Finding Purpose (9/?)
Title: Finding Purpose (9/?)
Author: Nytel
Rating: R (eventually)
Spoilers: Up to 213 (Epiphanies)
Pairing: Kara/Lee
Genre: Angst/Romance
Summary: When your whole life gets flipped upside down, you need to find a reason to go on.
Word Count: 4,624
Beta:
tracyj23
Disclaimer: I am merely borrowing them. No copyright infringement is intended.
A/N: This fic is AU after Epiphanies.
A/N 2: I did my best with the technical talk in this, but it has been a while since I took a bio course.
Chapter 9
Kara was just returning from her meeting with Tyrol when the page came over the intercom. All thoughts of raptor repairs immediately flew from her mind as she headed towards the tactical room, thankful that it wasn’t all that far. As she made her way through the crowds of people that accompanied a shift change, she tried to think of any good reason for the page. Unless they had been planning a mission without her knowledge, she couldn’t come up with anything.
When she pulled open the hatch she was a little surprised to see both the President and the Admiral, but she covered her reaction swiftly.
“Sir,” she said, briefly saluting Adama. “Madam President,” she added, acknowledging the older woman.
Looking past the two leaders of the fleet she caught sight of the other people in the room: Tigh, some technician, Lee and… Racetrack? What the frak? Kara could have sworn that she was supposed to be on some scouting mission or something. She must have landed when she and Tyrol were looking at the downed raptors on the far side of the hanger bay.
Before she had a chance to ask what was going on, the Old Man started talking. “Lee seems to think you can help us,” he stated bluntly.
Her gaze instantly turned to where Lee was standing by the central table in the room.
“Recognize this?” he asked, even though she could tell by the tone of his voice that he was fairly confident she would.
Without delay she turned at looked in the direction that Lee was pointing. She wasn’t sure how she had missed it when she first walked in, but right there on the viewing screen was a large recon photo of a cylon ship. She moved toward Lee and the photo, a purely unconscious decision that allowed her to get a better look. A sudden sense of recognition hit her as she realized that it wasn’t just any cylon ship, she’d seen it before.
“Would someone please tell me what that ship is?” the President asked, clearly frustrated at having to wait for her answer.
Kara glanced at her briefly, before turning to look at Lee. “You think I know?” she asked incredulously. “I’ve seen it before, but that doesn’t mean I know what it is.”
“Alright,” Tigh said, finally speaking up. “Let’s cut through all this crap. When the hell did you two ever encounter this ship?”
Kara had to grit her teeth to stop from making a remark that would land her in the brig. Luckily Lee saved her from having to respond.
“We saw two of them the last time we engaged the cylons,” Lee explained.
Kara almost cringed as she remembered what else had occurred the last time they’d encountered the cylons-no wonder Lee had wanted a second opinion on this. She was surprised that he even remembered the ships in the first place, considering he’d frozen up that day.
“That was nearly three weeks ago,” the President stated.
“That doesn’t matter,” Adama said, interrupting. He turned to look at Roslin. “I’m sorry Madam President, but what we need to know is what these ships are for, and why there’s only one left now.”
Kara only half listened to the conversation that followed, instead focusing most of her attention on the picture in front of her.
“Can you resolve that more?” she quietly asked the technician a second later.
“No,” he replied, shaking his head slightly.
She thought that she might be seeing something on the starboard side of the ship, but the picture was too blurry to be sure.
“Are there any other shots?” she asked. “Different angles maybe?”
“I can check for you Captain,” he responded, setting off to do just that.
Lee made his way over to stand beside her. Tilting his head towards her, he asked, “What do you see?”
She shrugged her shoulders slightly. “Maybe nothing,” she replied as she folded her arms in front of her. Her voice sounded loud to her ears and it took her a second to realize it was because everyone else had stopped talking-they were looking at her and waiting.
Kara watched the screen closely as the technician cycled through the various pictures-she was watching for something very specific.
“Stop,” she said suddenly, as a picture taken from the right angle popped up on the screen. “Zoom in on the bottom left and focus it as much as you can.”
A few seconds later, the area that she’d been looking at was centered on the screen. She nearly shuddered; there was something distinctly creepy about her guess being right. That was definitely…
“A window?” Racetrack asked, breaking the silence. “Sorry sirs,” she added, obviously apologizing for her outburst. “But what the hell do the cylons need windows for?”
“Or who,” Kara muttered under her breath.
***
Lee heard Kara say something, but despite how close they were standing he still couldn’t make out what it was. Though he was curious, it probably didn’t matter, and he focused his attention back on the picture of the cylon vessel.
“Wait,” he said quickly, his eyes widening as he noticed something else. Unfortunately he couldn’t quite make it out. It could be important, or it might be nothing, but it was better to know for sure. “Zoom back out and focus in on the back of the ship.”
“Yes Sir,” the technician replied automatically.
“Lee, what do you see?” his dad asked, his voice remaining quiet.
“Scorch marks I think,” he replied a few seconds later.
Before anyone could ask him what the hell he was talking about, the picture came up on the screen.
“Here,” he said, walking forward so that he could point it out on the screen. Circling his finger around the area he added, “We made an attack run on one of the ships. It must have been this one.”
“So?” Tigh asked gruffly. “It doesn’t matter whether or not we made an attack run on this ship. What matters is what the hell it’s doing out there.” He let out an angry sigh as he moved a bit closer and focused on the picture more intently. “It’s probably planning an attack on us.”
“Well,” Kara said in a would-be-innocent voice. “I’m not sure how it’s going to manage that. You know, without any guns or weapons.”
“Kara’s right,” Lee said before Tigh could match Kara’s scathing remark with one of his own. “There aren’t any weapons.”
“Well if it isn’t a resurrection ship and it isn’t going to attack us, what is it? And what is it doing out here?” Laura asked, getting frustrated. She obviously wanted some answers, and she wanted them now.
When she turned to look specifically at him, Lee could only shake his head. “I don’t know Madam President.”
“None of us know,” Kara stated bluntly.
She had a point; they were all just standing around and speculating, none of them knew a thing about this ship, whatever it was.
“Then I guess we should ask someone who might,” the Admiral said. Everyone else in the room turned to face him as he continued. “These pictures need to be taken to our illustrious cylon expert.” He paused for a second and glanced sheepishly at Laura. “Sorry Madam President.”
If Lee didn’t know any better he would have thought she was holding back a laugh. “That’s quite alright Admiral.”
“I’ll do it,” Lee said, the words leaving his mouth before he could even think about it. The looks on the faces of the other people in the room confirmed that everyone else was just as shocked by it as he was. His … dislike for the Vice-President was something that was well known.
But he did have a reason for volunteering. If he didn’t, then it was more than likely that the responsibility would get delegated to Kara, and he couldn’t stand the thought of her being alone with that slimy bastard.
“Fine,” Adama said, turning to look at Kara. “Captain, I need you to take another copy of these down to the brig and show them to our prisoner. See if you can’t get her to divulge anything.”
“Yes Sir.”
“And bring Helo with you,” he added.
Kara nodded and made her way over to the technician who had printed off copies of the pictures. On her way back to the door, she took half of the printed pages and held them out toward Lee. As he took them from her she gave him a small smile that looked more grateful than anything else.
He returned it without hesitation and followed her out the door. It was time to get to work.
***
Kara entered into the brig with Karl at her side, refusing his offer of help to step through the hatch. She might be in excruciating pain, but that didn’t mean that she needed help.
“Let’s go see if your girlfriend knows anything,” she said to him quietly as they made their way over to the special holding cell.
“You don’t have to resent her so much you know,” Helo said. “All she’s ever done is help us.”
Kara had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at his comment. “She’s a cylon Helo,” she said, tired of going over this with him. “I feel how I feel about her, okay?”
“She’s a person,” Helo replied, even though it was more out of habit than because he thought he might convince her. They had this discussion at least once a week. Kara didn’t think any less of Helo for falling in love with a cylon, but that didn’t mean that she had to like the idea, or Sharon.
They made their way over to the guard on duty.
“Open up the cell,” Kara ordered.
The marine looked at her questioningly. “Sir?”
“I said open up the cell, Corporal,” Kara repeated. “I’m here on Admiral Adama’s orders.”
“Of course,” he replied as he followed her command and opened up the door to the cell.
Kara stepped through with Helo following close behind her. She motioned at the marine to shut the door. He retook his vigilant stance just outside, ready to aid them if need be.
“Helo?” Sharon asked, sounding shocked as she got up off the bed in the center of the room and made her way towards them.
“Hey,” he said quietly, briefly embracing her once she made it to them. “Listen,” he said after releasing her. “We need some help with something.”
“With what?” she asked, her tone becoming slightly guarded as she looked back and forth between them.
Kara held out the stack of papers to Sharon. “With these,” she said, using no more words than were necessary.
“We need to know what they are,” Karl explained. “The last time we encountered the cylons there were two of these ships with three basestars. Racetrack just found this one on a scouting mission accompanied by two basestars, and because of the scorch marks the CAG thinks it’s one of the ones from before.”
Sharon’s eyebrows knit together as she shuffled through the various pictures, taking more time on the better quality ones. “I’ve never seen a ship like this before.”
“Of course you haven’t,” Kara muttered as she fought the urge to roll her eyes.
“I’m serious Starbuck,” she replied angrily. “Why don’t you believe me?”
“Gee, I don’t know,” Kara responded sarcastically, her tone acidic.
“Hey!” Helo said indignantly, instinctively stepping halfway between the two of them. “If she says she hasn’t seen one, then she hasn’t seen one.”
“Whatever,” Kara said quietly. “If you can’t tell us anything about this ship, then we’re out of here.” She turned to look at Karl. “Let’s go.”
“I didn’t say that I couldn’t tell you anything, I just said I’d never seen this ship before.”
“What are you talking about?” Kara asked cautiously. She moved half a step to the side so that she could see past Helo and look directly at Sharon.
“Maybe I’ve never seen this ship before,” she said, pointing at the pictures still in her hands. “But I have seen cylon ships, and there’s a lot of stuff I can tell you.” She paused. “That’s if you’re willing to listen.”
Okay, maybe she had jumped the gun a bit… but she’d never admit that here. “Start talking,” Kara commanded. Sharon didn’t seem the least bit taken aback by her blunt nature and for that Kara almost wanted to give her credit.
“This is a transport ship for prisoners,” she stated matter-of-factly.
“Wait,” Karl said as he placed his hand on her forearm. “How do you know that?”
“There’s only one thing that cylon basestars weren’t designed for, and that’s the transport of prisoners. They have to use separate transport ships instead.”
“But it’s small,” Karl replied.
Sharon nodded. “It probably only holds six or so prisoners, plus whatever human models and centurions they need to have on board to monitor them.”
Kara tried to digest the information that she was being faced with-it wasn’t working so well. “How do you know that it’s not being used for something else?”
Sharon let out a frustrated sigh. “Listen,” she said. “All the ships I’ve ever seen were the ones you have: basestars, raiders, heavy raiders and a resurrection ship. As far as I knew, other than that, the cylons hadn’t made any more ships. But they had been talking about designing new ones for prisoner transport. So unless they’ve come up with some other ship for an entirely different purpose, this is a transport ship.” She emphasized her last words by pointing at the picture.
It made sense. “Fine,” Kara assented. “Now tell me what the hell it’s doing out here, in a system that doesn’t even have any resources.”
Sharon shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that it’s headed to Caprica.”
“It’s going to Caprica?” Helo questioned. “Then where’s it coming from?”
“The cylon home world,” Sharon answered without delay.
“What the hell’s it going to do on Caprica?” Kara asked, racking her brain and coming up with nothing. All the people on Caprica were dead with the exception of the resistance, and they would die fighting, never letting themselves be taken prisoner.
She had to do her best to shove thoughts of the members of the resistance into the back of her mind-dwelling on it wouldn’t help to change the President’s mind about sending a rescue mission. But maybe someday…
Sharon shrugged her shoulders. “They could be transferring women from the farms back to the cylon home world, hoping to use the superior technology there to make their program successful.”
Kara felt her entire body tense up at the mention of the farms. Her hands clenched at her sides and she had the sudden urge to strangle Sharon, not only for being a part of the things that had done this, but also for calling it a ‘program’, like it was something trivial. They were raping human women in order to impregnate them, and then hooking them up to machines. That wasn’t a ‘program’-it was torture.
“So it’s gone then,” Kara said a few seconds later, fists still clenched and teeth gritted together tightly. “It stopped to power up its FTL drive again before moving on. If we were to send another raptor back there, they wouldn’t find a thing.”
Kara did a double take when Sharon shook her head. “I don’t think so,” she said as she began to flip through the pictures again, clearly looking for a specific one.
A few seconds later she held up the same picture that Lee had had the technician zoom in on, it was the one with the best evidence of the scorch marks.
“See that?” Sharon questioned, turning the paper so that both Kara and Karl could see. She was pointing at the scorch marks. “That’s a cylon version of an FTL drive.” She paused for a second, letting it sink in. “Or at least it was.”
Kara looked at her suspiciously, silently prompting her to explain.
“Whatever the squadron did when they attacked this ship, they must have hit the FTL. It’s possible that it wasn’t completely destroyed originally. But one jump with an unstable drive and you’re sure to destroy it completely.”
Kara drew a deep breath and then let it out slowly before she began talking. “So you’re telling me that after the last time we engaged the cylons, they jumped away, and that frakked up their FTL?”
Sharon nodded. “Simply put, yes.”
Whatever Kara had been expecting to find out from her visit with the cylon, that definitely hadn’t been it.
“But I should warn you,” Sharon said. “If you’re planning on doing an attack on this ship, or another recon mission there, you’d better do it soon.”
“Why?” Kara asked warily, automatically tensing up at the warning.
“Because you said there were two ships, right?”
Kara nodded.
“That means that the other ship and the basestar probably headed to Caprica. Once the prisoners were secured on the planet, the basestar would have made its way back with another set of jump coils for the ship.” She glanced between Kara and Helo before continuing. “It might take them a while to construct a new set, but it’s been weeks since you damaged the ship. You can probably expect a basestar to be returning in the next couple of days.”
***
Lee must have spent a good half hour searching for the Vice-President, only to finally find out that he was off ship on Cloud 9 and he was scheduled to return in the next ten minutes. Lee was currently on his way back to Baltar’s lab, planning on waiting there for the illusive Vice-President.
Leaning against the hatch, he waited, checking his watch every few seconds and wishing that Baltar would just hurry up. He wanted to get this over and done with as soon as possible.
Lee was watching the corridor to his right so intently that he failed to notice the person approach him from his left. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He whipped around to look at whoever it was.
“Sorry,” Kara said, giving him a slight smile.
He smiled back. “It’s okay.” After a second he realized that she was holding a copy of the exact same papers he had in his hands-specifically the recon pictures. She must already been done with Sharon.
“Find out anything?” he asked hopefully.
She nodded her head and he felt relieved. At least they knew something now.
“It’s a prisoner transport ship,” she said, shifting her weight to relieve pressure from her knee. “Or at least that’s what Sharon said.”
Lee nodded, doing his best to not feel guilty about her actions. “Okay. Anything else?”
“Yeah,” she replied, holding out one picture for him to look at. It was one that highlighted the scorch marks. “That was their FTL drive.”
Lee raised his eyebrows questioningly, but didn’t say anything, letting Kara continue on with her explanation.
“They were headed to Caprica, probably to get some of the women from the farms,” she added. Lee saw an almost frightened look cross her face as she mentioned the last part. She still hadn’t told him what had happened to her on Caprica, but he could tell that it involved the farms, and it hadn’t been good.
“Anyway,” she continued. “It’s stranded now, waiting for another basestar to come back with the supplies to repair it. Sharon thinks that it’ll only be a couple more days, so if we’re going to do something, we need to do it soon.”
“Okay,” Lee said slowly, allowing some time for the information to sink in. “Have you told the Admiral and the President yet?”
He was surprised when Kara shook her head. “No, not yet,” she said. “I’m going right now, but I thought you might want to know what we found out before you…” She paused as she looked at the door to Baltar’s lab. “You know,” she finished implicitly.
Lee nodded. He knew.
“Thanks,” he said sincerely. “You should probably go let my Dad know what’s going on.”
He was prompting her to leave, it was fairly obvious. It wasn’t that he didn’t want her around; it was that he didn’t want her around Baltar. But he should be thankful, she seemed just as reluctant to be in the same room as the man as Lee was to let it happen.
“Right,” she said as she turned and started walking back the way she’d came. “See you later.”
He nodded-he would see her later. After he finished with Baltar there would no doubt be a tactical meeting that needed his attendance. It would be a long night.
Lee didn’t have to wait much longer until he saw Baltar strolling around the corner of the hallway, coming from the direction of the hanger bay. He looked like he was deep in thought, and possibly talking to himself.
His head jerked up suddenly and he saw Lee. “Captain Adama,” he said coolly as he made his way over to him. “To what do I owe this honor?”
Lee wanted to cringe at his tone. Maybe some people found him suave and charming, but to Lee he was just nauseating.
“The President and the Admiral need your help with something.”
“They do, do they?” he asked rhetorically as he pulled out a package of cigarettes from his pocket. “And what would that be?”
“It’s confidential,” Lee replied through gritted teeth. He looked at the closed hatch. “Why don’t we step inside?”
Baltar looked back and forth between him and the hatch a couple of times before replying. “Oh,” he said. “Of course.” He punched in the access code and swung open the hatch. “After you Captain.”
Lee walked in and turned around to watch as Baltar followed closely behind him, lighting his cigarette as he stepped over the threshold. He inhaled deeply and then closed his eyes as he released the smoke from his lungs, a smile forming on his face. His did this two more times, and just before Lee was going to interrupt him, he opened his eyes and looked at him.
“So what exactly,” he paused, taking another drag. “Is that it that you need my help with this time?”
Lee handed him the recon photos and began to explain, telling the doctor everything that they knew so far, including what Sharon had told Kara.
“Well,” Baltar said immediately after Lee had finished his explanation. “Sharon’s wrong about one thing.”
“And what’s that?” Lee asked suspiciously, feeling more inclined to trust a cylon than Baltar.
“Well,” Baltar said as he began to gesture with his hands, tendrils of smoke from the cigarette making obscure patterns. “I should have to say that it’s… well, it’s quite obvious… uh, that…that the ship isn’t going to get women from the farms.”
“Really?” Lee asked, his tone half way to sarcastic.
“Yes, really,” the Vice-President replied. “The cylons are starting anew on the colonies, and there would be no reason for them to relocate the farms to, uh, anywhere else.”
“So if they aren’t taking prisoners from Caprica, what are they doing?”
Baltar let out a frustrated sigh. “I should think it’s rather obvious,” he said, looking at Lee as if he was some stupid child. “They’re moving prisoners to Caprica.”
What the hell? “They’re moving prisoners to Caprica,” Lee repeated, finding it extremely odd that Baltar knew this. “From where?”
“Well, from the cylon home world of course.”
Lee forced himself to unclench his fists, despite the Doctor’s continuous condescending tone. “Right,” he said flatly. “And what kind of prisoners would they have to move?”
Baltar sighed again. “I don’t…” Lee watched as he paused mid-sentence at looked over to his right, staring intently at the empty space beside him. It was times like these when Lee was certain the Vice-President wasn’t a genius, but just insane.
“Well actually,” he continued, turning back to look at Lee again. “I do know, what kind of prisoners those would be.”
As Baltar tapped the ashes of his cigarette into an ashtray, Lee asked, “And what kind of prisoners are those exactly?” This time he didn’t even try to stop the malice from entering his voice.
“The human model…prototypes, if you will.”
Lee’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “Prototypes?”
“Yes,” Baltar said in an exasperated voice. “The cylon human models had to have come from somewhere; they didn’t just invent new sets of DNA. Not even the cylons are that advanced.” He took another drag of his cigarette.
“If someone were to even attempt to create a new strain of DNA, they would no doubt encounter problems. One single protein in the wrong spot and the individual has a genetic disease. One amino acid too many and another problem arises. I think you get my point.” Baltar paused for a second, probably for a dramatic effect. “It’s much easier to manipulate an existing strand of DNA, and ‘upgrade’ it, if you will.”
Lee’s heart started to beat a little faster as a bad feeling sunk into his gut. “Are you telling me that the human cylon models are cloned from real humans?”
“Yes,” Baltar said, looking around as if he was bored. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you.”
“And these humans are still alive?” Lee asked, not able to wrap his head around that concept yet.
“Yes.”
He sounded so definite that Lee had to question him. “How can you know that?”
Baltar’s head snapped to his right for only the briefest amount of time, before turning back. “Well, if the cylons want to make new bodies for their human models, they’ll need a fresh source of stem cells. That means keeping the prototypes alive.”
Lee couldn’t believe it. Not only had the cylons taken human form to resemble their ‘parents’, but they’d done it by cloning humans. Thinking about it some more, Lee realized that that wasn’t the worst of it. There were humans, Colonial citizens, in that ship who had been prisoners of the cylons for years, or possibly even decades.
***
“What are we going to do?” the President asked, looking around at the other occupants in the tactical room. “Some of our people, are being held prisoner by the cylons on that ship. We can’t just sit back and do nothing.”
“Not to mention the tactical advantages,” Tigh piped up.
Lee found himself nodding his head. Even if they could only identify one more cylon model, it would be worth it, and that wasn’t even considering the moral grounds that Laura had put forward.
“Luckily I agree,” Adama said from where he sat at the table, next to the President. “We need to plan an op, a way to get those people of the ship.”
“Let me guess,” Kara said. “That’s where I come in?” She gave Lee a side-glance that told him she already knew the answer to her question
“Yes,” the Admiral said. “Starbuck, I want you to get to work on that immediately. You have my permission to pull any staff that you need, and all resources are available to you.”
Lee watched the muscles in her face tighten as she nodded. This was a huge responsibility, but he knew she could handle it.
“Everyone else will remain on normal duties.”
All of the military occupants in the room nodded: Tigh, Lee, Fisk, and Taylor.
“Starbuck, I want to know the second you have something.”
She nodded her head and stood up from the table. “Yes, Sir.”
TBC
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8