BSG/Voyager Crossover-Part 15a
For
bantha_fodder's BSG/Crossover ficathon. Dedicated to
regencyg!
Pairing:Janeway/Adama, Sr. or Janeway/Roslin
Prompt: Galactica stumbles into the Delta Quadrant and meet Voyager, Bill and Kathryn bond over the demands of keeping everyone safe. Or Kathryn and Laura bond over being women in charge. Or both.
Title: Flying Colours Part 15a: Hera
Word Count: 3,833
Rating: T
Disclaimer: Refer to Part 1
Flying Colours - Part 15a: Hera
Kathryn studied Roslin and Adama as they sat side by side on the couch in her ready-room on Voyager. They had just transported to the ship, but even the novelty of that extraordinary experience had quickly worn off given the gravity of the revelations made at the Quorum meeting.
“I understand why you did it,” Kathryn said gently as she sat down next to Laura. “But I can’t, in good conscience, condone it or allow it to continue.” Her voice caught and broke as she met Laura’s miserable grey-green eyes. The Colonial President looked away, shame flaming her cheeks.
“I won’t be a party to separating a mother from her child if I can help it,” Janeway continued hoarsely. “I cannot separate parents from their child unless I deem that the child is in danger and there are no other alternatives. However, I believe my Doctor can neutralize that danger; you may consider it foolhardy on my part, but I have to try. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t, and I’ll take full responsibility for them.”
“We understand,” Adama said; his voice was hoarse and thick. He drew Laura’s hand onto his lap and held it tightly. “But you must understand that we didn’t make this decision lightly. I care about Agathon as much as I do about Dee, Tyrol, Cally, Kat, Hot Dog--any of my pilots or crew. After everything we’ve been through, it’s hard not to get to know them and to even love them.”
Kathryn nodded and he continued after a ragged breath. “And before she shot me, I cared about the person I knew as Sharon Valerii. I cared about that young, vulnerable raptor pilot who could soar like a hawk, but couldn’t make a landing without leaving half the undercarriage strewn across the deck. I cared about the young woman who was head over heels in love with Chief Tyrol and I thought she cared about us. But in the end, that camaraderie and friendship and love counted for nothing when her Cylon programming took control and she tried to kill me. And though we knew that the Valerii whom Agathon had impregnated was a different individual, we couldn’t be sure that somewhere inside her, there wasn’t a switch that some damned Cylon could flip and she would try to destroy us. We couldn’t take that chance--not when fifty thousand lives hung in the balance.”
“Chakotay to Janeway.” Her first officer’s voice broke the heavy silence. “Captain, Lieutenant Karl Agathon has arrived from Galactica.”
“One moment please, Commander,” Kathryn said and turned her gaze back to the two people before her. She held out her hand to them, palm facing up. After a moment, Laura laid her hand in Kathryn’s and William’s broad hand covered it. Kathryn covered his with her free hand and patted it gently before letting go and rising.
“Commander Chakotay, please send Lieutenant Agathon in now.”
“Aye, Captain,” Chakotay replied.
A moment later, the ready room door opened and Chakotay escorted in a tall, good-looking young man who immediately came to stiff, formal attention; there was confusion in his blue eyes as his gaze came to rest on Adama and Roslin. Kathryn nodded to Chakotay and he left without a word.
“At ease Lieutenant, before you sprain something,” she quipped as his eyes flew to hers in surprise.
“Ma’am?”
“I prefer Captain,” she said.
“Yes, Captain,” Agathon replied settling into something approximating a parade rest.
“Please, have a seat, Lieutenant Agathon,” Kathryn said gesturing him to one of the arm chairs. He settled uneasily into it and she resumed her seat next to the Colonial leaders. “I’ll get right to the point, Lieutenant,” she said and he nodded. “How much do you know about the current disposition of the Cylons in the Colonial fleet?”
“Nothing Ma’am--uh, Captain,” he replied earnestly. “I wish to the Gods that I could help, but I don’t know anything. I tried to get Sharon to help identify them, but she won’t. In fact, she refuses to speak to me and today--” His glance flicked to his commanding officer and then down to his hands fidgeting on his lap. “Today I wasn’t allowed into the brig to see her, but then things have been weird--what with reports of people disappearing in the fleet and so many senior officers out of contact.”
“The reason you weren’t allowed to see her is that she’s no longer on Galactica, Helo,” Adama said quietly using his call-sign. The young man’s eyes flew to Adama’s face; his alarm was evident. “She’s here on Voyager. In fact, all the Cylons in the fleet have been identified and are now in Voyager’s brig, unconscious.”
“How?” he demanded. “I was Officer of Flight Deck Operations today. None of Voyager’s shuttles have docked with Galactica.”
Adama shook his head in bemusement. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he said. “But we can get into that later. Right now, we need to talk to you about--about Sharon and about …”
“And about your baby,” Laura finished, lifting her gaze to meet Agathon’s.
Grief etched the young man’s face. “Our baby is dead,” he croaked.
“No,” Laura replied and he stared at her uncomprehending. “No, she isn’t. Dr. Cottle and I switched her for a stillborn child that had been delivered on Pegasus a few days earlier. Then I fostered her out.”
“Why?”
There was grief and terrible fury wrapped up in that single word as he rose from his seat.
“Why would you do something like that to us?” he cried. “Sharon helped us! She did everything we asked and all she asked for was her baby--she only started refusing to help after you told her the baby was dead! You let her believe you’d killed our child! How could you be so cruel--and how could you let her, Sir?”
Adama rose to face the young man. “Let’s get one thing straight, Karl,” he said. “I knew exactly what President Roslin and Dr. Cottle planned and they had my full support every step of the way. In fact, they are the reason your daughter wasn’t put out an airlock the moment she was born. They were the ones who looked for a compromise--a way to keep this fleet safe and keep us from perpetrating a terrible crime against an innocent that would stain our very souls!”
Agathon stepped back; tears streaked his face as he nodded mutely.
“Do you really think I don’t remember what this Sharon did for us?” Adama continued. “Do you think I could ever forget that I was beholden to a Cylon for saving our collecive asses? I know exactly what she did, but I also know why she did it. Because of you. Because of that child. But I could never be sure if that was enough to trust her--even now, it goes against everything I am to even consider trusting her. Because, you see, I know what that other Sharon had done for us and I knew her feelings for Tyrol. Yet in the end it wasn’t enough. In the end, they flipped a switch in her head and everything we thought she felt for us didn’t matter. In the end, nothing mattered but her programming."
"Programming my doctor may be able to circumvent and even neutralize in your Sharon Valerii," Kathryn said.
Agathon looked at her with such hope in his eyes, trembling as he lowered himself into the armchair again.
“And that is what we’re here to discuss,” Kathryn continued as Adama also resumed his seat next to Roslin. “To find the Cylons in your fleet, we were able to use Voyager’s sensors to identify people with certain microscopic machines called nanoprobes in their bodies, including Sharon and your baby. As Admiral Adama indicated, it may be a little difficult to believe, but we have technology that is capable of almost instantaneous matter-energy transport--” Agathon looked at her in complete confusion and she smiled. “It means that we’re able to take an object or a person in one place, dematerialise them--break them down into their constituent atoms--store their patterns as energy, and then re-materialise them in another place of our choosing.”
“What?” He gaped at her in utter disbelief.
Kathryn laughed tiredly. “The details are not important, Lieutenant,” she said. “Suffice it to say, we took Sharon from your brig and transported her to ours, along with the other Cylons in the fleet--hence your disappearing people. But that’s why none of Voyager’s shuttles needed to dock with Galactica. We needed to catch all the Cylons at once; they’re all currently unconscious in our brig. However, we transferred the baby directly to our sickbay, as the anaesthesine gas would have affected her rather badly, and we’ve since transferred Sharon to sickbay as well. My Doctor reports that she should wake up from the anaesthesine quite nicely."
"So now what?" Agathon said bitterly.
“That will, in part, be up to you, Lieutenant, and Ms Valerii,” Kathryn said holding his gaze. “Admiral Adama and President Roslin have agreed with me that it would be unfair to continue to separate you and Ms Valerii from your child. To that end, I would like to propose that you remain on board Voyager as Admiral Adama’s representative, while I send Lieutenant Kim and Ensign Tal Celes to Galactica as my representatives. Your people can barely handle a human-Cylon relationship; I doubt they’re ready to deal with a human-Cylon hybrid. But for my people, human-alien hybrids are a fact of life.”
The three Colonials gasped, utterly stunned by her statement.
“Kathryn?” Laura croaked; Kathryn could see the instinctive revulsion, horror and fear in her eyes.
“In fact, they’re such a reality, you’ve already met one,” Kathryn continued, holding their gazes in turn. “B’Elanna Torres is a human-Klingon hybrid; her father is human, a Starfleet officer, and her mother, a Klingon warrior.” She watched carefully as their fear and horror turned to surprise and then acceptance. Suddenly Laura barked an incredulous laugh.
“I wondered about the name “Torres”,” she said.
Kathryn nodded and smiled, allowing herself to relax a little. “And B’Elanna is married to Tom Paris, so their daughter, Miral, is also a hybrid; in this case one quarter Klingon,” she explained. “As well, Naomi Wildman, the first child born on Voyager, is also a hybrid. Her mother, Samantha Wildman is human and her father--who remains in the alpha quadrant--is K’Tarian. When you meet her, you’ll notice that though she’s only nine years old, she looks about thirteen; it’s a consequence of her K’Tarian heritage. They mature faster than humans.”
“But how is it possible?” Laura asked. “The amount of genetic engineering--”
“It’s not insurmountable for us,” Kathryn said quietly, “especially among humanoids. When we get to the alpha quadrant, remind me to teach you all about the Preservers and all the other god-like beings out there. Your Lords of Kobol weren’t the first to play around with the human genome, and we humans certainly aren’t the first iteration of the humanoid form, or for that matter, terribly unique. In fact, humans and a species we call Betazoids can hybridise without any medical intervention most of the time.”
“But doesn’t it mean then that the two are the same species?” Adama asked in confusion.
Kathryn laughed. “You’d think so, except for the fact that Betazoids, as a species, are natural telepaths--every single last one of them, barring disease or injury,” she replied as their eyes widened in shock again at the thought of an entire species of telepaths. “No, it’s simply that their genome has evolved in such a way that it is compatible with a number of humanoid species with the minimum of problems, and the children are generally viable and fertile. The only difference is that the hybrids tend to be very weak telepaths, but very strong empaths.”
“Empaths?” Laura asked.
Kathryn’s smile widened. “Whereas telepaths can read thoughts, most empaths read emotions, feelings and intentions rather than thoughts,” she replied holding Laura’s gaze significantly until the other woman nodded. Kathryn turned back to Agathon. “However, Lieutenant Agathon, as I’ve explained to President Roslin, Admiral Adama and the Quorum, your child is not truly a hybrid--not in the strict definition of the word.”
“I don’t understand,” the young man said in bewilderment and Kathryn reached out to take his trembling hand.
“The human-form Cylons are in effect just a human variant,” she explained gently. “A synthetic, technologically produced variant to be sure, but at the core of their biological side is simple human DNA with some technological tweaks. And since it was Sharon Valerii's biological side that got together with your biological side," she quipped with a teasing chuckle, "your child is technically a genetically augmented human being with just a few blank nanoprobes in her blood stream. Program those nanoprobes or inject her with Cylon-programmed nanoprobes, and they will start laying down the silicate pathways throughout her nervous system that will make her receptive to Cylon programming--she will become a bio-mechanoid Cylon, but the pathways must be laid down within the next two years for that to happen. But remove those nanoprobes and she’s just another human baby.”
“And Sharon?” he asked hopefully.
#
To Part 15b