraction of his crew were still unconditionally loyal, in chains and throwing her in a cell. He was livid that the old man had never stopped to consider the danger he had put him and his crew in, danger from ensuing violence and unrest.
He’d needed to station extra Marines outside his door just to feel safe and he hated the weakness it showed to his men. He was grateful when a brisk knock interrupted his internal rampage and gave him a moment to relax his eyes from the log book he was reading.
“Come in.”
Shaw walked in, clipping her heels and saluting militantly. Lee smiled, acknowledging how unused to such displays of military discipline he had become being so long onboard Galactica. There was something to be said about Cain’s leadership. She never let her crew forget who they were.
“Galactica has just sent over these files. They contain the revised conditions for the transfer of deckhands.” Shaw held the folder in both hands, waiting for the signal to approach his desk. If it were Kara, she would have sauntered up to him already, tossed the folder in front of him and leaned over it, grinning like Lee was supposed to want something else, something more.
“Oh, good. We might finally get some work done when my pilots don’t want to kill the deck staff.”
Shaw approached and handed the folder to Lee. He opened it and scanned it briefly. On the final pages were the signatures of Roslin and his father. He spat in contempt and cast it aside. “You know what’s ironic?” he said, looking up at his XO, “Is from what I’ve read,” and he tapped his finger down on the open log, “Cain would never have stood for this kind of behavior.”
“No she would not, Sir.” Shaw agreed with a dutiful nod.
Lee regarded her for a moment and leaned back in his seat. He could see her eyes darting from him to the pile of log books. “Something on your mind, Major?”
The woman hesitated and Lee saw the muscles tensing in her jaw. He remained calm, not wanting her to think her opinion was not welcome.
“What’s your assessment of Cain?” she asked finally, and for a moment her features no longer looked so stern, “I’m curious.”
“So far?” Lee was relieved and amused at her question. “Actually, she’s nothing like I expected her to be.” He smiled genuinely and was pleased at the fleeting smile that flickered on Shaw’s lips. “She writes so candidly, and her affection for her Battlestar and her crew is…moving.”
“Will you use her logs as evidence in her trial?” Shaw asked. That was obviously what she was most interested in.
“When Cain agrees to a lawyer I will put forth my interest in her defense.”
“You think she’s innocent?” Shaw’s brows came together curiously.
“I didn’t say that,” said Lee, carefully, “But…we’ve all done things…terrible things…in the name of survival.”
Shaw eyed him steadily, her dark eyes penetrating uncomfortably. But Lee didn’t falter. He deserved and welcomed the scrutiny. He wanted to be accountable and he was glad he had an XO who would keep him honest instead of one that would keep him drunk.
The number of times he had been called before Saul Tigh and his father while the two of them sat there drinking and laughing were too numerous. It was the reason he had left in the first place.
“When is the trial?” Shaw asked.
“President Roslin hasn’t decided. There’s trouble with Gaius Baltar. He insists on adding charges of abuse to the Cylon prisoner. But you can’t condemn Cain and not the other soldiers involved, and the fleet will have trouble accepting that a Cylon is anything more than a machine. It’s…tricky.”
But Lee didn’t think so. If he allowed himself for one minute to think of the Cylon as a woman he would never be able to look his crew in the eyes again.
“Sir, I’m going to visit Cain on Galactica,” said Shaw, standing stiff.
Lee frowned. “I understand your loyalty, Major, but do you think that’s a good idea with everything that’s going on. I really need you here.”
“She was my Commanding Officer. She deserves at least a bit of my time.”
Lee smiled, knowing he’d made the right decision making her his XO. “Of course. Whenever you’d like.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“You’re welcome.”
Shaw reached for the log that lay open on his desk and turned it about. He didn’t protest as she scanned the contents of the pages. He wasn’t about to deny her such a small strand of connection to her former commanding officer.
“Wow. You’ve really gone back to where it all began haven’t you?” she said. Her tone made it clear she was skeptical of the benefit such extensive reading could be to him. Lee just smiled.
“I believe I owe it to my predecessor to acknowledge the years she spent nurturing my crew.”
Shaw nodded, smirking. “So she writes candidly, huh? You might be in for a real treat, then.”
Lee tilted his head. “Why’s that?”
Shaw spun the log back around and pushed it towards him. “This is around the time the Cylon comes aboard.”