It is hard to breathe.

Not just difficult to wrap her brain around the inhale, exhale concept, but hard. As though the environmental systems on Galactica are malfunctioning - all oxygen has been sucked out of the ship and replaced with some unknown foreign contaminant.  Perhaps Earth’s (Earth - it hardly deserved the name, hardly deserved to be ( Read more... )

She had had worse days, she knew. More stressful days, more traumatic days, even more tragic days - but at the moment she couldn’t think of one. She couldn’t think of anything beyond the hissing anger bubbling just below her skin - liable to spit out on anyone in her vicinity if she so much as opened her mouth. Richard Adar was a frakking fraktard.
( Read more... )

They hadn’t moved, sitting companionably thigh to thigh under the tarp above them. The wind kept up, causing the sound of constant rustling to flutter through the encampment.  A few brave souls ventured over to them - Tyrol to express his sympathy over the loss of Elosha, Billy hunkered down beside them for almost a half-hour, telling light-hearted ( Read more... )

The minutes always seemed to drag in Life Station. Seconds trailed a bit longer, delaying escape as long as possible. Hours slowed, scraped their toes into the ground in outright defiance of her wish to make them move faster.  During treatments, it was an irritating inconvenience. She had things to do - a government to run, a destiny to shape, a ( Read more... )

“No.”

She haunts your dreams - dead, dying, decaying before your eyes in a bed in the life station. Breath rattling sickly as she stares at the people surrounding her through a haze of pain and misery. You can feel that pain - feel her bitter thoughts seep into your skin, into your heart like acid - corrosive and damaging, even in dreams. Your ( Read more... )

Patience was a virtue.

Leoben had preached it to her over and over, each time she made her way over to the basestar (which was not often, due to D’Anna) - Patience, Caprica, patience. Out of all the Cylon models, Leoben had always been a favourite of hers. Such complexity in his line - manic and compulsive, but a natural leader who had a keen ( Read more... )

“You’re short.”

The words came out of nowhere and she snorted in disbelief, flexing one foot and digging her heel in as she formulated a response.

“Well, you’re not exactly of epic proportions yourself there, Admiral.” Her heel dug a bit deeper, and she hummed in the back of her throat at the look of annoyance crossing his face. “Well, some parts ( Read more... )

He hated expectant parents.

They drove him to distraction with their constant questions and convictions that somehow their child was uniquely different from the several hundred other births he had performed. They were demanding and clingy and asked more questions than they should sensibly know the answers to.

But these parents…. Well, he was ( Read more... )

She does not think in binary - ones and zeroes and meaningless jumbles of numbers, altered only by their order. She does not have some sort of internal scan that can identify and repair damage done to her body - her skin knits painfully together like anyone else’s and if something hurts - it just hurts and she doesn’t know why.

But this time, she ( Read more... )

Of all the things you could be thankful for, standing here on the ground (cold, hard, dirt) while watching your companions (friends, enemies, children) wander in a shocked daze - of all the things you could be grateful for - the weather wasn’t one of them.

You should be grateful for his shoulder, wedged beside yours - his solid presence at your ( Read more... )