Out of the Black- Chapter 6

[rayruz]

 


Title: Out of the Black
Chapter: 6/8
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica/Firefly
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Ensemble, both shows. Very Kara-centric and Lee-centric, somewhat Roslin-centric
Pairings: Mostly gen, with canon pairings (Kara/Lee primarily, with mentions of Kara/Sam, Lee/Dee, Adama/Roslin, Helo/Athena) and Kaylee/Tyrol
Summary: Just before the jump to Earth, the Fleet comes into contact with a small transport ship of non-Colonial origins. (AU after Revelations)
Spoilers: Up to and including Season 4.5 for BSG and the Big Damn Movie for Firefly. 
Author's Note: I wrote the original Out of the Black over a year ago, and looking back was not pleased with it at all, there was so much I wanted to do with the story that I just didn't pull off and so I decided to rewrite it, do more justice to both of the stories I wanted to tell. The original story is still archived at ootbverse and will remain there. If you have read the original, I welcome you to read this new version of the story as it does take a different direction from the original. Beta'd by taragel . All information on the 'Verse detailed in this fic has been taken from the Map of the Verse poster and the Atlas of the Verse booklet.

Previous Chapters Here

Lee’s visit is over far too soon. Back on Osiris, everything falls back into the same pattern it always does. But this time, when he walks into the office at 7:55 exactly his first day back, Lee isn’t surprised to find it in somewhat of a frenzy, Colby standing at the heart of it. What does surprise him, however, is the relatively easy mood he finds his boss in.

“Morning, Mr. Colby,” he says, standing in the doorway.

“Morning, Lee.” His boss is practically grinning as he watches the morning news. “Have a good trip?”

“Yes…” he raises an eyebrow, unsure of what could have happened in his absence that would cause such a complete one-eighty in his boss’s demeanor. “Is the situation on Severance under control?”

“Huh? Oh, that.” He waves his hand. “No, still haven’t been able to subdue the rebels, but that don’t matter right now. There’s bigger fish to fry. They kept it out of the news for a few days, but I figured that if someone leaked the story, it’d get the press off of our department’s back. Oh, the boys down in the Blue Sun System office are gonna be shitting themselves.”

Lee crosses his arms across his chest as he steps into the office. “What happened? Another Reaver attack?” It can’t be that of course, the Alliance writes them off as superstitious mumbo-jumbo, but Lee’s heard some of the Blue Sun System assistants discussing the papers they’ve come across-invariably, these rim planets see far too many brutal attacks leaving entire towns destroyed in the wake. No one ever quite says what they are; they’re afraid even as they hide in their Core planet safety.

Colby sank back in his seat, kicking his legs up onto his desk. “Did you hear about the Alliance ship that got destroyed out by Deadwood?”

Lee nods. He’d seen the news story a few mornings ago on Ariel. An entire Alliance cruiser, a ship resembling four conjoined skyscrapers, had been completely obliterated-nuked-out in the Blue Sun System. Last time he’d heard there hadn’t been any indication of what had attacked the ship, but that the Alliance would be sending out another cruiser to investigate.

“Well it turns out-oh hey, hold on, here it is again.” Colby picks up his remote, unmuting the screen on the far wall.

Several images of corpses laid strewn about the streets flicker across the screen, along with the words Rediscovery of a Lost Planet.

Hours ago, the newscaster says, We received official word from Alliance headquarters about the catastrophe on Miranda. Miranda, a small planet in the Blue Sun System, was settled and terraformed several years ago. We’ve heard very little from the planet since it’s original settlement, as it was a prosperous and peaceful planet. However, shocking developments reveal that Miranda’s fate was not so peaceful.

Lee shifts his weight, already he can tell there is something wrong here. For one, he hasn’t even heard of Miranda-hasn’t seen it on any of the maps of the ‘Verse, hasn’t heard anyone talk about it. There’s even some note of doubt in the newscaster’s voice, like he’s never heard of it either.

Following the destruction of I.A.V. Magellan last week, the I.A.V. Dortmunder was sent to investigate the disturbances in the Blue Sun System. Upon approach of the Burnham protostar, the crew reported a bizarre sight-two unidentified starships in orbit around Miranda.

Lee’s stomach starts to churn as footage of the approach to Miranda plays on the screen. In orbit around the planet are two Cylon Basestars. One basestar makes sense, the rebel cylons had gone off to find their way in this ‘Verse just as the Colonials have, but the second ship seems to have come from nowhere. It feels like a sucker-punch to the gut.

Investigation of the planet’s surface found the entire population of Miranda had been killed off by the intruders from these alien ships. Alliance troops have been able to put the entire planet under lockdown and are in the process of detaining the intruders in temporary security facilities. Not much is known about the attackers yet, with the exception of one chilling detail-they consist of several groups of identical people. Examination of their ships discovered lifeless bodies-also identical to the intruders on the planet’s surface, including several models, which were not found on the planet.

A series of photographs fills the screen, every one of them a cylon face that Lee knows well.

If you have seen one of these individuals, please notify Alliance authorities at once. They are highly dangerous persons and already, there have been reports of them found on Persephone, New Melbourne, and Beaumonde.

Beaumonde. Gods, Kara. Wasn’t that where she…-he’s been trying so hard not to think of her for so long-is she there? Lee’s mind is racing. But she’s not a cylon, they have no reason to take her. Unless…

Security footage from the Elkskin Chemical Company on Beaumonde shows one of these individuals masquerading as an employee and his subsequent arrest.

The black ink of a familiar tattoo stands out in stark relief on the screen.

Sam. They got Sam. The thought registers and is followed immediately by one that makes him want to throw up. If they got him, do they have Kara too? Have they been together all this time? Lee doesn’t know, can’t remember. His mind is reeling; the room is threatening to start spinning circles around him. Lee tries to remember the other planets cylons have been taken from. Have they gotten Athena? Would they take Helo and Hera too? Tigh ought to be out there somewhere; has the Alliance taken him too? Is Chief safe aboard Serenity? He doesn’t know; he doesn’t know. “Gods…”

“What was that?” Colby turns to him with a bewildered expression on his face.

Lee needs to get a hold of himself, right frakking now, before he blows his cover. “Nothing… it’s just…” Lee’s mouth has gone completely dry and he grasps for something, anything to say. “It’s a real tragedy.”

“That it is. It’s also not our problem. Now, I have a meeting to get to in ten,” he says, waving Lee out of the room. “Get yourself a cup of coffee or something, it looks like you’re about to pass out.”

“Yes, sir,” he says evenly, turning to leave the office. Just before he closes the door, he hears the newscaster say he’ll be keeping them with up to the minute reports with as the ‘Verse’s most trusted name in news.

Lee sinks down at his desk, his mind reeling, thoughts racing too fast for him to get a handle on any of them. On the surface, the answer seems simple: the Cylons are up to their old tricks. The rebel Cylons did take their baseship and left to find their own way in the ‘Verse. Still, the genocide of the population of Miranda seems to fit their MO. And yet, Lee can feel it in his gut that there is something more to it.

He spends the rest of his day trying to dig up anything in the archives about Miranda. Reaches for the phone at least once an hour, too; his fingers itch to call Kara, just to make sure, but… no, right now it’s too dangerous. What if she’s under surveillance? What if he blows it by calling her? Right now, he needs to stay where he is, using his connections in whatever way he can. Besides, she knows how to take care of herself.

By the time the office closes he’s found nothing about Miranda, like all the files on that planet have been expunged-deliberately covered up. The holes in the data date back to well over a year ago, the earliest that the cylons could have arrived at Miranda in the first place. Something has happened on Miranda, and he’s willing to bet his life on the fact that the Alliance is neck deep in whatever it is. Lee isn’t exactly sure what is going on, but he can already feel the enormity of it and he’s sure that if he can get to the bottom of it, it might just be enough to crack the Alliance’s authoritarian rule.

By the time Lee arrives back at his apartment that evening, there is a message waiting for him.

========================

“Not exactly home, sweet home, but she’s mine.” Kara gestures with an open arm around the empty cargo bay. She glances over her shoulder where Karl is standing with a bag slung over his shoulder.

“It’s… nice.” Karl tries to crack a smile.

“You used to be better at bluffing.” She can tell he’s trying to hold it together, but he looks like shit-doesn’t look any better than he did when she first talked to him last week. He looks-and quite frankly smells-like he’s been traveling all that time.  “Come on, let’s find you a place to crash.” She leads him up a flight of stairs and up to a small living area between the bridge and the engine room. “There’re two bunks down there, two back by the galley and two off by the bridge. Pick whichever one you want.”

“Thanks,” he says, wringing the strap of his bag. “I just… didn’t think I could be alone right now.” She watches him as he looks around the interior of the ship. His eyes fall on the galley, the counters stacked with dirty dishes and empty beer cans. “You’ve been living here?”

Kara shrugs as she sinks into a chair. “I never liked the apartment, but it was cheap, close to the factories… after…” she swallows hard, “after they got Sam, I figured this was better.”

“Yeah.” He glances over his shoulder back towards one of the bunks. “I think I’m going to get some rest… it was a long flight.”

“Sure. The head’s through there if you need it.”

“Thanks.” He ducks into the cabin, the hatch sealing shut behind him. Kara’s imagined numerous ways she’d run in to people from her old life. Having Karl over because his family’s been abducted has never been one of them. The same futile anger she’s felt since she hung up the phone and raced into the bedroom to find Sam gone that morning flashes through her again. Kara clenches her fist and lets out a sigh. Waiting’s never been her strong suit but there’s nothing she can do for them right now.

She figures it’ll take a while for Karl to get settled in, so she heads out from the port, towards the marketplace to get some dinner. By the time she returns, he’s showered and changed and looking halfway human again.

“I’ve got food… and beer,” she offers, holding up the bag.

“That sounds great.”

Dinner is awkward, reduced to small talk, because it looks like if Karl has to think too hard about anything he’s going to break. He slouches over the table, staring at his beer can like it holds some kind of answer. Kara tosses hers back, staring at him, trying to think up something to say.  Turns out, she doesn’t have to. After a moment, Karl speaks without looking up. “So,” he says, a forced lightness to his voice. “Looks like you’re not the last cylon after all.”

Kara remembers the pictures of Ellen Tigh that she’d seen on the news broadcasts and tries to laugh as well. “Yeah, who would’ve seen that coming?”

The air rumbles with light laughter for all of about five seconds before silence takes over again.

“It happened so fast.” Karl is still looking down into his beer, shaking his head. “We were sitting down to dinner; I just got back from a long day at work and I wanted to have a nice night at home with my girls and…” He breaks off with a small choking sound. “I heard the door splinter, Hera started crying. I don’t know how many of them there were, I just remember that I didn’t have anything to fight back with, so I grabbed a chair and swung it at one of them and then everything went black.” He finally looks up, his eyes completely bloodshot. “When I woke up, they were gone. There was blood on the floor, I don’t know whose it was. ”

“Hey,” she warns, her voice sharp as she sits forward. “You sound like you’ve already given up on getting them back.”

“Frak, Kara. The Alliance got them. It’s not like the military generally goes around broadcasting where they take their prisoners. And even if we did know where they are, you and I are hardly enough manpower to take them out on our own.”

Kara gets up from her seat, walks around to the other side of the table. She grabs him by the shirtfront and hauls him to his feet-she fleetingly thinks he ought to be too heavy but he doesn’t seem to have any fight in him right now and she feels a flash of anger in her spine. “What the frak happened to you? The Helo I know would never have dreamed of giving up on his wife and kid. So you’d better get your ass in gear, because we are going to get out there and we are going to get them back.”

He’s watching her intently as she finally loosens her grip on his shirt. “How do you know that?”

“Because I know where they are!” The words slip out, not the way she’s been planning on revealing that piece of information. As Karl’s eyes go wide, she starts to turn away, but he grabs her shoulder and she stays with him.

“You know where they are? Why the frak didn’t you say something?”

“I don’t know exactly,” she says, taking a step back. “But I have an idea, well, a lead. I just don’t know how reliable it is. I got a message over the Colonial frequency Dee set up. No picture, no audio, just the message Prisoners en route to location. More information to follow, followed by a set of jump coordinates.”

“Who sent it?” Karl’s starting to sound alive again.

“Not a clue, but it has to be one of us. I’ve been trying to milk ‘em for a little more…anything, but nothing yet…” She groans and shakes her head. “Anyways, the coordinates put you out in the Blue Sun System, my guess? Real close to Miranda.”

Karl looks like he’s trying very hard not to get his hopes up. He takes a deep, steeling breath. “It’s a start… but… you said they’re jump coordinates?”

“Which means we need an FTL drive,” she finishes his thought. “I’m already on it.”

=====================

Kara keeps Karl busy over the next couple of days-going around the city, running errands, just trying to take up time so they don’t have to think. They don’t have a lot to go on yet, so it’s better to just keep occupied.

They’re heading back to where the ship’s grounded at the docks, when Kara hears a rumbling noise behind them. She turns around, stepping to the side, just as a familiar land vehicle comes to a stop beside them-Serenity’s mule with Jayne at the wheel. “Got a delivery for you,” he grunts.

Kara turns to look at the rest of the vehicle’s occupants, Kaylee and Chief, whose head is covered with some kind of ridiculous monstrosity. It is red, orange, and yellow, with flaps that come down over the ears and a large puff adorning the top. “What the frak is that on your head?”

Chief’s face turns a color almost as bright as the hat.

“It’s my hat.” Jayne turns a completely unmasked sneer over his shoulder towards Tyrol. “Better not get shot or nothin’ while he’s wearin’ it.”

“It was my idea.” Kaylee pipes up. She chances a glance over her shoulder before leaning down towards Kara. “I fig’red that if he was wearin’ a hat like that, no one’d be lookin’ at his face and realizin’, y’know, what he was.”

It hits her for the first time that it’s not safe for Chief out here, that if anyone recognizes him from the pictures on the news, he’s going to end up just like Sam and Sharon and Hera. She climbs up into the vehicle, motioning for Karl to follow. She watches the look that passes briefly between him and Chief.

“You holding up okay, Helo?” Chief asks, his voice low, concerned even.

“I’ll be better once we find them,” he replies with a sad smile. “Where’s the drive?”

“Back aboard Serenity,” Chief says as Jayne starts the engine back up. “Didn’t want to start hauling it around until we found you guys.”

“Well you found us; time to get to work.”

Their ship is parked at the other side of the docks. Once they get the drive loaded up onto the mule, she sends Chief and Kaylee back to her ship with Helo.

“You’re not coming?” Helo asks.

“Not yet. I’ve got some things to take care of here,” she says, motioning in the direction in which Jayne has gone. “Gotta see a man about some weapons. You know the way back, right?”

He nods, climbing into the back seat of the mule. Chief calls out to Kara from the driver’s seat. “You know this is going to take a while right? It’s not like the technology is completely compatible. It may take a week, maybe more to get it hooked up right.”

“Can you do it or not?” she snaps.

“We can,” Kaylee replies.

“Good. Then just get it done.”

When they’re gone, Kara heads up to where Mal is standing on the catwalk. “So, how much do I owe you?” she asks, leaning against the railing. “I’m sort of strapped right now.”

He waves it off. “Reckon we’ll figure somethin’ out eventually.” After a moment, he adds, “Don’t think I’m lettin’ you off easy, neither. Gave up a perfectly good hauling job-legal one too-to get this to you as soon as possible.”

“Then why did you come back?” She’s grateful-beyond grateful even-for everything he’s done, but she still can’t figure out why he’s helping them. This isn’t Mal’s fight. He’s got no interest in what happens to a couple of cylons, he’s got his crew to look after, his own life to support. Hell, it’d be a mess of trouble for him if he got caught.

His reply is fast. “You’re part of my crew.”

“Mal, we were on your ship for a few weeks over a year ago.”

“You’re part of my crew, Captain. Wanna tell me why we’re arguin’ about this?”

She stares at him for a moment, then feels a small grin forming, despite herself. “Can’t think of a single good reason, Captain.”

“‘Sides, anything to, well, frak with the Alliance goes down as good day’s work in my mind.” Kara bursts out laughing and Mal flashes her a grin. “New mechanic does a hell of a lot of cursin’, couldn’t help pickin’ it up my own self.”

“Chief tell you what’s been going on?”

“Don’t spend too much time watchin’ the news, but I got a fair idea.” He folds his arms, mirroring her position leaning against the railing. “What’re y’all gonna need to get your people back?”

Kara starts talking. Eventually, the two of them go off to find Jayne who is all too happy to discuss weapons and blowing things up. Unsurprisingly, tactics is not his strong point, but he seems to show a strong fondness for grenades, something Kara assumes will probably come in handy in the coming days. A few hours later, she heads out, in a hurry suddenly to get back to her ship-back to her friends-and see what’s going on there.

On her way to the loading bay, she passes the infirmary and pauses by the door. On a whim, she checks to see if the door is locked-it isn’t and the room is empty. She remembers Simon telling her that he was determined to find out what’s been going on with his sister. She also remembers River’s fit, screaming her head off about a harbinger of death; she remembers being in a bar, being thrown backwards across the room, knocked unconscious by that stick of a girl.

She moves. Kara goes through drawers looking for folders, files, anything that the doc may have discovered about his sister, any answer as to why she knew the things she did. Maybe once she figured out what River was she would stand half a chance at figuring out what she was too.

“You shouldn’t be here.”

River’s voice nearly makes Kara jump. She sets down the folder she’s holding. “Yeah. Yeah. I know. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t exist.” Kara sneers, and turns to see the girl standing on her tiptoes, leaning against the door frame. She levels Kara with a look that manages to make her feel like a complete moron.

“In Simon’s lab,” she says bluntly, lucidly. “Going through his files.”

Kara steps forward, watching River turn in a circle slipping right out of that sharp moment into something softer. She decides a direct question might be the best place to start. “What are you?”

River holds her hands in front of her face, studying her fingers for a moment with great intent. “Organs,” she replies. “Cells, molecules, atoms of protons and-”

“Cut the crap!” Kara hisses. “You know what I meant. What are you?”

“That’s not the answer you want,” River says, sitting down not unnerved in the slightest by the edge to Kara’s voice.

She shakes her head. “You’re not human. You can’t be.”

“I am a bipedal primate, erect body with highly developed brain. I am a human.” River looks at Kara, looks her up and down, studying her with those dark eyes.

Kara fights the urge to fidget under the scrutiny. “What!?”

River grins, then clutches her stomach as she bursts out laughing.

“What the frak is so funny?”

“Tick tock, tick tock, stop. You’re not alive. Or you weren’t, but that’s not what makes you special. No one is alive before they are.”

Great, Kara thinks. More cryptic bullshit. What else should she expect? “You called me the harbinger of death.”

“You will lead them all to their end,” she says, even-toned as though she were telling her the weather.

“Who’s end?” Kara feels a hint of hysteria creeping into her voice. She’s tried so hard not to think of prophecy, of destiny, she’s pushed it to the far corners of her mind, just trying to live a life that she isn’t supposed to have. She’s supposed to be dead, gone from this world, and sometimes she thinks she’d rather be. “Tell me. Maybe you are human, but you’re something else too! You knew what was happening on Miranda. How the frak did you know that?”

River looks up at her, rising to her feet, those dark eyes turned towards her once again. For some reason, Kara feels like River’s looking through her, into her. “Everything is pain, dark, murky. You don’t understand, you couldn’t understand.” River’s voice breaks with a sobbing laugh on the last word. She stretches a hand out towards her face, and Kara instinctively draws back. “Your life is a monument to pain but there is a reason, Kara Thrace. You don’t see the patterns.”

A loud scream pierces the room, Kara barely registers that it’s her own voice, barely registers any of her motions as she lunges forward, grabbing the girl by the shoulders and shaking her. “Shut up! Just shut the frak up!” she screams again and again, a mantra, pure panic coursing through her and the image of a manic grin on a face dripping with water flashing in her mind.

Again, she barely registers other bodies running into the room, two strong hands pulling her back, pulling River away. The red in her vision dies away, her breathing slowly returning to normal, the world coming back to itself. For a moment, bile rises in her throat but she fights back the urge to vomit. Finally, Kara recognizes Mal holding her by the shoulders and Simon examining the fresh marks on River’s shoulders. The girl is still wailing. “It’s not mine. This memory is not mine. I don’t want it!”

Finally, Mal leads River out of the infirmary, leaving Kara sitting on the examination table with Simon watching her closely. “I’m no psychologist,” he says, walking close to her, “but you don’t happen to be dealing with any unresolved trauma, do you Captain Thrace?”

“There is nothing wrong with me,” she grits out, her fingers digging into the edge of the table. She ducks her head so she won’t have to look at him. It’s a blatant lie. No sane person attacks a teenager over some words-she’s a total basket case.

“River is psychic,” he says softly. “A reader. She can tap into other people’s memories.”

“Well, she’s not allowed to go poking around in my brain!” Kara snaps, looking up. “And for that matter, neither are you.” She shoves herself to her feet and heads for the door.

“I was just wondering if she’d said something to you…something that triggered a flashback. It’s a common symptom.”

Kara comes to a stop in the doorway but doesn’t turn back. Her hands clench and unclench at her sides. She feels the words on the tip of her tongue. I was captured. I was a prisoner. Son of a bitch made me feel so… she can’t even finish the sentence in her mind.

“Have you talked to a professional? A friend? Anyone?” he asks.

She angles her head, but doesn’t turn, her voice low and gritty. “Just tell your sister to stay out of my brain from here on in.”

“It’s not healthy to just push things to the back of your mind,” he responds, his voice calm and soothing. “They have a tendency to come back and get you.”

Don’t I know it, she thinks as she walks out-out of the infirmary, off of Serenity. She doesn’t stop until she gets to her own ship, and once there she doesn’t bother to check on Karl, or Chief, or Kaylee. She just heads up the stairs, and into the shuttle that she’s been using as her quarters on the ship. She collapses onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

She’s not going to be able to sleep tonight. Kara can feel the thoughts just at the periphery of her mind, everything she’s just pushed to the side-decided that it wasn’t worth dealing with it, that none of it mattered. All of those thoughts, hummed, waiting to be heard, waiting to be felt. She wasn’t sure she had the strength tonight to fight them all off.

--To Be Continued--