Deliverance (12/?)
Title: Deliverance
Author: coexist_love
Rating: MA
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica 2003
Character: General with Roslin/Adama emphasis
Summary: A normal day on among the fleet is disturbed when an unidentified assailant attempts to assassinate President Roslin.
Disclaimer: Not written for money and if I owned Galactica this would have already happened.
Spoilers: Flight of the Pheonix through Epiphanies
Author’s Note: I thought about this while watching Colonial Day and though my setting is very different to begin with it was given further substance by whyoffry and maj_zoidberg444 at LiveJournal and a special thanks to my lovely betas (I had so many ) but in particular whyoffry campmotha and tina_cat
Author's Note Redux: WELCOME THE SURPRISE VISITOR! Hehehe! I can be so evil at times.
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chapter 11
“Scotch?” Bill asked Cain and Baltar as they entered his quarters.
“Yes please,” Cain replied.
Bill retrieved a bottle from his kitchenette and poured three glasses, one for Cain, one fore the Vice President, and one for himself. He distributed the glasses and gestured for his two guests to sit down.
“Thank you,” Cain said as she accepted the drink.
”Admiral, I’m sorry this all seems so surreal. I have a lot of questions do you mind if I just get to them?” Baltar said awkwardly.
“Please,” Cain whispered.
“How did you find us?” Baltar asked unsure of how to act. Roslin had always been good at presidential duties like this. She had a way of making politicians fall over her, even though she claimed that she was never meant to politics. Baltar wasn’t either but he didn’t have the grace that she possessed when it came to things like this.
“Well, we were tracking a Cylon fleet. We tried predicting their movements, which seems rather random, initially. Until we realized that they were just jumping to systems with natural resources, so we began scouting those systems ourselves, hoping to carry out hit and run attacks on their fleet. But instead of finding the Cylons…” Cain narrated. “We found you.”
“You’ve been attacking their fleet?” Bill aquired.
“You know what they say about the best defense,” Cain mentioned plainly.
“How did you avoid the initial Cylon attack on the Colonies?” Bill asked.
Cain’s face paled and she bit her lip. “I’ll have another if you don’t mind.” She mentioned, gesturing to her glass.” Adama willingly poured her another glass of life-giving alcohol. “We were docking at Scorpion Fleet Ship Yard. We were getting ready for a three month overhaul. Most of the crew was getting ready for extending shoreleave, family reunions, XO had the deck. I was down in my quarters, wrapping up some paperwork and getting ready to go home to Tauron.”
Bill studied her as she paused. Her demeanor looked as if she was hiding something. Her eyes read as if she was going to snap at any moment and her hand clenched around the glass until her knuckles turned white. He saw her draw a deep breath in through her nose before she continued.
“And that’s when the Cylon’s attacked,” Cain continued. “They hit the shipyard with…three…maybe four nukes. Five ships….two of them Battlestars…they were destroyed right there.”
Bill noted the change in cadence as she started talking about the attack. She’d seen it. Lived through it. Not like everyone else who was simply imagining what it was like for those on the Colonies. He recalled Boomer’s recollection of Caprica. How people were running for their lives, taking whatever they could save of civilization with them. Bill doubted that the people that escaped on Pegasus had such a luxury.
“…and by the time I got back to CIC…I’d discovered I had lost over 700 men. We were completely defenseless so I ordered a jump.”
“To where?”
“Wherever…” Cain stated with the same body language an actress reciting ancient poetry. “Nowhere. Just jump.”
“A blind jump,” Bill stated, more for Baltar’s benefit than Cain’s. “You could have ended up anywhere. Gutsy call.”
“Nah…” Cain dismissed. “Desperate move, but I didn’t see any other choice.” Baltar sat in silence trying to take the story that the Admiral had just told them. “I’m sure you have quite a story to tell yourself, but I won’t make you go through it right this very minute.” She turned to Bill and resumed command mode. “You can send over your logs, when you get the chance.”
Baltar glanced at the Commander with concern. He couldn’t be leaving her with this woman? Not when Roslin was still incapacitated. She had the political charm, she was the one that could keep order. Not him.
“Something wrong?” Cain asked noticing the look on Baltar’s face.
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Baltar said. “I sometimes forget about the rules of military protocol.”
“Admiral Cain is my superior officer,” Bill said, silently smiting the Vice President. “She will take complete command of the entire fleet.”
“I was wondering how to brooch that topic,” Cain confessed to Bill. “Trust me when I say that while the chain of command is strict it is not heartless. And neither am I. This is your ship and I have no desire to interfere with Galactica’s internal affairs.
“I appreciate it Admiral,” Bill said.
“Um, would you excuse me?” Baltar asked as he stood up exited the commander’s quarters through the hatch. Before he exited he turned around and cleared his throat. “Admiral, let me say that we are glad to have you on board. Thank you for finding us.” He held out his hand to her again and she took it and shook it kindly before Baltar turned to leave.
“The Vice President?” Cain asked once Baltar had left the room. Her tone gave was condescending and Bill could tell that his superior was insulted.
“I am very sorry,” Bill said. “The President, was the victim of an assassination attempt a few days ago, she’s in sickbay recovering.”
“I’m sure,” Cain nodded as she headed for the door.
Cain turned to thank him for his company but was cut short when Adama started speaking again. “Admiral Cain,” Bill began. “We have a Cylon prisoner on board our ship.”
“Really?” Cain questioned, somewhat surprised. “We have one on ours as well.”
“Ours has proven to be an excellent source of intelligence,” Bill stated. “She’s been very cooperative. Vice President Dr. Baltar has been working with her.”
Cain nodded before changing the subject. “It gives me no pleasure to have to take command Bill. I want you to know that.”
“Don’t give it a moment’s thought Admiral.”
With a curt nod Cain turned and stepped through the hatch. Bill around and eyed the bottle of scotch. He contemplated drinking himself into oblivion for the night before Laura’s voice entered his mind. It told him not to. That he had a fleet to take care of. Closing his eyes he tried to picture the last time she was in his quarters. How she had been smiling, how her glasses complimented her hair, the cadence of her speech. He wished he could preserve that memory of her. Stepping closer to the table he capped the bottle of scotch and put it away.
***
“They made me head of the Cylon branch and my main focus is on Cylon detection-” Baltar informed Cain as they walked through the halls of the Pegasus.
“We have our own Cylon prisoner,” Cain cut off as they came to complete stop in front of one of a hatch. “I would like you to examine her as soon as possible see if you can glean anything from it.”
“I wonder who the Cylon will turn out to be-stranger, familiar face, trusted friend who turns out to be the enemy,” Six ventured as he fingers tickled Baltar’s hand. He turned to her with a slight look of annoyance, not realizing that he wasn’t paying any attention to the Admiral.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Cain asked.
“Yes, yes, I’d be really-I’d be more than happy to examine the prisoner.” They waited while of Ensigns opened the hatch. In a gentlemanly gesture he allowed her to go first. “Commander.”
“Admiral,” Cain corrected as she stepped through the hatch.
“Oh yes! Admiral!” Baltar said as he mentally kicked himself. “I’m so sorry.”
They walked to the corridors before Cain was greeted by a man Baltar identified as a Lieutenant. She introduced him as Lieutenant Thorne before stating that she had a meeting to get to, leaving him and his imaginary girlfriend with the Lieutenant. They walked down some more corridors and Baltar could feel the anticipation rising as he passed several armed guards.
“Don’t get to close,” Thorne warned. “It killed seven of my crew.” Baltar felt a sense of dread. Six, Sharon, and Leoban has been the only Cylons he’d encountered and none of them had seemed that hostile. Well not if you eliminated the Sharon that shot the Commander. “Do you want my guards to come in with you?”
“Feeling scared Gaius?” Six taunted as she stepped into his personal space. “Want the big bad soldiers to protect you from the mean old Cylon prisoner?”
“No, I think we’ll be just fine thank you,” Baltar responded. The sliding doors in front of them opened and Six stepped in front of him, leading him into a room with a glass partition. As they looked through the glass Gaius could hear Six’s breathe catch her throat.
“Oh my god!” Six brought her hand up to her mouth in shock as Gaius took in the site of a chained Six laying before him. Bruises were on every visible part of her body and she was restrained in three places, leaving her in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. “Oh my god Gaius! It’s me. Look what they’ve done to her.”
“Open the door,” Gaius ordered. “Now please.”
Thorne swiped his card and the computer responded with a positive identification. The door opened and Gaius’s nose was greeted with the stench of death. He didn’t notice that Six was staring daggers at Thorne, as if she wanted to kill him for hurting her. Baltar stepped inside, Six following closely behind him as the door closed. Gaius knelt down next to the bruised form and studied the marks on her body.
“She must have struggled,” Baltar concluded. “She must have fought back.”
“It doesn’t justify this,” Six raised her voice, the tears building up as she spoke.
Baltar held one finger in the air, signaling her to calm down. “Stop it,” he told her as he turned his attention back to the prisoner. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
The sound of Six’s heels echoed in t he room as she stepped around Gina’s body. “She’s obviously been abused,” Six commented. “Tortured.”
“Yes, but there’s no obvious sign of head trauma,” Baltar stated as she retrieved a penlight out of his jacket pocket. “Oh…” he reacted as he saw her pupils begin to dart back and forth. “Voluntary eye movement suggests conscious thought.” He turned off the light and put it away.
“Can you stop being a scientist for one moment and look at the poor abused woman lying in front of you,” Six pleaded, her voice growing overly emotional as she took Gaius’ arm and helped him stand up. Gaius led her a few feet away from the prisoner’s body.”
“Listen,” Gaius prompted. “I know this must be difficult for you.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Six interjected, but Gaius could see the redness in her eyes.
“I’m not patronizing you. I am trying to reason with you. If I’m going to help her I am going to have to understand her first.”
“Will you help her Gaius?” Six asked, her eyes pleaded for the truth. A Cylon-friendly face.
“I’ll do everything I can,” Gaius said. “After all-she is remarkable similar to someone I care about a great deal,” A smile spread across Six’s face at his promise. “I think it would be best if you left us alone for a time.”
Six nodded, taking one last look at the prisoner, before she disappeared, leaving Baltar alone with her.
***
“It suffered no serious head injuries and therefore no physical damage to its neural pathways or cognitive reasoning centers,” Baltar reported to Cain quickly. He wasn’t sure what unnerved him about the woman but the eerie silence she kept between them wasn’t helping him. “But it's quite clearly traumatized, which would suggest that its current condition is psychological in nature. Had you thought of that? No. It shows that the Cylon consciousness is just as susceptible to same pressures and cleavages as the human psyche, and can be manipulated in the same fashion. Simply put Admiral, you’ve already used the stick, it’s time to use a carrot.”
Cain had a strange way of holding eye contact for a period of time like she was waiting for the other party in the conversation to add to their thoughs. For a minute, Gaius thought that he had talked himself into a hole and that she wouldn’t allow him to study Gina as a subject for his work on the Cylon sub-species. Frak! First he accidently addresses her as Commander and now this. What the frak could possible to wrong He tried to read what her eyes were saying but just as he was getting someone her lips curled into a small half smile and she made a series of small nods before turning to her XO.
“Please give the doctor whatever he needs,” she ordered.
“Aye sir,” Fisk said.
Author: coexist_love
Rating: MA
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica 2003
Character: General with Roslin/Adama emphasis
Summary: A normal day on among the fleet is disturbed when an unidentified assailant attempts to assassinate President Roslin.
Disclaimer: Not written for money and if I owned Galactica this would have already happened.
Spoilers: Flight of the Pheonix through Epiphanies
Author’s Note: I thought about this while watching Colonial Day and though my setting is very different to begin with it was given further substance by whyoffry and maj_zoidberg444 at LiveJournal and a special thanks to my lovely betas (I had so many ) but in particular whyoffry campmotha and tina_cat
Author's Note Redux: WELCOME THE SURPRISE VISITOR! Hehehe! I can be so evil at times.
PREVIOUS CHAPTERS
Prologue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chapter 11
“Scotch?” Bill asked Cain and Baltar as they entered his quarters.
“Yes please,” Cain replied.
Bill retrieved a bottle from his kitchenette and poured three glasses, one for Cain, one fore the Vice President, and one for himself. He distributed the glasses and gestured for his two guests to sit down.
“Thank you,” Cain said as she accepted the drink.
”Admiral, I’m sorry this all seems so surreal. I have a lot of questions do you mind if I just get to them?” Baltar said awkwardly.
“Please,” Cain whispered.
“How did you find us?” Baltar asked unsure of how to act. Roslin had always been good at presidential duties like this. She had a way of making politicians fall over her, even though she claimed that she was never meant to politics. Baltar wasn’t either but he didn’t have the grace that she possessed when it came to things like this.
“Well, we were tracking a Cylon fleet. We tried predicting their movements, which seems rather random, initially. Until we realized that they were just jumping to systems with natural resources, so we began scouting those systems ourselves, hoping to carry out hit and run attacks on their fleet. But instead of finding the Cylons…” Cain narrated. “We found you.”
“You’ve been attacking their fleet?” Bill aquired.
“You know what they say about the best defense,” Cain mentioned plainly.
“How did you avoid the initial Cylon attack on the Colonies?” Bill asked.
Cain’s face paled and she bit her lip. “I’ll have another if you don’t mind.” She mentioned, gesturing to her glass.” Adama willingly poured her another glass of life-giving alcohol. “We were docking at Scorpion Fleet Ship Yard. We were getting ready for a three month overhaul. Most of the crew was getting ready for extending shoreleave, family reunions, XO had the deck. I was down in my quarters, wrapping up some paperwork and getting ready to go home to Tauron.”
Bill studied her as she paused. Her demeanor looked as if she was hiding something. Her eyes read as if she was going to snap at any moment and her hand clenched around the glass until her knuckles turned white. He saw her draw a deep breath in through her nose before she continued.
“And that’s when the Cylon’s attacked,” Cain continued. “They hit the shipyard with…three…maybe four nukes. Five ships….two of them Battlestars…they were destroyed right there.”
Bill noted the change in cadence as she started talking about the attack. She’d seen it. Lived through it. Not like everyone else who was simply imagining what it was like for those on the Colonies. He recalled Boomer’s recollection of Caprica. How people were running for their lives, taking whatever they could save of civilization with them. Bill doubted that the people that escaped on Pegasus had such a luxury.
“…and by the time I got back to CIC…I’d discovered I had lost over 700 men. We were completely defenseless so I ordered a jump.”
“To where?”
“Wherever…” Cain stated with the same body language an actress reciting ancient poetry. “Nowhere. Just jump.”
“A blind jump,” Bill stated, more for Baltar’s benefit than Cain’s. “You could have ended up anywhere. Gutsy call.”
“Nah…” Cain dismissed. “Desperate move, but I didn’t see any other choice.” Baltar sat in silence trying to take the story that the Admiral had just told them. “I’m sure you have quite a story to tell yourself, but I won’t make you go through it right this very minute.” She turned to Bill and resumed command mode. “You can send over your logs, when you get the chance.”
Baltar glanced at the Commander with concern. He couldn’t be leaving her with this woman? Not when Roslin was still incapacitated. She had the political charm, she was the one that could keep order. Not him.
“Something wrong?” Cain asked noticing the look on Baltar’s face.
“You’ll have to forgive me,” Baltar said. “I sometimes forget about the rules of military protocol.”
“Admiral Cain is my superior officer,” Bill said, silently smiting the Vice President. “She will take complete command of the entire fleet.”
“I was wondering how to brooch that topic,” Cain confessed to Bill. “Trust me when I say that while the chain of command is strict it is not heartless. And neither am I. This is your ship and I have no desire to interfere with Galactica’s internal affairs.
“I appreciate it Admiral,” Bill said.
“Um, would you excuse me?” Baltar asked as he stood up exited the commander’s quarters through the hatch. Before he exited he turned around and cleared his throat. “Admiral, let me say that we are glad to have you on board. Thank you for finding us.” He held out his hand to her again and she took it and shook it kindly before Baltar turned to leave.
“The Vice President?” Cain asked once Baltar had left the room. Her tone gave was condescending and Bill could tell that his superior was insulted.
“I am very sorry,” Bill said. “The President, was the victim of an assassination attempt a few days ago, she’s in sickbay recovering.”
“I’m sure,” Cain nodded as she headed for the door.
Cain turned to thank him for his company but was cut short when Adama started speaking again. “Admiral Cain,” Bill began. “We have a Cylon prisoner on board our ship.”
“Really?” Cain questioned, somewhat surprised. “We have one on ours as well.”
“Ours has proven to be an excellent source of intelligence,” Bill stated. “She’s been very cooperative. Vice President Dr. Baltar has been working with her.”
Cain nodded before changing the subject. “It gives me no pleasure to have to take command Bill. I want you to know that.”
“Don’t give it a moment’s thought Admiral.”
With a curt nod Cain turned and stepped through the hatch. Bill around and eyed the bottle of scotch. He contemplated drinking himself into oblivion for the night before Laura’s voice entered his mind. It told him not to. That he had a fleet to take care of. Closing his eyes he tried to picture the last time she was in his quarters. How she had been smiling, how her glasses complimented her hair, the cadence of her speech. He wished he could preserve that memory of her. Stepping closer to the table he capped the bottle of scotch and put it away.
***
“They made me head of the Cylon branch and my main focus is on Cylon detection-” Baltar informed Cain as they walked through the halls of the Pegasus.
“We have our own Cylon prisoner,” Cain cut off as they came to complete stop in front of one of a hatch. “I would like you to examine her as soon as possible see if you can glean anything from it.”
“I wonder who the Cylon will turn out to be-stranger, familiar face, trusted friend who turns out to be the enemy,” Six ventured as he fingers tickled Baltar’s hand. He turned to her with a slight look of annoyance, not realizing that he wasn’t paying any attention to the Admiral.
“Did you hear what I just said?” Cain asked.
“Yes, yes, I’d be really-I’d be more than happy to examine the prisoner.” They waited while of Ensigns opened the hatch. In a gentlemanly gesture he allowed her to go first. “Commander.”
“Admiral,” Cain corrected as she stepped through the hatch.
“Oh yes! Admiral!” Baltar said as he mentally kicked himself. “I’m so sorry.”
They walked to the corridors before Cain was greeted by a man Baltar identified as a Lieutenant. She introduced him as Lieutenant Thorne before stating that she had a meeting to get to, leaving him and his imaginary girlfriend with the Lieutenant. They walked down some more corridors and Baltar could feel the anticipation rising as he passed several armed guards.
“Don’t get to close,” Thorne warned. “It killed seven of my crew.” Baltar felt a sense of dread. Six, Sharon, and Leoban has been the only Cylons he’d encountered and none of them had seemed that hostile. Well not if you eliminated the Sharon that shot the Commander. “Do you want my guards to come in with you?”
“Feeling scared Gaius?” Six taunted as she stepped into his personal space. “Want the big bad soldiers to protect you from the mean old Cylon prisoner?”
“No, I think we’ll be just fine thank you,” Baltar responded. The sliding doors in front of them opened and Six stepped in front of him, leading him into a room with a glass partition. As they looked through the glass Gaius could hear Six’s breathe catch her throat.
“Oh my god!” Six brought her hand up to her mouth in shock as Gaius took in the site of a chained Six laying before him. Bruises were on every visible part of her body and she was restrained in three places, leaving her in what looked like a very uncomfortable position. “Oh my god Gaius! It’s me. Look what they’ve done to her.”
“Open the door,” Gaius ordered. “Now please.”
Thorne swiped his card and the computer responded with a positive identification. The door opened and Gaius’s nose was greeted with the stench of death. He didn’t notice that Six was staring daggers at Thorne, as if she wanted to kill him for hurting her. Baltar stepped inside, Six following closely behind him as the door closed. Gaius knelt down next to the bruised form and studied the marks on her body.
“She must have struggled,” Baltar concluded. “She must have fought back.”
“It doesn’t justify this,” Six raised her voice, the tears building up as she spoke.
Baltar held one finger in the air, signaling her to calm down. “Stop it,” he told her as he turned his attention back to the prisoner. “Hello? Can you hear me?”
The sound of Six’s heels echoed in t he room as she stepped around Gina’s body. “She’s obviously been abused,” Six commented. “Tortured.”
“Yes, but there’s no obvious sign of head trauma,” Baltar stated as she retrieved a penlight out of his jacket pocket. “Oh…” he reacted as he saw her pupils begin to dart back and forth. “Voluntary eye movement suggests conscious thought.” He turned off the light and put it away.
“Can you stop being a scientist for one moment and look at the poor abused woman lying in front of you,” Six pleaded, her voice growing overly emotional as she took Gaius’ arm and helped him stand up. Gaius led her a few feet away from the prisoner’s body.”
“Listen,” Gaius prompted. “I know this must be difficult for you.”
“Don’t patronize me,” Six interjected, but Gaius could see the redness in her eyes.
“I’m not patronizing you. I am trying to reason with you. If I’m going to help her I am going to have to understand her first.”
“Will you help her Gaius?” Six asked, her eyes pleaded for the truth. A Cylon-friendly face.
“I’ll do everything I can,” Gaius said. “After all-she is remarkable similar to someone I care about a great deal,” A smile spread across Six’s face at his promise. “I think it would be best if you left us alone for a time.”
Six nodded, taking one last look at the prisoner, before she disappeared, leaving Baltar alone with her.
***
“It suffered no serious head injuries and therefore no physical damage to its neural pathways or cognitive reasoning centers,” Baltar reported to Cain quickly. He wasn’t sure what unnerved him about the woman but the eerie silence she kept between them wasn’t helping him. “But it's quite clearly traumatized, which would suggest that its current condition is psychological in nature. Had you thought of that? No. It shows that the Cylon consciousness is just as susceptible to same pressures and cleavages as the human psyche, and can be manipulated in the same fashion. Simply put Admiral, you’ve already used the stick, it’s time to use a carrot.”
Cain had a strange way of holding eye contact for a period of time like she was waiting for the other party in the conversation to add to their thoughs. For a minute, Gaius thought that he had talked himself into a hole and that she wouldn’t allow him to study Gina as a subject for his work on the Cylon sub-species. Frak! First he accidently addresses her as Commander and now this. What the frak could possible to wrong He tried to read what her eyes were saying but just as he was getting someone her lips curled into a small half smile and she made a series of small nods before turning to her XO.
“Please give the doctor whatever he needs,” she ordered.
“Aye sir,” Fisk said.