Fic: A Better Time (PG)
Title: A Better Time
Characters/Pairings: Tyrol/Boomer, Starbuck, Baltar, Roslin, Tigh, Helo/Sharon
Rating: PG
Words: About 2300
Summary: What if the cylons hadn't launched the attack? AU snapshots.
Notes: Potential spoilers for all aired episodes.
It comes to her suddenly, a bright flash of clarity and understanding. It happens while she's watering the orchid Galen gave to her for their second anniversary. The plant is hardier than she'd expected, the flowers a deep purple shot through with acid green and white. She's loved the orchid from the first time she'd seen Galen holding it, and now, looking at the waxy leaves, she's suddenly aware of the fragility of the life around her. She knows how easily it could end, how many she could kill without blinking an eye.
She knows the truth, and it's horrible.
"Cylon," Sharon mutters, staring at a drop of water on a green leaf. "Cylon."
Everything comes to her, unfolding, layer after layer. Her model, the reason she was given for existing. The cylon plan for humanity, expected to have been implemented four years ago. Cylon frequencies, ways she can establish contact with other copies of this model. Ways she can ask questions without blowing her cover.
She has so many questions.
Slowly, she sets the watering can down. Her hand is trembling. Her legs feel weak. "Sit," she says to herself, looking at a soft chair. One leg in front of the other, she moves towards it, unsteady.
It's her favourite chair. She still remembers seeing in a store window.
Looking down, she concentrates on her hands, the way they fold over her stomach.
When Galen comes home - hands greasy, mouth smiling - she's still sitting there, still staring at her hands, processing the data. Making decisions, while she flexes her fingers. She knows now that her hands could snap his neck easily.
"Sharon?"
She looks up. "Hi."
"You O.K.?" He kisses her forehead. "Have a good day off?"
I'm a cylon, she wants to say. Instead, she smiles. "The baby kicked today."
"Yeah?" He looks absurdly delighted.
"Yes."
"Isn't that a little early?"
"Yes."
"Gonna be a smart one," he says. "A go-getter."
"We might have to call her Starbuck." Sharon laughs.
"Her?"
Oh yes. Her. The mother of a new species. The first of several. "Her."
His grin widens, almost impossibly. "A girl!"
I'm a cylon, she wants to say, and this is all part of a plan. A slow, careful plan. Something more subtle than the original idea.
Sharon knows the truth now, and it's wonderful. She stands, wraps her arms around Galen's waist, and says, "It's more than I ever dreamed."
*
Once a year, he goes to the museum. He pays his fee, he waves away the proffered guide book, and he avoids the guided tours. Alone, he walks the corridors, and remembers crew and stories.
He can still imagine Chief Tyrol on the hangar deck, his deck hands swarming around him, efficient and cheerful.
The pilot's ready room shines from regular polishing, but he remembers it with scuffs and scratches, redolent with the scent of sweat and leather and nervous energy.
He skips his old quarters - they're a teaching room now anyway. Instead, he always spends the most time in the CIC. The computers are networked now, although stripped of their battle capacities. It's a travesty, but he manages to keep those thoughts to himself.
How many hours did he spend in this room, going over tactics and operational details and crew manifests? Detail after dreary detail, punctuated by periods of furious activity.
They were the best days of his life.
Saul Tigh looks around him, takes a surreptitious mouthful from his flask, and remembers a better time.
*
Personnel Discharge Report #63457
Rank and Name: Lieutenant Kara Thrace [see attached for educational background and commendations]
Last Post: Battlestar Atlantia (Viper pilot)
Previous Posts:
Battlestar Galactica (Viper pilot)
Fleet Flight Training Facility, Caprica (Flight instructor)
Disciplinary Charges:
Striking A Superior Officer (Atlantia)
Striking A Superior Officer (Atlantia)
Insubordination (Atlantia)
Fighting Among Ranks (Atlantia)
Intoxicated While On Duty (Atlantia)
Fighting Among Ranks (Atlantia)
Conduct Unbecoming An Officer (Atlantia)
Striking A Superior Officer (Galactica)
Fighting Among Ranks (Galactica)
Inciting Fighting Among Ranks (Galactica)
Conduct Unbecoming An Officer (Fleet Flight Training Facility)
Dangerous Conduct (Fleet Flight Training Facility)
Discharge Decision Notes:
Superior flight skills inadequate to excuse increasingly insubordinate actions. Thrace is unable to take orders and routinely undertakes dangerous alternatives. Her personal charisma draws others to her, making her a further danger to the fleet. Discharge is immediate and irreversible.
*
When she returns from the Galactica's decommissioning, Laura starts treatment. She knows it's too late, that things have progressed too far, but she can't quite let go, not that easily. She has work to do - the continued talks with the teachers, the push for education reform.
But it's all exhausting, far more than it should be, and the conventional drugs make her long for an ending.
She stops taking what the doctors prescribe, makes enquiries, and starts taking chamalla extract instead. It works for a time, easing the pain, giving her a clarity of thought. She's able to see patterns around her, patterns that can be manipulated.
It makes her work easier.
"Madame Secretary?" Billy is standing at her office door, frowning. He's holding a missive in his hand.
"Yes, Billy?"
"President Baltar feels that you should resign. That, in your present condition, you should be released from your present workload. That you aren't suited to this position, and you never were."
She shakes her head. "Excuse me? President Baltar? Did we have an election that I didn't know about?"
Billy's frown deepens. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"You're telling me that President Baltar has ordered me to resign my position?"
"Um. Do you mean Gaius Baltar? No. I said that President Adar has approved the latest negotiations with the teachers." He walks forward, handing her the paper. "Are you - are you all right? Can I get you anything?"
The page on her desk is signed by Adar, fixed with his official seal. There is no President Baltar. Laura shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Billy. It's been a long day. I must have misheard you. Thank you, no, I don't need anything."
He hovers over her desk for a moment, but eventually nods and leaves.
Laura rubs at her temples, tries to ignore the headache building there. Hallucinations are not unusual with chamalla extract. She'll just have to be more careful.
That night, wrapped in familiar sheets in her familiar bed, she dreams of a fleet of refugees, of cylons who look like humans, of an endless search for Earth, for a safe haven, for hope. She dreams of treachery and betray, of elections and bodies piled high, of a self-imposed quest for salvation.
In the morning, she doesn’t remember any of it.
*
Renowned Scientist, Technological Genius, Dies Suddenly
Caprica City (CNS) - Dr. Gaius Baltar, widely hailed as the most important scientist of his generation, was found dead yesterday in his home. There was no sign of unauthorized entry, but police are treating the circumstances as suspicious. "Whenever a high-profile citizen dies suddenly, especially when he or she was known to be in good health, we naturally must consider the circumstances as possibly unnatural," said Detective Saltas, the head of the investigation.
Dr. Baltar's contributions to the colonies were numerous. He has been credited as the genius behind current planetary defense mechanisms, although he often downplayed his role in this. "He was a very modest man," his former secretary said. "Very modest and self-effacing." At the time of his death, he had been working on defense upgrades, and new flight control systems for all Battlestars, Raptors and Vipers in the Colonial Fleet, a project he had gone on record as saying would "further revolutionize the way we think about the role of computers in our society."
Dr. Baltar leaves behind no relatives. "He often said that he felt the entire population of the Twelve Colonies were his brothers and sisters," said one of Baltar's colleagues.
Death of Beloved Scientist Not An Accident
Caprica City (CNS) - In an unexpected announcement, police yesterday stated that Dr. Gaius Baltar's death was not accidental. "It is my unfortunate duty to announce that the medical report notes that there is no possible way that Dr. Baltar died through natural means," said Detective Saltas, head of the investigation. When pressed for details, Saltas revealed that Dr. Baltar's "neck had been snapped," mostly likely in a confrontation with one individual.
A list of potential suspects is being compiled. The police are asking that anyone who might have information pertinent to the investigation to please contact Detective Saltas.
Scientist Shocker!!! Sex, Scandal, and Suspects!! Caprica Enquirer Exclusive!
Dr. Gaius Baltar, a man once revered for his respectability, was a sex maniac who left a trail of broken hearts behind him. "He was a pig," one woman said, after stating she wished to remain anonymous. "Woman after woman, and he never stopped. I'm not surprised he's dead. I'm just surprised he lasted this long."
Brunettes, blondes, redheads - you name it, and Baltar had them! The Caprica Enquirer has obtained information suggesting that orgies in expensive hotels were common. One anonymous staff member at the Caprican Rising Star hotel reportedly has incriminating pictures and video, and is in negotiation with the Caprica Enquirer to sell this evidence.
"He had enemies," Baltar's former secretary and secret lover told us. "Jealous women, women who wouldn't leave him alone. Once, a blonde woman invaded his bedroom, demanding that I leave. She was so angry! And she wasn't the only one who felt like that. Poor Gaius. He just had so much love to give, everyone wanted him." As she started to cry, she added, "But how can one man make everyone happy?"
"He deserved to die," another woman told us, a computer technology contractor who claims to have known Baltar intimately. "One man causing such suffering in another person is unforgivable. It's typical of humanity to avoid taking responsibility for one's own actions." Sounds like someone has an axe to grind - and she's not the only one! Keep an eye on the Caprica Enquirer for more exclusive updates on what is sure to become one of the most shocking stories of the year!
*
"What girl don't you know?" Starbuck had asked Karl once, a little snide. He'd shrugged it off. Being in the Colonial Fleet doesn't exactly lend itself to stable relationships.
So Karl does what he can - he finds interested women when he has leave, and shows them the best damn time he can while they're together. He likes the variety - women who want to go see a Pyramid game, women who like movies or swimming, or drinking and dancing.
After the Galactica is decommissioned, after Starbuck gets kicked out of the Fleet, after he gets a couple of promotions, even after Sharon and Tyrol finally muster out and get married, Karl still knows a lot of women.
He's on Tauron when he first sees her. It's the first day of his four-day leave from the Pegasus. She looks different - her hair is shorter, cut in layers that flip out from her face, and she's dressed in clothes he's never seen. But even from a distance, she looks fantastic, a friendly, familiar face. Before he thinks about it, he's yelling across the marketplace. "Sharon!"
She doesn't turn, so he follows her through the crush of people, eventually catching up to her, clasping her arm. "Sharon," he says again, as she turns. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Tyrol settled on Picon -" he stops. She's frowning at him.
"I'm not Sharon," she says, looking pointedly at his hand, still holding her arm. He lets go. "I think you've got me confused with someone else."
It's uncanny. "You don't have a twin sister, do you?"
Her smile is just as radiant as Sharon's always was. "I don't think so. But it's a good line. Does it work on other women?"
That catches him off guard, the way Sharon sometimes did, and he laughs. "It's not a line! You really do look like someone I know - someone I used to work with. In the Fleet. I thought -" he doesn't know what he thought. He just reacted. "Sorry. I just haven't seen her in a while."
"Do you miss her?"
"Yeah. She was a good pilot." He grins. "Except for the landings. She never got the hang of those." He's tempted to start babbling, start telling stories of the Fleet and his friends, and the days on Galactica.
He never talks about those days, not with Fleet or civilians. Some things are personal.
"I'm sorry I wasn't who you thought I was," she glances at his uniform, "Major -"
"Agathon. Helo."
"It's nice to meet you, Major Helo Agathon."
He grins. "Helo was my call sign. Name's Karl."
"Karl." She nods to herself, watching his face carefully. After a moment, she smiles again and asks, "Do you know Tauron at all?"
"Nah. First time." So far it looks like every other planet.
Moving to his side, she slips her arm through his. "Maybe you'd like a local guide?"
There's no way he can say no to an offer like that. "Sounds like fun."
By the end of the first day, he's thanking the gods he has a four-day leave instead of the usual two. By the end of the third day, he thinks maybe he's falling in love. By the end of the fourth day, they're making plans to meet during his next leave.
It's a first for Karl.
It's still uncanny how much she looks like Sharon. But they're different in so many other ways, and he's already stopped thinking about her as Sharon. Maybe they do look similar, but Karl's met a lot of women, and he figures it isn't all that strange to know two who are virtually identical.
End.
Characters/Pairings: Tyrol/Boomer, Starbuck, Baltar, Roslin, Tigh, Helo/Sharon
Rating: PG
Words: About 2300
Summary: What if the cylons hadn't launched the attack? AU snapshots.
Notes: Potential spoilers for all aired episodes.
It comes to her suddenly, a bright flash of clarity and understanding. It happens while she's watering the orchid Galen gave to her for their second anniversary. The plant is hardier than she'd expected, the flowers a deep purple shot through with acid green and white. She's loved the orchid from the first time she'd seen Galen holding it, and now, looking at the waxy leaves, she's suddenly aware of the fragility of the life around her. She knows how easily it could end, how many she could kill without blinking an eye.
She knows the truth, and it's horrible.
"Cylon," Sharon mutters, staring at a drop of water on a green leaf. "Cylon."
Everything comes to her, unfolding, layer after layer. Her model, the reason she was given for existing. The cylon plan for humanity, expected to have been implemented four years ago. Cylon frequencies, ways she can establish contact with other copies of this model. Ways she can ask questions without blowing her cover.
She has so many questions.
Slowly, she sets the watering can down. Her hand is trembling. Her legs feel weak. "Sit," she says to herself, looking at a soft chair. One leg in front of the other, she moves towards it, unsteady.
It's her favourite chair. She still remembers seeing in a store window.
Looking down, she concentrates on her hands, the way they fold over her stomach.
When Galen comes home - hands greasy, mouth smiling - she's still sitting there, still staring at her hands, processing the data. Making decisions, while she flexes her fingers. She knows now that her hands could snap his neck easily.
"Sharon?"
She looks up. "Hi."
"You O.K.?" He kisses her forehead. "Have a good day off?"
I'm a cylon, she wants to say. Instead, she smiles. "The baby kicked today."
"Yeah?" He looks absurdly delighted.
"Yes."
"Isn't that a little early?"
"Yes."
"Gonna be a smart one," he says. "A go-getter."
"We might have to call her Starbuck." Sharon laughs.
"Her?"
Oh yes. Her. The mother of a new species. The first of several. "Her."
His grin widens, almost impossibly. "A girl!"
I'm a cylon, she wants to say, and this is all part of a plan. A slow, careful plan. Something more subtle than the original idea.
Sharon knows the truth now, and it's wonderful. She stands, wraps her arms around Galen's waist, and says, "It's more than I ever dreamed."
*
Once a year, he goes to the museum. He pays his fee, he waves away the proffered guide book, and he avoids the guided tours. Alone, he walks the corridors, and remembers crew and stories.
He can still imagine Chief Tyrol on the hangar deck, his deck hands swarming around him, efficient and cheerful.
The pilot's ready room shines from regular polishing, but he remembers it with scuffs and scratches, redolent with the scent of sweat and leather and nervous energy.
He skips his old quarters - they're a teaching room now anyway. Instead, he always spends the most time in the CIC. The computers are networked now, although stripped of their battle capacities. It's a travesty, but he manages to keep those thoughts to himself.
How many hours did he spend in this room, going over tactics and operational details and crew manifests? Detail after dreary detail, punctuated by periods of furious activity.
They were the best days of his life.
Saul Tigh looks around him, takes a surreptitious mouthful from his flask, and remembers a better time.
*
Personnel Discharge Report #63457
Rank and Name: Lieutenant Kara Thrace [see attached for educational background and commendations]
Last Post: Battlestar Atlantia (Viper pilot)
Previous Posts:
Battlestar Galactica (Viper pilot)
Fleet Flight Training Facility, Caprica (Flight instructor)
Disciplinary Charges:
Striking A Superior Officer (Atlantia)
Striking A Superior Officer (Atlantia)
Insubordination (Atlantia)
Fighting Among Ranks (Atlantia)
Intoxicated While On Duty (Atlantia)
Fighting Among Ranks (Atlantia)
Conduct Unbecoming An Officer (Atlantia)
Striking A Superior Officer (Galactica)
Fighting Among Ranks (Galactica)
Inciting Fighting Among Ranks (Galactica)
Conduct Unbecoming An Officer (Fleet Flight Training Facility)
Dangerous Conduct (Fleet Flight Training Facility)
Discharge Decision Notes:
Superior flight skills inadequate to excuse increasingly insubordinate actions. Thrace is unable to take orders and routinely undertakes dangerous alternatives. Her personal charisma draws others to her, making her a further danger to the fleet. Discharge is immediate and irreversible.
*
When she returns from the Galactica's decommissioning, Laura starts treatment. She knows it's too late, that things have progressed too far, but she can't quite let go, not that easily. She has work to do - the continued talks with the teachers, the push for education reform.
But it's all exhausting, far more than it should be, and the conventional drugs make her long for an ending.
She stops taking what the doctors prescribe, makes enquiries, and starts taking chamalla extract instead. It works for a time, easing the pain, giving her a clarity of thought. She's able to see patterns around her, patterns that can be manipulated.
It makes her work easier.
"Madame Secretary?" Billy is standing at her office door, frowning. He's holding a missive in his hand.
"Yes, Billy?"
"President Baltar feels that you should resign. That, in your present condition, you should be released from your present workload. That you aren't suited to this position, and you never were."
She shakes her head. "Excuse me? President Baltar? Did we have an election that I didn't know about?"
Billy's frown deepens. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
"You're telling me that President Baltar has ordered me to resign my position?"
"Um. Do you mean Gaius Baltar? No. I said that President Adar has approved the latest negotiations with the teachers." He walks forward, handing her the paper. "Are you - are you all right? Can I get you anything?"
The page on her desk is signed by Adar, fixed with his official seal. There is no President Baltar. Laura shakes her head. "I'm sorry, Billy. It's been a long day. I must have misheard you. Thank you, no, I don't need anything."
He hovers over her desk for a moment, but eventually nods and leaves.
Laura rubs at her temples, tries to ignore the headache building there. Hallucinations are not unusual with chamalla extract. She'll just have to be more careful.
That night, wrapped in familiar sheets in her familiar bed, she dreams of a fleet of refugees, of cylons who look like humans, of an endless search for Earth, for a safe haven, for hope. She dreams of treachery and betray, of elections and bodies piled high, of a self-imposed quest for salvation.
In the morning, she doesn’t remember any of it.
*
Renowned Scientist, Technological Genius, Dies Suddenly
Caprica City (CNS) - Dr. Gaius Baltar, widely hailed as the most important scientist of his generation, was found dead yesterday in his home. There was no sign of unauthorized entry, but police are treating the circumstances as suspicious. "Whenever a high-profile citizen dies suddenly, especially when he or she was known to be in good health, we naturally must consider the circumstances as possibly unnatural," said Detective Saltas, the head of the investigation.
Dr. Baltar's contributions to the colonies were numerous. He has been credited as the genius behind current planetary defense mechanisms, although he often downplayed his role in this. "He was a very modest man," his former secretary said. "Very modest and self-effacing." At the time of his death, he had been working on defense upgrades, and new flight control systems for all Battlestars, Raptors and Vipers in the Colonial Fleet, a project he had gone on record as saying would "further revolutionize the way we think about the role of computers in our society."
Dr. Baltar leaves behind no relatives. "He often said that he felt the entire population of the Twelve Colonies were his brothers and sisters," said one of Baltar's colleagues.
Death of Beloved Scientist Not An Accident
Caprica City (CNS) - In an unexpected announcement, police yesterday stated that Dr. Gaius Baltar's death was not accidental. "It is my unfortunate duty to announce that the medical report notes that there is no possible way that Dr. Baltar died through natural means," said Detective Saltas, head of the investigation. When pressed for details, Saltas revealed that Dr. Baltar's "neck had been snapped," mostly likely in a confrontation with one individual.
A list of potential suspects is being compiled. The police are asking that anyone who might have information pertinent to the investigation to please contact Detective Saltas.
Scientist Shocker!!! Sex, Scandal, and Suspects!! Caprica Enquirer Exclusive!
Dr. Gaius Baltar, a man once revered for his respectability, was a sex maniac who left a trail of broken hearts behind him. "He was a pig," one woman said, after stating she wished to remain anonymous. "Woman after woman, and he never stopped. I'm not surprised he's dead. I'm just surprised he lasted this long."
Brunettes, blondes, redheads - you name it, and Baltar had them! The Caprica Enquirer has obtained information suggesting that orgies in expensive hotels were common. One anonymous staff member at the Caprican Rising Star hotel reportedly has incriminating pictures and video, and is in negotiation with the Caprica Enquirer to sell this evidence.
"He had enemies," Baltar's former secretary and secret lover told us. "Jealous women, women who wouldn't leave him alone. Once, a blonde woman invaded his bedroom, demanding that I leave. She was so angry! And she wasn't the only one who felt like that. Poor Gaius. He just had so much love to give, everyone wanted him." As she started to cry, she added, "But how can one man make everyone happy?"
"He deserved to die," another woman told us, a computer technology contractor who claims to have known Baltar intimately. "One man causing such suffering in another person is unforgivable. It's typical of humanity to avoid taking responsibility for one's own actions." Sounds like someone has an axe to grind - and she's not the only one! Keep an eye on the Caprica Enquirer for more exclusive updates on what is sure to become one of the most shocking stories of the year!
*
"What girl don't you know?" Starbuck had asked Karl once, a little snide. He'd shrugged it off. Being in the Colonial Fleet doesn't exactly lend itself to stable relationships.
So Karl does what he can - he finds interested women when he has leave, and shows them the best damn time he can while they're together. He likes the variety - women who want to go see a Pyramid game, women who like movies or swimming, or drinking and dancing.
After the Galactica is decommissioned, after Starbuck gets kicked out of the Fleet, after he gets a couple of promotions, even after Sharon and Tyrol finally muster out and get married, Karl still knows a lot of women.
He's on Tauron when he first sees her. It's the first day of his four-day leave from the Pegasus. She looks different - her hair is shorter, cut in layers that flip out from her face, and she's dressed in clothes he's never seen. But even from a distance, she looks fantastic, a friendly, familiar face. Before he thinks about it, he's yelling across the marketplace. "Sharon!"
She doesn't turn, so he follows her through the crush of people, eventually catching up to her, clasping her arm. "Sharon," he says again, as she turns. "What are you doing here? I thought you and Tyrol settled on Picon -" he stops. She's frowning at him.
"I'm not Sharon," she says, looking pointedly at his hand, still holding her arm. He lets go. "I think you've got me confused with someone else."
It's uncanny. "You don't have a twin sister, do you?"
Her smile is just as radiant as Sharon's always was. "I don't think so. But it's a good line. Does it work on other women?"
That catches him off guard, the way Sharon sometimes did, and he laughs. "It's not a line! You really do look like someone I know - someone I used to work with. In the Fleet. I thought -" he doesn't know what he thought. He just reacted. "Sorry. I just haven't seen her in a while."
"Do you miss her?"
"Yeah. She was a good pilot." He grins. "Except for the landings. She never got the hang of those." He's tempted to start babbling, start telling stories of the Fleet and his friends, and the days on Galactica.
He never talks about those days, not with Fleet or civilians. Some things are personal.
"I'm sorry I wasn't who you thought I was," she glances at his uniform, "Major -"
"Agathon. Helo."
"It's nice to meet you, Major Helo Agathon."
He grins. "Helo was my call sign. Name's Karl."
"Karl." She nods to herself, watching his face carefully. After a moment, she smiles again and asks, "Do you know Tauron at all?"
"Nah. First time." So far it looks like every other planet.
Moving to his side, she slips her arm through his. "Maybe you'd like a local guide?"
There's no way he can say no to an offer like that. "Sounds like fun."
By the end of the first day, he's thanking the gods he has a four-day leave instead of the usual two. By the end of the third day, he thinks maybe he's falling in love. By the end of the fourth day, they're making plans to meet during his next leave.
It's a first for Karl.
It's still uncanny how much she looks like Sharon. But they're different in so many other ways, and he's already stopped thinking about her as Sharon. Maybe they do look similar, but Karl's met a lot of women, and he figures it isn't all that strange to know two who are virtually identical.
End.