Fic: Pathseeker (BSG; Leoben, Natalie, Eight)
Triple drabble about the surviving Cylon rebels. Takes place between "The Ties that Bind" and "The Road Less Travelled". No spoilers for future episodes.
Edit: Although I do have this one thing to add about "The Road Less Travelled" - So it looks like Kara does remember those visions she had of not!Leoben and of her mother. I had wondered before whether she truly didn't remember after coming back from the dead, or whether she did and was just keeping it from Adama and Roslin because she didn't want them to think she was even more crazy than they already did. Telling the story that she'd been to Earth was one level of crazy. Telling a story about being shown the way by a Cylon and seeing her dead mother is something else.
Leoben, Six and Eight. PG. The way that can be spoken of is not the way.
To yield is to be preserved whole.
To be bent is to become straight.
To be empty is to be full.
To have worn out is to be renewed.
To have little is to possess.
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching [trans. Wing-Tsit Chan]
Pathseeker
the fracture was inevitable, the flame that quickens chaos to new upheavals, the formless and the voiceless from which oneness can be born and yet
and yet Leoben mourns his brothers, choked by bitter truth and fear (only lies are beautiful that is why they are lies, the truth the colour of light and its infinite trajectory is not beauty-apt), he mourns them with all of his heart and he prays for their immortal souls above the sounding of war drums as he turns the heavy raider so that their pursuing basestar is within the reticle of his guns
The control panel responded weakly beneath their palms and Eight felt hope surge, like a calm blue wave. Her eyes shone as she looked up.
'No contact. They jumped.'
Natalie spoke in a cold, brittle voice, every word a drawn arrow hunting for a target: 'They have no centurions and no resurrection ship. Their only tactical advantage is their working FTL: of course they jumped. But they'll be back.'
six times he died on new caprica (he never assented to either name or project although for his sisters' sake he gave it his blessing, paradise cannot be erected on the ruins of the old ways)
six times he laid down to receive her delible marks, the wounds that notch tallies in his suit of murky sand before water flows over it and removes all traces, erasing doubts and false knowledge; he is purified and she is both the water and the blade, his salvation as he is hers, the subtle power that imparts the strength to endure and the spirit that brings what's hidden to light
On the crippled basestar, Natalie screamed after him:
'She'll kill you!'
Fragile, alone. The silent and elusive depths slipped by, streams of dust and ice clearing. The way was opened and he saw corridors of stars.
'No. She won't.'
4 May 2008
Edit: Although I do have this one thing to add about "The Road Less Travelled" - So it looks like Kara does remember those visions she had of not!Leoben and of her mother. I had wondered before whether she truly didn't remember after coming back from the dead, or whether she did and was just keeping it from Adama and Roslin because she didn't want them to think she was even more crazy than they already did. Telling the story that she'd been to Earth was one level of crazy. Telling a story about being shown the way by a Cylon and seeing her dead mother is something else.
Leoben, Six and Eight. PG. The way that can be spoken of is not the way.
To yield is to be preserved whole.
To be bent is to become straight.
To be empty is to be full.
To have worn out is to be renewed.
To have little is to possess.
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching [trans. Wing-Tsit Chan]
Pathseeker
the fracture was inevitable, the flame that quickens chaos to new upheavals, the formless and the voiceless from which oneness can be born and yet
and yet Leoben mourns his brothers, choked by bitter truth and fear (only lies are beautiful that is why they are lies, the truth the colour of light and its infinite trajectory is not beauty-apt), he mourns them with all of his heart and he prays for their immortal souls above the sounding of war drums as he turns the heavy raider so that their pursuing basestar is within the reticle of his guns
The control panel responded weakly beneath their palms and Eight felt hope surge, like a calm blue wave. Her eyes shone as she looked up.
'No contact. They jumped.'
Natalie spoke in a cold, brittle voice, every word a drawn arrow hunting for a target: 'They have no centurions and no resurrection ship. Their only tactical advantage is their working FTL: of course they jumped. But they'll be back.'
six times he died on new caprica (he never assented to either name or project although for his sisters' sake he gave it his blessing, paradise cannot be erected on the ruins of the old ways)
six times he laid down to receive her delible marks, the wounds that notch tallies in his suit of murky sand before water flows over it and removes all traces, erasing doubts and false knowledge; he is purified and she is both the water and the blade, his salvation as he is hers, the subtle power that imparts the strength to endure and the spirit that brings what's hidden to light
On the crippled basestar, Natalie screamed after him:
'She'll kill you!'
Fragile, alone. The silent and elusive depths slipped by, streams of dust and ice clearing. The way was opened and he saw corridors of stars.
'No. She won't.'
4 May 2008