Title: Saving Grace
Author: Dallas
Disclaimer: Battlestar Galactica, and its characters, don't belong to me. Which kind of sucks, but I'm dealing with it.
Pairing: Roslin/Adama later on…
Rating: Teen
Summary: It's the end of the worlds, and families are being torn apart. But in the midst of it all, one comes together. AU
A/N: From the mini-series onwards. Sophie, Rebekah, Ricochet, Hunter, and Hawk are all mine. This is technically a continuation of "The Carnival Girl" but that doesn't really have to be read in order to understand this.
This is the Pilot. Passengers please take your seats and stand-by to Jump.
The Botanical Cruiser couldn't make the jump. Hundreds of people were about to be left behind to die, or even be captured and tortured. But the majority of people were being saved, she made sure of that. They saved as many people as they possibly could. The whole thing was ridiculous. The Secretary of Education had no business making these decisions. That's why there were supposed to be forty two people ahead of her in line for the Presidency is something were to go wrong. She wasn't trained to handle such important decisions. Sure she could take control of a bad situation, and she had, but she couldn't run the Twelve Colonies in the wake of the apocalypse…
Colonial One -- for god's sake, you can't just leave us here!
Her mind lingered on the girl she'd met only a few hours earlier. There were so many children who had lost their families. The image shifted. One moment it was the little girl she'd only just met, the next she saw her own five year old daughter asleep in bed. She'd promised her a party when she got home, to make up for the fact that she couldn't visit Galactica. Without knowing, she'd left her family to die on Caprica. She wanted to scream until every particle of air had left her lungs. Gagging slightly, she managed to swallow the vomit at the back of her throat…
I've got fifty people onboard!
Within the space of twenty four hours she'd left too many people to die. As she listened to the voices of the pilots, she began to pray to the Gods. She prayed for the people they were leaving behind, and the children she'd lost. Prayed for their safe journey into the unknown, and those still alive on Caprica…
Colonial One -- we can't just leave these people behind!
She prayed for the souls of the pilots. Those who flew the ships and those who defended them…
At least tell us where you're going! We'll follow at sublight! Please!
Images of her daughter invaded her mind, and Laura bit her lip hard. Selfishly she'd scanned the lists of civilians on the ships being left behind. She'd found her eldest daughter and grandson on the Gemenon Traveller, but there were two more. The youngest of which could not fend for herself. Bile rose at the back of her throat and she leant forward, holding her head in her hands. It was all too much…
Can't believe you really want us to do this.
There were so many people, who was she to choose who lived and who died? It was too hard a decision, but it had to be made. They had to be sacrificed for the good of the colony. They wouldn't have made the jump, and the jump needed to be made. She had no choice but to leave them behind…
This is insane! You're killing us! You're killing us!
She tried to breathe as pain shot through her body. Everything was crashing down around her and there was no escape. She'd never really enjoyed space travel and suddenly she could be spending the rest of her life on a ship in the middle of nowhere, without her family…
Show some humanity for God's sake! Tell us where to go!
It was driving her insane, the pain mixed with the horror of listening to the voices. Panicked voices crying out to be saved and she was unable to help them. It felt like the walls were closing in on her…
May the Lords of Kobol protect those we leave behind…
Prayers for those left behind, and the souls of the ones who would leave them…
Oh my God... our Dradis is picking up inbound targets heading this way!
Laura breathed in sharply. It was really happening…
I see them! Are they Colonials?
She'd left them to die…
They're Cylon.
A sickening sensation rushed through her body, and Colonial One lurched forward…
I hope you people rot in hell for this…