I OWN ONLY MY ORIGINAL CHARACTERS. BATTLESTAR GALACTICA AND ALL BSG CHARACTERS BELONG TO RON MOORE AND SCI FI (SYFY, WHATEVER). CREDIT FOR THE ORIGINAL IDEA COMES FROM MY FRIEND WHILE WE WERE WATCHING THE EPISODES. THE STORY AND CHARACTERS ARE MY OWN. I DO NOT CONSIDER MYSELF A GREAT WRITER, JUST COULDN'T GET THE IDEA OUT OF MY HEAD.

NEW CAPRICA

Worthy of Surviving

Prologue

Keith Ryder crouched behind a tent and watched as Colonial One, home to President Gaius Baltar, but probably now occupied by former President Laura Roslin, lifted off the ground and rose slowly into the air. Keith cursed under his breath as the ship rose higher, then turned away and covered his eyes as the ship jumped away, sending up cloud of dust and debris. Frustrated and angry, he kicked a bottle that lay near his feet and grabbed the tent he hid behind, ripping it from the ground and throwing it towards the dissipating cloud of dust.

FRAK. He had been no more than 30 meters away from the ship before he heard the roar of its engines and knew he would never reach it in time. Keith had joined up with the resistance during its inception, confident that eventually Admiral Adama would come rescue them. The Admiral wouldn't just abandon them to the cylons. Shortly after joining, however, Keith had been rounded up by the cylons and kept in detention. After countless days and endless questionings, he had been released literally moments before the evacuation had begun. The main road, which would have led him straight to the landing area where Colonial One had been grounded, had been packed with cylons firing on the people trying to get to the ships, forcing Keith to take the long way around, ducking behind the tents nearer to the river. Soon all the ships had jumped away, leaving only Colonial One.

* * * * * *

Lost in his thoughts, Keith jumped when he heard someone call out from behind him. He turned around to see a man in muddy wet clothes walking towards him. Behind the man, a woman was carrying one child in her arms and had another by the hand. Their clothes were also wet and Keith assumed that they had crossed the narrow river that ran through the city.

"Excuse me, sir," the man said, stuttering with a combination of cold and fright, "We didn't make it to our ship in time, and when I saw the other ships jump away, I didn't know what to do. Can you help us? My daughter is very sick."

Keith put a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder, but couldn't think of anything to say. The woman caught up and the man took his daughter from her hands. She turned to him. "Are we the only ones left?"

Keith looked around but didn't see anybody, but that didn't mean anything. Clearly the people who had been closest to the ships had made it in time, but the city was huge, with a population of over 38,000 people. There was no way that everyone had made it to a ship, especially if they had lived on the outskirts of the city like these people had.

To the woman he said "I'm not sure, but the most likely place that people would gather would probably be the detention center, now that the cylons have evacuated." He turned and started to head towards the marketplace, but then decided against it and turned to go back along the same way he had come, among the tents in case any cylons had been left behind, intentionally or unintentionally. They walked in silence, allowing Keith to slip back into his own thoughts.

It seemed like forever since he had been on the Pyxis, the ship he had called home before President Baltar had ordered everyone to settle on New Caprica. The cylons had finally decided to leave the human race alone and they probably would have if not for Baltar's presidential election. After that, it had been one wrong decision after another. Though finally settling on a planet after months of space travel had been appealing even to him, Baltar had made continuous false promises in their first year on Caprica. One year later, there were still no permanent buildings and life was still as hard as it had been the day they landed. The planet's only good quality was that it had been hidden from the cylons, and even that didn't last. Baltar had surrendered to the cylons without a word. Keith had heard rumors that the election had initially been rigged in Roslin's favor, but that someone had caught the mistake. He cursed whoever that had been. Looking up to the sky, he assumed that wherever the fleet was, Roslin was back in charge and Baltar was in the brig facing numerous charges for murder, treason, and collaborating with the cylons.

Behind him, he heard the woman gasp, bringing his mind back to the present. He looked and saw a group of people walking towards the center of the city and the marketplace. They caught up with the group just in front of the main road. Just ahead, there were hundreds of people, both military and civilians. More were coming from all directions. Keith was momentarily overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. The evacuation had gone much worse than he had imagined.

* * * * * *

NEW CAPRICA CITY - DURING THE FINAL MOMENTS OF THE SECOND EXODUS

Lieutenant Daniel Melvin threw himself to the ground as gunfire from the cylons hit the ground where he had been standing a moment before. He landed a bit harder than he had planned, banging his elbow into the butt of his rifle. Getting up into a crouch, he stayed put as more bullets rained down. The whine of raiders was unending as they flew by overhead. He kept his head down, covered with his free hand as the sound of bullets hitting the sand got closer. Then he heard a new sound. He risked glancing upwards and saw Galactica falling towards them, having jumped directly into the atmosphere. The ship dropped swiftly, its bottom turning orange from the heat of descent. Small specks emerged from the fire surrounding the Galactica, vipers had been launched. He had been a pilot, and that maneuver had to be quite a thrill. Galactica continued to descend through the atmosphere, but then jumped away, leaving an outline of fire in its wake.

"Vipers, everybody hold, hold." That was Chief Tyrol, up ahead near the gate of the detention center. The vipers roared by overhead and the chief yelled for everybody to take cover seconds before two missiles hit the guard tower. Daniel stayed down as the tower exploded, followed quickly by the gate.

"Lets go, go, go." The chief got up and ran towards the gate, followed by Colonel Tigh. The chief stopped at the gate waving the troops into the detention building. Daniel and three others waited a few steps from where they had crouched, bringing up the rear and staying outside to watch for cylons and help the troops carry people too weak or injured to one of the ships waiting to evacuate them from the planet.

Far ahead of him the first of the ships lifted off the ground and rose towards the sky. It was finally happening, after 4 months of occupation and a year of settlement, they were going to be back in space. Soon he would be walking along the cool decks of the ship, breathing the ship's air, and not having to worry about being to cold the minute he stepped out of his bunk. Daniel would be happy to wear a fresh, crisp uniform again and be back in the cockpit of a viper. He was anxious fly again and almost wished he had stayed with the fleet instead of choosing to settle on the planet.

Daniel heard sounds of movement behind him and turned to see the first of the troops coming back out with survivors. Men, women, and children all ran from the building, confused and scared. Some of them fell to the floor, crying or screaming, needing to be helped up by the troops and almost carried to the waiting ships. All of them looked as if they hadn't slept or been given much to eat. More troops came out of the building, carrying people between them or on stretchers. He saw one of the troops trying to lift the front of a stretcher with one hand while dragging a young boy in the other. The boy was crying and the solider was clearly having trouble, with the soldier at the other end of the stretcher carrying most of its weight. He picked up the boy, made sure that the trooper was able to shift the weight of the stretcher, and ran, joining the others as they headed away from the detention center.

Screams and explosions continued to assault his ears, and he saw civilians attempting to reach the ships, dogging explosions and gunfire. He handed the child to another trooper with a free hand and ran over to help an elderly man who had fallen. He moved further into the city and away from the ships, continuing to help people to their feet. Soon the first ships jumped, the sound of their FTL drives joining the constant drone of weapons fire. An explosion hit the tent right next to him and a wave of fire, dust and debris knocked him to the ground. His head hit the ground first, blurring his vision, and as the tent fell over onto him, something pointy and metal at the top of it slammed into his temple. He plunged into darkness.

* * * * * *

Daniel slipped in and out of consciousness, unaware of how much time passed as he lay beneath the tent. During these brief moments of partial, blurry, and distorted half- consciousness, he thought he heard a baby crying somewhere nearby him. He also thought he saw Gaius Baltar, of all people, and one of the blond-haired human cylon models wandering through the dust and mist, as if they were looking for something. Before the blackness completely overtook him, he saw one final thing, which he convinced himself was an illusion brought on by a probable concussion. For it seemed to be Baltar holding a baby wrapped in a blanket, standing between with the blond-haired cylon and the one who had claimed to be that reporter, something Biers. All three of them appeared to be staring down at the baby. Then his vision darkened and he silently laughed at himself, believing this to be the last thing he would ever see before he died.