Through the Winter chapter 14 (Cain/Gina)
I'm sure everyone has fic coming out of their ears with all the challenge fics posted...but here goes.
Title: Through the Winter (14/?)
Author: phoenixstorm
Pairing: Cain/Gina
Rating: PG
Word Count: 6,662
Summary: What if Gina had been a sleeper agent cylon? From Gina's POV.
( Summary page here if you're new to the fic.)
Chapter Fourteen:
It was next to impossible to measure the passing of time on the resurrection ship, but since she was first thrown into the brig on the Pegasus Gina hadn’t had the faintest idea what the time was or how many days had passed. Because of that she found the situation less disorienting than she was expecting, but at the same time she was a little tenser. As much as she didn’t want to think about her time in the brig in any kind of positive light, at least she’d known what to expect when the door had opened. She lay in her room now, staring at the door through her peripheral vision, and worried that she had no idea what to expect the next time that door opened.
Angela murmured in her sleep and rolled over, and Gina shifted a little closer to the edge of the bed. Neither of them had spoken after the kiss, silently agreeing that it was bed time, and Gina was relieved when Angela fell asleep almost instantly. She had barely had a moment to herself since waking up in the tub of resurrection goo. In fact, considering she spent most of her time in the brig speaking to an imaginary person she hadn’t had any real time to herself in far too long. The last time had been...
She snorted as she remembered the last time. That had been when she was working so hard to determine who had planted the backdoor code in her ‘infallible’ network.
Congratulations Gina, you solved the mystery. She exhaled heavily, and then turned to make sure she hadn’t woken Angela before rolling onto her side so that she could no longer see the door.
There was no point worrying and no point reminiscing when she had a dilemma on her hands right now. Gina still hadn’t decided what exactly she was going to do with her second chance at life, and if she didn’t use this opportunity now to think about it she might not get another one.
Different voices chattered in her head, each trying to force their different opinions on her. There was Cavil’s voice commenting casually that Helena wasn’t capable of reciprocating Gina’s feelings, and Simon’s insisting that Gina couldn’t have feelings for Helena at all. Angela’s soft voice mourned a broken heart, and Thorne’s sneered that Gina didn’t have a heart to begin with. It all came back to the fact that Gina was still simultaneously hating herself for being a machine, and hating Helena for not seeing that she wasn’t just a machine.
Gina curled red hair around a finger and frowned. Enough self-hate. She’d already decided that she was her own person and her origin would never change that. She’d already decided that, and yet she’d still clung onto the smallest thread of disgust. She knew that if she managed to forgive herself entirely she’d have to completely confront what she was going to do about Helena.
The cylons were the enemy, that much was already decided. Even if some of them had been charitable to her she still believed in humanity and wanted to do whatever she could to help them. But Helena...what about her?
She’d been so cold, so completely closed off when she’d first come to see Gina in the brig. After that Gina had spotted her at random intervals through the glass, but since at the time she’d believed that Helena was a cylon she hadn’t paid much attention to what she’d been doing. But the ice...the ice had hurt so much.
Gina shivered and gripped the blanket tightly against her chin, and not finding the sight of Angela’s back any more comforting than the door she rolled onto her back again before forcing herself to continue with the train of thought. Helena had loved her; that much she would never doubt. Whether she still did or if the ice in her eyes was the honest to the gods truth was the real question. She was starting to think that she’d never arrive at a satisfying answer, but she gasped lightly as that thought allowed her to arrive at one.
It was simple in theory but probably suicidal in nature. Gina didn’t care, since she assumed from Eight’s comments earlier that cylons could keep resurrecting as many times as necessary. What she needed to do was ask Helena. It was simplistic, childish and more than likely very naïve, but that was all there was to it. She’d have to get Helena alone in an area where they couldn’t be disturbed so that she could explain her situation and finally get the answers she was so desperate for.
Well, it sounded simple in theory, anyway. Actually managing to get Helena into those circumstances was going to be a whole other situation entirely.
Then again...
Gina smirked to herself and turned her head to look at Angela. What was the point of being a cylon if she couldn’t take advantage of her newfound connections? All she had to do was give them an explanation and then hopefully they should be able to work out the rest. The symmetry was beautiful: they had originally used her to get to Helena, and now she could get them to return the favour.
For a while longer Gina stared at the ceiling and planned the story she was going to feed Cavil when they next saw each other, and when she was satisfied with what she’d come up with she finally closed her eyes and let her mind and body relax. She didn’t have any more answers than she’d had when she first stepped into Angela’s quarters, but the fact that she now had her feet planted firmly on a path allowed her to drift off to sleep with a smile on her face.
---
A cylon who introduced himself as a Two gave Gina directions back to Cavil’s quarters later on, as she found that she hadn’t been paying attention when Cavil had walked her there earlier. She presumed that it was a new day, the way the cylons all seemed to be chipper with their greetings, but she didn’t want to look silly by asking. The Two had already looked at her somewhat strangely when she’d introduced herself, and she’d found it a little difficult to keep a guilty look from her face. “The story is never about the angels,” he’d said to her, “which leaves you with a choice. You must either kill God to take His role, or you yourself will die instead. There is always a sacrifice.”
Disturbed by his eerie babblings Gina had thanked the Two and had walked as quickly as was polite away.
Cavil must have been alerted of her visit as he was waiting for her outside of his quarters. With a smile and a warm greeting he followed her in, and took a seat.
“How did you find your first night?” He asked her as he folded one leg over the other.
Silly or not Gina decided to ask the question. “It was fine, thank you. How long has it been since the Pegasus attacked the comm. relay?”
“Five days” Cavil replied, and Gina took a moment to separate the days in her head. Had it really been five already? More time must have passed in the brig than she’d thought.
“Now, Gina, how can I help you today?” He turned his head slightly as he asked the question, and a hint of suspicious curiosity showed up on his face. Gina made sure to turn her own expression dark.
“I’ve thought about what you said,” her voice was cold, “and I’ve realised that you’re right about Cain. What she did was completely inexcusable, and regardless of what happened before I deserved much better. I want her to feel what I felt. The fear, the helplessness...”
She gripped her arms tightly as she began to tremble just a little. She wasn’t acting; the memories of the brig were still so vivid. “The absolute crushing despair upon realising that her body is just a plaything now, and that is her life. You have to let me have my vengeance, please. She has to realise the horrors of what she put me through.”
A bitter chuckle escaped her lips. “Torture in a cell. The only thing that can make equals of humans and cylons.”
Cavil lips pulled ever so slightly upwards. “A very wise philosophy. One the humans began, and as they themselves say ‘all this has happened before, and it will happen again.’ However, it is an awful lot of effort to go to just for one human...”
Gina nodded. “I know, and the only reason I’m suggesting it is because there are other humans out there, scattered throughout space, and Cain knows where all of them are. If we have her to interrogate, we have the remainder of humanity.”
Cavil sat back in his chair, his eyebrows raised with intrigue, and Gina knew she had him. There was no way he’d pass by an opportunity to simultaneously eliminate the remaining human threat, and since he hadn’t just scoffed at her story she assumed that there were actually other human ships out there. She smiled internally at the good news.
After a moment’s silence, during which Gina could feel her heart pounding in her chest, Cavil seemed to come to a decision.
“I agree with you on both counts, Gina. The promise of that knowledge is more than a little tempting, and I am keen to allow you the revenge you deserve. The only problem is actually managing to capture her.”
”I volunteer to lead the boarding party. I know my way around the Pegasus, and I can get into locked rooms if need be.” That wasn’t a lie; a month or so ago the keycard lock to Helena’s quarters had malfunctioned, and Gina had had to manually override the system to gain her entry. She was confident that she could do it again.
“There’s still the issue of locating the Pegasus...” Cavil continued, and Gina interrupted him before he could continue.
“You have their coordinates from the battle five days ago, and you also know the statistics on how far a colonial FTL drive can jump. It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a few estimates from there, right, and then you can send out scouts to confirm the exact location.”
Gina watched as Cavil paused to think things through again. She wondered if she was coming off as too eager, and made a mental note to act more darkly driven by thoughts of revenge. Taking her eyes off of him she turned her head slightly to the side and put on a dark ‘when I get my hands on her...’ expression.
Finally Cavil spoke again. “All right, we’ll give it a shot. Now I can’t promise anything, but we’ll see what we can turn up.”
Gina pulled back her lips into a sneer. “Thank you. You’ve no idea what this means to me, and what this will mean to the cylon race.”
---
After discussing details a little more with Cavil about boarding parties and tactics, Gina returned to her shared room and was glad to discover that she had the place to herself. She’d managed to grab a small tray of food, and had ducked out of the mess before anyone had tried to bring her into a conversation. At first all of the models had seemed identical to her, but now she found she could actually tell the difference between all of the Sixes, and Eights, and Twos, and the other models, and that realisation unsettled her. The cylons had seemed like more of a faceless evil when everyone had been identical, and she didn’t like that changing. The one good thing about it was that it meant she could spot Simon out of the rest of the Fours, and had so far successfully avoided him. She wasn’t ready to forgive him for intentionally lying to her during those years on Scorpia yet.
She ate her food fast, not realising until she took her first bite just how hungry she was, and was delighted to find that no matter how strange everything else on the resurrection ship had been, at least the food here was much nicer than the Pegasus. It was a small thing, but being in a bad situation with a full stomach was at least easier to bear than being in a bad situation while hungry and forcing down terrible food.
She dozed for a while afterwards - no one had told her she had to be productive here, after all - and was woken by a knock at the door some time later. Angela wouldn’t knock, so Gina hesitantly got up to answer it. A woman who wasn’t a Six and wasn’t an Eight was standing there with her arms folded, and she gave Gina the once over before throwing on a smile.
“You must be Gina.” She said, and Gina wished cylons would stop smiling at her as if they were about to eat her.
“That’s right. I haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced to your model yet, though.”
“I’m a Three, but D’Anna seems to be the popular name for our model. Come on, we’ve discovered something interesting you’ll want to see.”
Gina followed D’Anna to what she assumed was the cylon version of the Pegasus’ CIC. Only instead of panels and computer screens there were glowing lights running all over the walls, strange waterfalls and tables with little pools of water.
Cavil was waiting for her, and he waved her over to one of the pools of water. “I have to admit I was a little sceptical about successfully boarding the Pegasus without inside help, but we’ve managed to locate something that I think will make our mission much easier to pull off.”
“Oh?” Gina asked, and D’Anna interrupted to speak next.
“We were plotting estimated routes for the Battlestar Pegasus, and from our scouting Raiders I believe we’ve located their course. We followed that out further to find the best spot to ambush them, and we certainly found something all right. There’s a colonial civilian fleet out there. If the Pegasus stick to their course they’ll locate it themselves in about a day and a half. We just need to get you onboard one of those ships, and then presumably they’ll join up with the Battlestar and you can use that opportunity to board without any need for a full attack.”
“How do I get onto one of the ships in the first place though?” Gina asked, and D’Anna smirked, seemingly proud of herself.
“During the first attack we used the network virus to take out all of the Viper Mark VII’s. They were helpless, floating in space, and although our Raiders destroyed most of them all of the Basestars and resurrection ships were given one to use if we ever needed. We’ve still got our Viper here, and the suit from the human who was piloting it. We just need to pass you off as a Viper pilot who’s been separated from her Battlestar.”
As Gina thought about it she liked the idea more and more. She’d accepted that her original idea was practically suicidal, but it was better than sitting on this ship and doing nothing. She might actually get long enough to really talk to Helena this way, as the crew of the Pegasus wouldn’t know they were under attack. She also loved that she wouldn’t have to deal with any cylons in the process as well.
“I’m in” Gina said simply, looking at Cavil with cold determination. He nodded at her, and then at D’Anna.
“In that case we’d like to get you on the fleet as soon as possible, as it would be better if the crew had a chance to get used to you before the Pegasus shows up.”
”I’m ready to leave straight away.”
“Excellent. D’Anna will take you down to get changed and prepare, then.”
He went back to his pool of water, and D’Anna indicated for Gina to follow her out. The technician in her was dying to stay and figure out how they actually operated the ship in that room, but she knew there wasn’t time for that.
This time D’Anna led her to a storage area, and she pulled a pilot suit out from one of the lockers.
“I assume you’ve seen enough of these to know how they go on. I’ll give you a few minutes.” She handed the suit to Gina and left, closing the hatch behind her, and Gina stared at the green material in her hands before shaking her head and walking over to the locker. There they were, the black pants and grey and black singlets that were supposed to go on underneath.
She pulled the items of clothing on, which were a little big but thankfully seemed to have at least belonged to a woman, and then went back to the jumpsuit. She pulled it on, zipped it up and then fastened all of the clasps. Checking the badges and patch on the suit she noticed that she was a captain, and from the Battlestar Night Flight.
Gina wished she’d managed to find a hair tie at some point, but after pulling on the boots she otherwise felt she’d make a fairly decent Viper pilot. She’d listened to enough of Lynelle’s lectures she felt to bluff her way through the technical side of things as well. The only thing she needed now was a story. Her ‘name’ should be printed on the side of the Viper, so that part was easy enough. Past that, she’d been battling the cylons when their Basestar had fired off nukes, and unfortunately she hadn’t made it back to dock before the Battlestar had jumped away. Then she’d...
Gina sighed. She’d ‘somehow escaped.’ If she told the story just right hopefully no one would question how she actually escaped. Vipers couldn’t jump after all. She wished the cylons had managed to secure a Raptor as well, because there was no way a single Viper could manage to get away from an enemy fleet.
Still, it was her only chance to get onboard, so she should just try and run with it. These were, after all, only civilians. They should be more excited by the information that a Battlestar was still out there somewhere.
D’Anna called through the hatch. “Are you ready?”
Gina grabbed the parts of the helmet from the locker, and stepped outside to meet D’Anna.
“Mm, very good. Now we just need to head down to the main hanger.” They started walking again. “By the way, we deleted the network from your Viper so that if anyone asks how you survived the original attack you can tell them you still hadn’t uploaded it into your Battlestar’s systems yet. Have you got a story as to why you’re on your own?”
Gina nodded.
“Good, then with any luck the civilians won’t blink twice at you. It’s the military folk from the Pegasus that could be a problem... red hair or no they’ll most likely still recognise you. Just try to keep your head down and your hair in front of your face, and avoid as much contact as you can.”
D’Anna stopped and Gina did so as well. The Three seemed to be thinking about something.
“Well, it’s not much, but this might help.” Before Gina could respond D’Anna had curled her right hand into a fist and had punched her solidly in the left eye. Gina cried out and reached up to touch the area around it, pulling back a few spots of blood.
“What in Zeus’ name was that for?” She yelled, and D’Anna smiled.
“That will swell and make it harder to recognise you. I’m sure you can work a fistfight into your story somewhere.”
“Frak me” Gina moaned in response, and tenderly massaged the sore area as they finished the trip to the hanger deck.
She was given a quick crash course in how to pilot the Viper, and the coordinates of the civilian fleet were uploaded into the navigational system. Necessary systems were destroyed, such as the video log which could give away that she’d left from a cylon ship, and some other parts were merely damaged to explain why she was a ‘captain’ and yet such a beginner level pilot.
According to the Viper her name was Captain Helen “H2O” Olsen. Gina smiled at the similarity of her name to Helena’s as she fastened her helmet and the countdown to launch began. Not long after she’d left the cylon CIC the resurrection ship had jumped to what she was told was a location just outside the scanners of the colonial fleet, so she wouldn’t have too far to travel once she took off.
The Viper launched and Gina was terrified briefly that she’d forgotten the controls to fly it, but she found after a few strange loops that she caught on fairly quickly. Sure, she was flying like a drunk, but at least that fit with the damage that had been done to the ship.
A little while after her scanners had picked up the ships a message came through.
”Unidentified ship, this is the commander of the Red Centaur. Uh, who are you?”
Gina clucked her tongue. That wasn’t a very professional greeting. “Red Centaur, my name is Captain Olsen. I’m a pilot of the Battlestar Night Flight and I was separated from my ship after a cylon attack. My ship is badly damaged and I’m almost out of oxygen. Permission to board?”
“You’re from a Battlestar? You mean there are still other people out there? Military people who can protect us?”
Gina grinned. That was exactly the response she was hoping for. “Although most of our fleet were destroyed, there are still a few Battlestars out there. Now...my oxygen?”
“Oh, of course! Permission granted.”
When the communications were finished Gina pulled out her oxygen tube and let it run down to a low level. When she reattached it she found she was gasping for breath just a little, and so she rushed through her landing, coming in too hot, and the Viper screeched along the docking bay of the Red Centaur before hitting a wall and coming to a stop.
Gina popped the hatch and climbed out, pulling off her helmet as soon as she was out to take a deep breath of air.
Crew members scrambled around to make sure there were no fires, and a jumpy looking man rushed forward to greet her.
“Captain Olsen, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you! I’m the acting commander of the Red Centaur, Mason Petit. We...we heard some transmissions over the wireless before everything basically went dead. What happened?”
Gina lowered her gaze, unable to look the commander in the eyes as she spoke to them. “The cylons attacked all of the colonies. Wiped them all out. They also used a modified network system with a hidden back door to take out most of the Battlestars as well. A few ships didn’t have the new network uploaded yet and managed to survive, but...I don’t think there are many.”
“You said that your Battlestar was attacked by cylons, didn’t you? That couldn’t have been too far from here. Should we jump?”
“No!” Gina said a little quickly. “Ah, no, they jumped after the Battlestar did. In fact, it’s probably safer to stay put, since they’ll think they’ve already checked this area for our ships and will most likely leave it be for a while. You might end up jumping right on top of them.”
Petit nodded as he agreed with her logic. “You’re right, it would be safer to remain here. Well, come on, we’ll take you down to the mess to get you some food.”
”That would be wonderful, thank you.”
They walked through the ship, which seemed to be some form of produce transporter from what Gina could see, and she made sure to keep Petit chatting about the ship and what they’d been doing since the attack so that she wouldn’t have to answer any more questions. Less lies told, less lies to remember. She sighed at the unhappy thought.
She ate with the crew of the Red Centaur, and although the ship had been transporting a large amount of food when the cylons had attacked they were sharing that with the entire fleet, so rations were very small. Noticing a small boy polish off his bowl in a matter of moments before looking with big doe eyes at his mother, Gina beckoned him over with a finger and passed him her bowl. She’d had good food on the resurrection ship, and the poor boy was still growing. He smiled at her when he was finished, and raised a hand to his mouth before pulling it away and turning it into a finger pointing at Gina. On top of all the horrors of the cylon attack he was deaf, too. She ruffled his hair with a sad smile on her face, and then pointed him back to his mother.
It felt so good to be among humans again. Humans who weren’t torturing her, anyhow. They were a messed up species sometimes, but they were still the species that Gina had faith in.
She enjoyed another few minutes by herself before someone looked up from their bowl, and seeing that she had finished eating signalled everyone around to start talking with her. At first they wanted the news about the cylon attack as well, and there was a moment of depressed silence before someone repeated “there are still Battlestars out there”, and then the mood of the room brightened significantly. A man pulled out a deck of cards at one point, and Gina couldn’t help beaming from ear to ear at the memories they brought back. She was going to take a lesson from the crew of the Red Centaur and remember those times fondly, rather than a time she could never go back to.
Since Gina didn’t have any possessions aside from the clothes on her back to gamble with she settled for watching, and ended up getting into a long conversation with a man about Pyramid matches. The deaf boy interrupted for a while to teach Gina some basic sign language, and then an older woman wanted Gina to help mend some of her clothes.
It was a simple day, but for the first time in what felt like far too long, Gina was happy.
---
Two mornings later Gina woke up and stretched; her mat on the floor not allowing for the best night’s rest. Physically she was uncomfortable but mentally she was feeling very refreshed, as she’d slept the last two nights without having to constantly worry about what was going to come through the door.
She paused mid-stretch as she did some calculations in her head. Today was the day that the Pegasus was supposed to find them. She’d have to be careful not to get caught, and she knew she should be worried about that but she couldn’t stop herself from focusing entirely on the part where she’d get to meet Helena again. Last time Helena had been on the other side of a glass wall and hadn’t been able to hear Gina’s explanation, and her time with the crew of the Red Centaur had gotten her back into an optimistic mood. She just needed to apologise, speak with conviction, and make sure that Helena knew how much she loved her. Would a kiss be a good way to go, or would Helena think that Gina was trying to attack her if she moved too suddenly? It was probably best to stick to words until she was certain that she’d gotten her point across.
These thoughts occupied her until the announcement came through later on in the day: they’d made contact with the Battlestar Pegasus!
Cheers went out throughout the ship as this was announced, and Gina turned to try and sign the information to Jason, the deaf boy. Unable to properly sign his glee he settled for attaching himself to her in a hug instead.
A little while passed as the crew chattered happily amongst themselves, and then Petit was on the loudspeaker again, and his tone was grim.
“We’ve...we’ve just received a transmission from one of the other ships. The crew of the Pegasus will be arriving soon with a list of crew and parts they require. They’re...they’re going to take what they want and leave.”
Gina gasped as a confused murmur broke out around her. That didn’t sound like Helena. Had something happened to her?
Petit continued. “The first ship they visited refused to comply with direct orders from Admiral Cain. The...the family members of the crew who refused to leave the ship were lined up and shot. We’ve been advised to just comply with all military demands without question.”
There was a click as he terminated the transmission, and Gina’s eyes were just as wide with disbelief and horror as everyone else’s. Was had happened to Helena since the comm. relay attack? Were situations really that desperate? Gina’s optimism started to sink a little, and she wondered exactly whom she was going to be meeting later on today.
It’s going to be okay, she signed to Jason who was wondering why everyone looked so sad now, and then pulled on her helmet as the outer hatches of the Red Centaur opened. Her bruise had gone down too much over the last few days, and she wasn’t sure it would actually disguise her anymore. Thankfully she'd managed to refill her oxygen tanks from the supplies on the ship.
Four soldiers she didn’t recognise stepped through the hatch, followed by one officer that she only vaguely remembered passing through the corridors. The officer held a clipboard in his hand and cleared his throat before speaking.
“This list of personnel and equipment are to be transferred to the Pegasus immediately.”
He passed the list to Jason’s mother, who read through it before gasping. “Our FTL drives? You couldn’t! You’ll-“
A soldier raised his gun and aimed it at Jason, and she stopped mid-sentence. “You’ll have what you want” she finished in a soft voice, her eyes filling with tears.
She read through the names on the list, and Gina was surprised to hear ‘Captain Helen Olsen’ announced. Petit must have added her to list of crew they’d sent across. A few more names were announced, and then the rest of the crew set about removing the necessary equipment the Pegasus officer had requested as well. When that was done there was barely a dry eye on the Red Centaur, and Gina had to fight to keep her own tears back. After she was done reaffirming her feelings for Helena she would convince the admiral to come back for the remainder of the crew.
She felt a tug on her jumpsuit and turned to give Jason a big hug before signing I’ll see you later and giving him an encouraging smile through the helmet.
She boarded the Raptor with the other lucky crew members who had been deemed ‘useful’, and although she kept her helmet on she tried to stay inconspicuous towards the back.
No one said a word as the Raptor departed and returned to the Pegasus, and Gina started to worry that she would look completely out of place if she wore her pilot helmet around the Battlestar. She eyed one of the soldiers and their small bowl shaped helmets with goggles, and decided that a switch had to be made.
The Raptor landed in the docking bay of the Pegasus and they were told to all file out so that they could be given their new duties. Gina got off last, and as the officers tried to maintain order as all the crew members of the other ships in the fleet joined together to talk angrily, she grabbed the arm of one of the soldiers who had been on the Raptor with her.
“I need to be taken to your CAG straight away. I have very important information about the cylon fleet.”
He nodded and led her out of the hanger deck. They walked through a corridor that Gina recognised one of the storage rooms was in. Making sure that no one was around she carefully pulled out her sidearm and raised it to the back of the soldier escorting her.
“Stop,” she ordered, and the soldier stopped in his tracks.
“What’s the problem?” He asked, and received his answer when Gina pressed her gun against his back.
“Into that room, now.”
He was obviously confused, but he did as she said. When they were in she closed the hatch behind them, and making sure that she kept just enough distance between them, and that he kept his back to her, she ordered him to strip.
He removed the helmet first, and that was what she’d been hoping for. Gina leapt forward and slammed the gun into the back of his head, knocking him out cold. She removed the outer layer of his clothes and the black singlet, and then located the cuffs Barbara had mentioned were stored in there and attached his hands around a pole. She then did the same with his feet, and finally used his black singlet to tie a gag around his mouth. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be going anywhere or calling for help she began to strip off her pilot’s jumpsuit and replace it with the soldier one. She tightened the helmet around her head, letting her red hair fall down underneath it to cover a little more of her face, and then pulled the goggles down around her eyes. It was baggier again, but thankfully not so much that she looked ridiculously out of place.
Making sure that she had every part of the outfit on correctly, Gina picked up the soldier’s weapons and opened the hatch a fraction to peer outside. The coast was still clear - everyone available must be helping with the new ‘recruits’ - so she ducked out and closed the hatch behind her. She kept her head down and decided that she wouldn’t look out of place by jogging, and no one that she passed gave her a second glance. The clothes hid her figure and her face was mostly distorted with different colour hair, so as long as she didn’t have to stop and allow people a good look at her she shouldn’t be in any danger.
Normally people would have stopped her to chat for a bit on the Pegasus, but everyone she passed in the corridors all seemed as seriously determined as they’d been the week leading up to the cylon attack, and nobody stopped to chat at all.
Gina finally reached the door to Helena’s room, and after standing at attention there for a moment while an officer walked passed she turned her attention to the card swipe and the small box next to it. She worked quickly, removing the cover and fiddling with the parts inside. It took her longer than she would have liked since she had to keep lookout as she was working, but finally the door slid open. She reattached the cover and jumped inside, closing it behind her.
After thinking for a minute Gina went to disable the phone lines, just in case Helena tried to call for help immediately upon seeing her, and then she took her spot in a dark corner near the door in order to block off the exit once Helena had walked in. It seemed a little excessive, but Gina decided that it was better to be safe than sorry.
She wasn’t sure how long she waited there, as she was mostly occupied with planning what she was going to say, and in what seemed like no time at all the door was sliding open again and Helena was walking in.
Gina let her go over to her table and take off her belt and coat, and took her position in front of the door.
“Helena...” she started when the woman began rubbing her neck, and the admiral jumped and turned around, reaching for her sidearm on the table as she did so.
Without thinking Gina raised her own weapon, and Helena froze.
“Please, push it away.” Gina asked her, and Helena’s eyes narrowed as she shoved the belt to the far side of the table, and then stood up straight to face her.
Gina kept the weapon aimed at her love, hating what she was doing, and reached up with her left hand to quickly remove her helmet and goggles before returning it to steady her firearm.
“Helena...” she began again, “it’s me. Gina.”
”That thing is dead,” Helena replied slowly, coldly. Gina shook her head quickly.
“No, it’s really me. Cylons, um, they have a way to cheat death. They...we...download into a new body when we die. I didn’t know about this beforehand though; I only found out after I died.”
Helena didn’t say anything, and Gina took the opportunity to continue.
“I want you to know something. I didn’t know I was a cylon until about five minutes before you did. No, hear me out,” she interrupted Helena who had started to scoff, “I honestly didn’t. They programmed me to be a sleeper agent; they programmed me to completely believe I was human, and I did. I have memories of a childhood, Helena. Memories of my parents, my aunt, my school, even television programs that were on during those years. To me they’re real. Everything that I did, I did under the belief that I honest to the gods was human. Helena...I...I really do love you. I love you so completely, and now that I know I’m a cylon that hasn’t changed. The way I feel for you is entirely real, and I never wanted to hurt you. I...I forgive you for what you did to me. ...I hope that you can forgive me for deceiving you, even unintentionally, as well.”
Finished, she lowered the weapon and looked Helena straight in the eyes. An eternity seemed to pass in silence, and then Gina’s voice emerged in a whisper. “Say something, please.”
Helena chuckled briefly, and then her lips returned to a serious frown. “Touching, really. I almost admire you for trying to strike where a human is weakest, the heart, but I can assure you I won’t bite. The thing who used to call herself Gina is a machine and isn’t capable of love.”
“Not even if the machine thinks it’s human? Not even if it entirely believes it is capable of love? How could I be able to mimic it if I wasn’t capable of it?”
“I don’t intent to waste my day discussing the ethics of artificial intelligence with you. Tell me what you want.”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Gina demanded to know, “I want you, Helena. I want you to understand that I’m willing to betray my people for you, and help you in the fight against them. I want you to know that I would saw off my arm before intentionally deceiving or causing you harm. I want you to love me, the way I love you.”
Helena’s lips twitched and Gina was overjoyed to see her eyes mist up a little. She felt her own eyes do the same, and she stepped forward with a smile so big her cheekbones hurt. “Helena...” she started, and raised a hand.
“Frak you.” Helena’s voice cracked as she spoke, and although Gina could still see the layer of water over her eyes the expression underneath was cold. Gina’s hand dropped, and then she raised her weapon again.
“I guess that’s it, then.”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author note: I'm sorry, I can't resist a good cliff-hanger when it smacks me in the face.
So, one way or another, chapter fifteen will be the final part of this story. Thank you for sticking with me!
Intermission
Title: Through the Winter (14/?)
Author: phoenixstorm
Pairing: Cain/Gina
Rating: PG
Word Count: 6,662
Summary: What if Gina had been a sleeper agent cylon? From Gina's POV.
( Summary page here if you're new to the fic.)
Chapter Fourteen:
It was next to impossible to measure the passing of time on the resurrection ship, but since she was first thrown into the brig on the Pegasus Gina hadn’t had the faintest idea what the time was or how many days had passed. Because of that she found the situation less disorienting than she was expecting, but at the same time she was a little tenser. As much as she didn’t want to think about her time in the brig in any kind of positive light, at least she’d known what to expect when the door had opened. She lay in her room now, staring at the door through her peripheral vision, and worried that she had no idea what to expect the next time that door opened.
Angela murmured in her sleep and rolled over, and Gina shifted a little closer to the edge of the bed. Neither of them had spoken after the kiss, silently agreeing that it was bed time, and Gina was relieved when Angela fell asleep almost instantly. She had barely had a moment to herself since waking up in the tub of resurrection goo. In fact, considering she spent most of her time in the brig speaking to an imaginary person she hadn’t had any real time to herself in far too long. The last time had been...
She snorted as she remembered the last time. That had been when she was working so hard to determine who had planted the backdoor code in her ‘infallible’ network.
Congratulations Gina, you solved the mystery. She exhaled heavily, and then turned to make sure she hadn’t woken Angela before rolling onto her side so that she could no longer see the door.
There was no point worrying and no point reminiscing when she had a dilemma on her hands right now. Gina still hadn’t decided what exactly she was going to do with her second chance at life, and if she didn’t use this opportunity now to think about it she might not get another one.
Different voices chattered in her head, each trying to force their different opinions on her. There was Cavil’s voice commenting casually that Helena wasn’t capable of reciprocating Gina’s feelings, and Simon’s insisting that Gina couldn’t have feelings for Helena at all. Angela’s soft voice mourned a broken heart, and Thorne’s sneered that Gina didn’t have a heart to begin with. It all came back to the fact that Gina was still simultaneously hating herself for being a machine, and hating Helena for not seeing that she wasn’t just a machine.
Gina curled red hair around a finger and frowned. Enough self-hate. She’d already decided that she was her own person and her origin would never change that. She’d already decided that, and yet she’d still clung onto the smallest thread of disgust. She knew that if she managed to forgive herself entirely she’d have to completely confront what she was going to do about Helena.
The cylons were the enemy, that much was already decided. Even if some of them had been charitable to her she still believed in humanity and wanted to do whatever she could to help them. But Helena...what about her?
She’d been so cold, so completely closed off when she’d first come to see Gina in the brig. After that Gina had spotted her at random intervals through the glass, but since at the time she’d believed that Helena was a cylon she hadn’t paid much attention to what she’d been doing. But the ice...the ice had hurt so much.
Gina shivered and gripped the blanket tightly against her chin, and not finding the sight of Angela’s back any more comforting than the door she rolled onto her back again before forcing herself to continue with the train of thought. Helena had loved her; that much she would never doubt. Whether she still did or if the ice in her eyes was the honest to the gods truth was the real question. She was starting to think that she’d never arrive at a satisfying answer, but she gasped lightly as that thought allowed her to arrive at one.
It was simple in theory but probably suicidal in nature. Gina didn’t care, since she assumed from Eight’s comments earlier that cylons could keep resurrecting as many times as necessary. What she needed to do was ask Helena. It was simplistic, childish and more than likely very naïve, but that was all there was to it. She’d have to get Helena alone in an area where they couldn’t be disturbed so that she could explain her situation and finally get the answers she was so desperate for.
Well, it sounded simple in theory, anyway. Actually managing to get Helena into those circumstances was going to be a whole other situation entirely.
Then again...
Gina smirked to herself and turned her head to look at Angela. What was the point of being a cylon if she couldn’t take advantage of her newfound connections? All she had to do was give them an explanation and then hopefully they should be able to work out the rest. The symmetry was beautiful: they had originally used her to get to Helena, and now she could get them to return the favour.
For a while longer Gina stared at the ceiling and planned the story she was going to feed Cavil when they next saw each other, and when she was satisfied with what she’d come up with she finally closed her eyes and let her mind and body relax. She didn’t have any more answers than she’d had when she first stepped into Angela’s quarters, but the fact that she now had her feet planted firmly on a path allowed her to drift off to sleep with a smile on her face.
---
A cylon who introduced himself as a Two gave Gina directions back to Cavil’s quarters later on, as she found that she hadn’t been paying attention when Cavil had walked her there earlier. She presumed that it was a new day, the way the cylons all seemed to be chipper with their greetings, but she didn’t want to look silly by asking. The Two had already looked at her somewhat strangely when she’d introduced herself, and she’d found it a little difficult to keep a guilty look from her face. “The story is never about the angels,” he’d said to her, “which leaves you with a choice. You must either kill God to take His role, or you yourself will die instead. There is always a sacrifice.”
Disturbed by his eerie babblings Gina had thanked the Two and had walked as quickly as was polite away.
Cavil must have been alerted of her visit as he was waiting for her outside of his quarters. With a smile and a warm greeting he followed her in, and took a seat.
“How did you find your first night?” He asked her as he folded one leg over the other.
Silly or not Gina decided to ask the question. “It was fine, thank you. How long has it been since the Pegasus attacked the comm. relay?”
“Five days” Cavil replied, and Gina took a moment to separate the days in her head. Had it really been five already? More time must have passed in the brig than she’d thought.
“Now, Gina, how can I help you today?” He turned his head slightly as he asked the question, and a hint of suspicious curiosity showed up on his face. Gina made sure to turn her own expression dark.
“I’ve thought about what you said,” her voice was cold, “and I’ve realised that you’re right about Cain. What she did was completely inexcusable, and regardless of what happened before I deserved much better. I want her to feel what I felt. The fear, the helplessness...”
She gripped her arms tightly as she began to tremble just a little. She wasn’t acting; the memories of the brig were still so vivid. “The absolute crushing despair upon realising that her body is just a plaything now, and that is her life. You have to let me have my vengeance, please. She has to realise the horrors of what she put me through.”
A bitter chuckle escaped her lips. “Torture in a cell. The only thing that can make equals of humans and cylons.”
Cavil lips pulled ever so slightly upwards. “A very wise philosophy. One the humans began, and as they themselves say ‘all this has happened before, and it will happen again.’ However, it is an awful lot of effort to go to just for one human...”
Gina nodded. “I know, and the only reason I’m suggesting it is because there are other humans out there, scattered throughout space, and Cain knows where all of them are. If we have her to interrogate, we have the remainder of humanity.”
Cavil sat back in his chair, his eyebrows raised with intrigue, and Gina knew she had him. There was no way he’d pass by an opportunity to simultaneously eliminate the remaining human threat, and since he hadn’t just scoffed at her story she assumed that there were actually other human ships out there. She smiled internally at the good news.
After a moment’s silence, during which Gina could feel her heart pounding in her chest, Cavil seemed to come to a decision.
“I agree with you on both counts, Gina. The promise of that knowledge is more than a little tempting, and I am keen to allow you the revenge you deserve. The only problem is actually managing to capture her.”
”I volunteer to lead the boarding party. I know my way around the Pegasus, and I can get into locked rooms if need be.” That wasn’t a lie; a month or so ago the keycard lock to Helena’s quarters had malfunctioned, and Gina had had to manually override the system to gain her entry. She was confident that she could do it again.
“There’s still the issue of locating the Pegasus...” Cavil continued, and Gina interrupted him before he could continue.
“You have their coordinates from the battle five days ago, and you also know the statistics on how far a colonial FTL drive can jump. It shouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a few estimates from there, right, and then you can send out scouts to confirm the exact location.”
Gina watched as Cavil paused to think things through again. She wondered if she was coming off as too eager, and made a mental note to act more darkly driven by thoughts of revenge. Taking her eyes off of him she turned her head slightly to the side and put on a dark ‘when I get my hands on her...’ expression.
Finally Cavil spoke again. “All right, we’ll give it a shot. Now I can’t promise anything, but we’ll see what we can turn up.”
Gina pulled back her lips into a sneer. “Thank you. You’ve no idea what this means to me, and what this will mean to the cylon race.”
---
After discussing details a little more with Cavil about boarding parties and tactics, Gina returned to her shared room and was glad to discover that she had the place to herself. She’d managed to grab a small tray of food, and had ducked out of the mess before anyone had tried to bring her into a conversation. At first all of the models had seemed identical to her, but now she found she could actually tell the difference between all of the Sixes, and Eights, and Twos, and the other models, and that realisation unsettled her. The cylons had seemed like more of a faceless evil when everyone had been identical, and she didn’t like that changing. The one good thing about it was that it meant she could spot Simon out of the rest of the Fours, and had so far successfully avoided him. She wasn’t ready to forgive him for intentionally lying to her during those years on Scorpia yet.
She ate her food fast, not realising until she took her first bite just how hungry she was, and was delighted to find that no matter how strange everything else on the resurrection ship had been, at least the food here was much nicer than the Pegasus. It was a small thing, but being in a bad situation with a full stomach was at least easier to bear than being in a bad situation while hungry and forcing down terrible food.
She dozed for a while afterwards - no one had told her she had to be productive here, after all - and was woken by a knock at the door some time later. Angela wouldn’t knock, so Gina hesitantly got up to answer it. A woman who wasn’t a Six and wasn’t an Eight was standing there with her arms folded, and she gave Gina the once over before throwing on a smile.
“You must be Gina.” She said, and Gina wished cylons would stop smiling at her as if they were about to eat her.
“That’s right. I haven’t had the pleasure of being introduced to your model yet, though.”
“I’m a Three, but D’Anna seems to be the popular name for our model. Come on, we’ve discovered something interesting you’ll want to see.”
Gina followed D’Anna to what she assumed was the cylon version of the Pegasus’ CIC. Only instead of panels and computer screens there were glowing lights running all over the walls, strange waterfalls and tables with little pools of water.
Cavil was waiting for her, and he waved her over to one of the pools of water. “I have to admit I was a little sceptical about successfully boarding the Pegasus without inside help, but we’ve managed to locate something that I think will make our mission much easier to pull off.”
“Oh?” Gina asked, and D’Anna interrupted to speak next.
“We were plotting estimated routes for the Battlestar Pegasus, and from our scouting Raiders I believe we’ve located their course. We followed that out further to find the best spot to ambush them, and we certainly found something all right. There’s a colonial civilian fleet out there. If the Pegasus stick to their course they’ll locate it themselves in about a day and a half. We just need to get you onboard one of those ships, and then presumably they’ll join up with the Battlestar and you can use that opportunity to board without any need for a full attack.”
“How do I get onto one of the ships in the first place though?” Gina asked, and D’Anna smirked, seemingly proud of herself.
“During the first attack we used the network virus to take out all of the Viper Mark VII’s. They were helpless, floating in space, and although our Raiders destroyed most of them all of the Basestars and resurrection ships were given one to use if we ever needed. We’ve still got our Viper here, and the suit from the human who was piloting it. We just need to pass you off as a Viper pilot who’s been separated from her Battlestar.”
As Gina thought about it she liked the idea more and more. She’d accepted that her original idea was practically suicidal, but it was better than sitting on this ship and doing nothing. She might actually get long enough to really talk to Helena this way, as the crew of the Pegasus wouldn’t know they were under attack. She also loved that she wouldn’t have to deal with any cylons in the process as well.
“I’m in” Gina said simply, looking at Cavil with cold determination. He nodded at her, and then at D’Anna.
“In that case we’d like to get you on the fleet as soon as possible, as it would be better if the crew had a chance to get used to you before the Pegasus shows up.”
”I’m ready to leave straight away.”
“Excellent. D’Anna will take you down to get changed and prepare, then.”
He went back to his pool of water, and D’Anna indicated for Gina to follow her out. The technician in her was dying to stay and figure out how they actually operated the ship in that room, but she knew there wasn’t time for that.
This time D’Anna led her to a storage area, and she pulled a pilot suit out from one of the lockers.
“I assume you’ve seen enough of these to know how they go on. I’ll give you a few minutes.” She handed the suit to Gina and left, closing the hatch behind her, and Gina stared at the green material in her hands before shaking her head and walking over to the locker. There they were, the black pants and grey and black singlets that were supposed to go on underneath.
She pulled the items of clothing on, which were a little big but thankfully seemed to have at least belonged to a woman, and then went back to the jumpsuit. She pulled it on, zipped it up and then fastened all of the clasps. Checking the badges and patch on the suit she noticed that she was a captain, and from the Battlestar Night Flight.
Gina wished she’d managed to find a hair tie at some point, but after pulling on the boots she otherwise felt she’d make a fairly decent Viper pilot. She’d listened to enough of Lynelle’s lectures she felt to bluff her way through the technical side of things as well. The only thing she needed now was a story. Her ‘name’ should be printed on the side of the Viper, so that part was easy enough. Past that, she’d been battling the cylons when their Basestar had fired off nukes, and unfortunately she hadn’t made it back to dock before the Battlestar had jumped away. Then she’d...
Gina sighed. She’d ‘somehow escaped.’ If she told the story just right hopefully no one would question how she actually escaped. Vipers couldn’t jump after all. She wished the cylons had managed to secure a Raptor as well, because there was no way a single Viper could manage to get away from an enemy fleet.
Still, it was her only chance to get onboard, so she should just try and run with it. These were, after all, only civilians. They should be more excited by the information that a Battlestar was still out there somewhere.
D’Anna called through the hatch. “Are you ready?”
Gina grabbed the parts of the helmet from the locker, and stepped outside to meet D’Anna.
“Mm, very good. Now we just need to head down to the main hanger.” They started walking again. “By the way, we deleted the network from your Viper so that if anyone asks how you survived the original attack you can tell them you still hadn’t uploaded it into your Battlestar’s systems yet. Have you got a story as to why you’re on your own?”
Gina nodded.
“Good, then with any luck the civilians won’t blink twice at you. It’s the military folk from the Pegasus that could be a problem... red hair or no they’ll most likely still recognise you. Just try to keep your head down and your hair in front of your face, and avoid as much contact as you can.”
D’Anna stopped and Gina did so as well. The Three seemed to be thinking about something.
“Well, it’s not much, but this might help.” Before Gina could respond D’Anna had curled her right hand into a fist and had punched her solidly in the left eye. Gina cried out and reached up to touch the area around it, pulling back a few spots of blood.
“What in Zeus’ name was that for?” She yelled, and D’Anna smiled.
“That will swell and make it harder to recognise you. I’m sure you can work a fistfight into your story somewhere.”
“Frak me” Gina moaned in response, and tenderly massaged the sore area as they finished the trip to the hanger deck.
She was given a quick crash course in how to pilot the Viper, and the coordinates of the civilian fleet were uploaded into the navigational system. Necessary systems were destroyed, such as the video log which could give away that she’d left from a cylon ship, and some other parts were merely damaged to explain why she was a ‘captain’ and yet such a beginner level pilot.
According to the Viper her name was Captain Helen “H2O” Olsen. Gina smiled at the similarity of her name to Helena’s as she fastened her helmet and the countdown to launch began. Not long after she’d left the cylon CIC the resurrection ship had jumped to what she was told was a location just outside the scanners of the colonial fleet, so she wouldn’t have too far to travel once she took off.
The Viper launched and Gina was terrified briefly that she’d forgotten the controls to fly it, but she found after a few strange loops that she caught on fairly quickly. Sure, she was flying like a drunk, but at least that fit with the damage that had been done to the ship.
A little while after her scanners had picked up the ships a message came through.
”Unidentified ship, this is the commander of the Red Centaur. Uh, who are you?”
Gina clucked her tongue. That wasn’t a very professional greeting. “Red Centaur, my name is Captain Olsen. I’m a pilot of the Battlestar Night Flight and I was separated from my ship after a cylon attack. My ship is badly damaged and I’m almost out of oxygen. Permission to board?”
“You’re from a Battlestar? You mean there are still other people out there? Military people who can protect us?”
Gina grinned. That was exactly the response she was hoping for. “Although most of our fleet were destroyed, there are still a few Battlestars out there. Now...my oxygen?”
“Oh, of course! Permission granted.”
When the communications were finished Gina pulled out her oxygen tube and let it run down to a low level. When she reattached it she found she was gasping for breath just a little, and so she rushed through her landing, coming in too hot, and the Viper screeched along the docking bay of the Red Centaur before hitting a wall and coming to a stop.
Gina popped the hatch and climbed out, pulling off her helmet as soon as she was out to take a deep breath of air.
Crew members scrambled around to make sure there were no fires, and a jumpy looking man rushed forward to greet her.
“Captain Olsen, I can’t tell you how happy I am to see you! I’m the acting commander of the Red Centaur, Mason Petit. We...we heard some transmissions over the wireless before everything basically went dead. What happened?”
Gina lowered her gaze, unable to look the commander in the eyes as she spoke to them. “The cylons attacked all of the colonies. Wiped them all out. They also used a modified network system with a hidden back door to take out most of the Battlestars as well. A few ships didn’t have the new network uploaded yet and managed to survive, but...I don’t think there are many.”
“You said that your Battlestar was attacked by cylons, didn’t you? That couldn’t have been too far from here. Should we jump?”
“No!” Gina said a little quickly. “Ah, no, they jumped after the Battlestar did. In fact, it’s probably safer to stay put, since they’ll think they’ve already checked this area for our ships and will most likely leave it be for a while. You might end up jumping right on top of them.”
Petit nodded as he agreed with her logic. “You’re right, it would be safer to remain here. Well, come on, we’ll take you down to the mess to get you some food.”
”That would be wonderful, thank you.”
They walked through the ship, which seemed to be some form of produce transporter from what Gina could see, and she made sure to keep Petit chatting about the ship and what they’d been doing since the attack so that she wouldn’t have to answer any more questions. Less lies told, less lies to remember. She sighed at the unhappy thought.
She ate with the crew of the Red Centaur, and although the ship had been transporting a large amount of food when the cylons had attacked they were sharing that with the entire fleet, so rations were very small. Noticing a small boy polish off his bowl in a matter of moments before looking with big doe eyes at his mother, Gina beckoned him over with a finger and passed him her bowl. She’d had good food on the resurrection ship, and the poor boy was still growing. He smiled at her when he was finished, and raised a hand to his mouth before pulling it away and turning it into a finger pointing at Gina. On top of all the horrors of the cylon attack he was deaf, too. She ruffled his hair with a sad smile on her face, and then pointed him back to his mother.
It felt so good to be among humans again. Humans who weren’t torturing her, anyhow. They were a messed up species sometimes, but they were still the species that Gina had faith in.
She enjoyed another few minutes by herself before someone looked up from their bowl, and seeing that she had finished eating signalled everyone around to start talking with her. At first they wanted the news about the cylon attack as well, and there was a moment of depressed silence before someone repeated “there are still Battlestars out there”, and then the mood of the room brightened significantly. A man pulled out a deck of cards at one point, and Gina couldn’t help beaming from ear to ear at the memories they brought back. She was going to take a lesson from the crew of the Red Centaur and remember those times fondly, rather than a time she could never go back to.
Since Gina didn’t have any possessions aside from the clothes on her back to gamble with she settled for watching, and ended up getting into a long conversation with a man about Pyramid matches. The deaf boy interrupted for a while to teach Gina some basic sign language, and then an older woman wanted Gina to help mend some of her clothes.
It was a simple day, but for the first time in what felt like far too long, Gina was happy.
---
Two mornings later Gina woke up and stretched; her mat on the floor not allowing for the best night’s rest. Physically she was uncomfortable but mentally she was feeling very refreshed, as she’d slept the last two nights without having to constantly worry about what was going to come through the door.
She paused mid-stretch as she did some calculations in her head. Today was the day that the Pegasus was supposed to find them. She’d have to be careful not to get caught, and she knew she should be worried about that but she couldn’t stop herself from focusing entirely on the part where she’d get to meet Helena again. Last time Helena had been on the other side of a glass wall and hadn’t been able to hear Gina’s explanation, and her time with the crew of the Red Centaur had gotten her back into an optimistic mood. She just needed to apologise, speak with conviction, and make sure that Helena knew how much she loved her. Would a kiss be a good way to go, or would Helena think that Gina was trying to attack her if she moved too suddenly? It was probably best to stick to words until she was certain that she’d gotten her point across.
These thoughts occupied her until the announcement came through later on in the day: they’d made contact with the Battlestar Pegasus!
Cheers went out throughout the ship as this was announced, and Gina turned to try and sign the information to Jason, the deaf boy. Unable to properly sign his glee he settled for attaching himself to her in a hug instead.
A little while passed as the crew chattered happily amongst themselves, and then Petit was on the loudspeaker again, and his tone was grim.
“We’ve...we’ve just received a transmission from one of the other ships. The crew of the Pegasus will be arriving soon with a list of crew and parts they require. They’re...they’re going to take what they want and leave.”
Gina gasped as a confused murmur broke out around her. That didn’t sound like Helena. Had something happened to her?
Petit continued. “The first ship they visited refused to comply with direct orders from Admiral Cain. The...the family members of the crew who refused to leave the ship were lined up and shot. We’ve been advised to just comply with all military demands without question.”
There was a click as he terminated the transmission, and Gina’s eyes were just as wide with disbelief and horror as everyone else’s. Was had happened to Helena since the comm. relay attack? Were situations really that desperate? Gina’s optimism started to sink a little, and she wondered exactly whom she was going to be meeting later on today.
It’s going to be okay, she signed to Jason who was wondering why everyone looked so sad now, and then pulled on her helmet as the outer hatches of the Red Centaur opened. Her bruise had gone down too much over the last few days, and she wasn’t sure it would actually disguise her anymore. Thankfully she'd managed to refill her oxygen tanks from the supplies on the ship.
Four soldiers she didn’t recognise stepped through the hatch, followed by one officer that she only vaguely remembered passing through the corridors. The officer held a clipboard in his hand and cleared his throat before speaking.
“This list of personnel and equipment are to be transferred to the Pegasus immediately.”
He passed the list to Jason’s mother, who read through it before gasping. “Our FTL drives? You couldn’t! You’ll-“
A soldier raised his gun and aimed it at Jason, and she stopped mid-sentence. “You’ll have what you want” she finished in a soft voice, her eyes filling with tears.
She read through the names on the list, and Gina was surprised to hear ‘Captain Helen Olsen’ announced. Petit must have added her to list of crew they’d sent across. A few more names were announced, and then the rest of the crew set about removing the necessary equipment the Pegasus officer had requested as well. When that was done there was barely a dry eye on the Red Centaur, and Gina had to fight to keep her own tears back. After she was done reaffirming her feelings for Helena she would convince the admiral to come back for the remainder of the crew.
She felt a tug on her jumpsuit and turned to give Jason a big hug before signing I’ll see you later and giving him an encouraging smile through the helmet.
She boarded the Raptor with the other lucky crew members who had been deemed ‘useful’, and although she kept her helmet on she tried to stay inconspicuous towards the back.
No one said a word as the Raptor departed and returned to the Pegasus, and Gina started to worry that she would look completely out of place if she wore her pilot helmet around the Battlestar. She eyed one of the soldiers and their small bowl shaped helmets with goggles, and decided that a switch had to be made.
The Raptor landed in the docking bay of the Pegasus and they were told to all file out so that they could be given their new duties. Gina got off last, and as the officers tried to maintain order as all the crew members of the other ships in the fleet joined together to talk angrily, she grabbed the arm of one of the soldiers who had been on the Raptor with her.
“I need to be taken to your CAG straight away. I have very important information about the cylon fleet.”
He nodded and led her out of the hanger deck. They walked through a corridor that Gina recognised one of the storage rooms was in. Making sure that no one was around she carefully pulled out her sidearm and raised it to the back of the soldier escorting her.
“Stop,” she ordered, and the soldier stopped in his tracks.
“What’s the problem?” He asked, and received his answer when Gina pressed her gun against his back.
“Into that room, now.”
He was obviously confused, but he did as she said. When they were in she closed the hatch behind them, and making sure that she kept just enough distance between them, and that he kept his back to her, she ordered him to strip.
He removed the helmet first, and that was what she’d been hoping for. Gina leapt forward and slammed the gun into the back of his head, knocking him out cold. She removed the outer layer of his clothes and the black singlet, and then located the cuffs Barbara had mentioned were stored in there and attached his hands around a pole. She then did the same with his feet, and finally used his black singlet to tie a gag around his mouth. Satisfied that he wouldn’t be going anywhere or calling for help she began to strip off her pilot’s jumpsuit and replace it with the soldier one. She tightened the helmet around her head, letting her red hair fall down underneath it to cover a little more of her face, and then pulled the goggles down around her eyes. It was baggier again, but thankfully not so much that she looked ridiculously out of place.
Making sure that she had every part of the outfit on correctly, Gina picked up the soldier’s weapons and opened the hatch a fraction to peer outside. The coast was still clear - everyone available must be helping with the new ‘recruits’ - so she ducked out and closed the hatch behind her. She kept her head down and decided that she wouldn’t look out of place by jogging, and no one that she passed gave her a second glance. The clothes hid her figure and her face was mostly distorted with different colour hair, so as long as she didn’t have to stop and allow people a good look at her she shouldn’t be in any danger.
Normally people would have stopped her to chat for a bit on the Pegasus, but everyone she passed in the corridors all seemed as seriously determined as they’d been the week leading up to the cylon attack, and nobody stopped to chat at all.
Gina finally reached the door to Helena’s room, and after standing at attention there for a moment while an officer walked passed she turned her attention to the card swipe and the small box next to it. She worked quickly, removing the cover and fiddling with the parts inside. It took her longer than she would have liked since she had to keep lookout as she was working, but finally the door slid open. She reattached the cover and jumped inside, closing it behind her.
After thinking for a minute Gina went to disable the phone lines, just in case Helena tried to call for help immediately upon seeing her, and then she took her spot in a dark corner near the door in order to block off the exit once Helena had walked in. It seemed a little excessive, but Gina decided that it was better to be safe than sorry.
She wasn’t sure how long she waited there, as she was mostly occupied with planning what she was going to say, and in what seemed like no time at all the door was sliding open again and Helena was walking in.
Gina let her go over to her table and take off her belt and coat, and took her position in front of the door.
“Helena...” she started when the woman began rubbing her neck, and the admiral jumped and turned around, reaching for her sidearm on the table as she did so.
Without thinking Gina raised her own weapon, and Helena froze.
“Please, push it away.” Gina asked her, and Helena’s eyes narrowed as she shoved the belt to the far side of the table, and then stood up straight to face her.
Gina kept the weapon aimed at her love, hating what she was doing, and reached up with her left hand to quickly remove her helmet and goggles before returning it to steady her firearm.
“Helena...” she began again, “it’s me. Gina.”
”That thing is dead,” Helena replied slowly, coldly. Gina shook her head quickly.
“No, it’s really me. Cylons, um, they have a way to cheat death. They...we...download into a new body when we die. I didn’t know about this beforehand though; I only found out after I died.”
Helena didn’t say anything, and Gina took the opportunity to continue.
“I want you to know something. I didn’t know I was a cylon until about five minutes before you did. No, hear me out,” she interrupted Helena who had started to scoff, “I honestly didn’t. They programmed me to be a sleeper agent; they programmed me to completely believe I was human, and I did. I have memories of a childhood, Helena. Memories of my parents, my aunt, my school, even television programs that were on during those years. To me they’re real. Everything that I did, I did under the belief that I honest to the gods was human. Helena...I...I really do love you. I love you so completely, and now that I know I’m a cylon that hasn’t changed. The way I feel for you is entirely real, and I never wanted to hurt you. I...I forgive you for what you did to me. ...I hope that you can forgive me for deceiving you, even unintentionally, as well.”
Finished, she lowered the weapon and looked Helena straight in the eyes. An eternity seemed to pass in silence, and then Gina’s voice emerged in a whisper. “Say something, please.”
Helena chuckled briefly, and then her lips returned to a serious frown. “Touching, really. I almost admire you for trying to strike where a human is weakest, the heart, but I can assure you I won’t bite. The thing who used to call herself Gina is a machine and isn’t capable of love.”
“Not even if the machine thinks it’s human? Not even if it entirely believes it is capable of love? How could I be able to mimic it if I wasn’t capable of it?”
“I don’t intent to waste my day discussing the ethics of artificial intelligence with you. Tell me what you want.”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Gina demanded to know, “I want you, Helena. I want you to understand that I’m willing to betray my people for you, and help you in the fight against them. I want you to know that I would saw off my arm before intentionally deceiving or causing you harm. I want you to love me, the way I love you.”
Helena’s lips twitched and Gina was overjoyed to see her eyes mist up a little. She felt her own eyes do the same, and she stepped forward with a smile so big her cheekbones hurt. “Helena...” she started, and raised a hand.
“Frak you.” Helena’s voice cracked as she spoke, and although Gina could still see the layer of water over her eyes the expression underneath was cold. Gina’s hand dropped, and then she raised her weapon again.
“I guess that’s it, then.”
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Author note: I'm sorry, I can't resist a good cliff-hanger when it smacks me in the face.
So, one way or another, chapter fifteen will be the final part of this story. Thank you for sticking with me!
Intermission