The mission was going badly, Dualla thought as she carefully made her way down the thoroughfare of the planet's only town. She was surprised at how many people were there, walking about the various shops. It wasn't a good sign, not really. Neither were the obvious improvements in the town. She remembered the town being dirtier for starters and there had been more tents and fewer permanent buildings.
And the people… they looked, not happy, but not entirely unhappy either. That would be a problem.
As would the fact that her companion for the mission, Lt. Harrison Slade, was already dead, killed when their Raptor had crashed. They were supposed to have landed outside the town, and look for sorely needed pilots that had been left planetside. Pilots, and anyone else with useful skills. With Slade dead, she had to find at least one pilot or else she was going to be stuck there.
The plan was really quite simple. They needed the military personnel that had been left on New Caprica. The battlestars needed them desperately, so desperately that Lee was willing to risk losing a Raptor and two people on the chance that they could retrieve the needed people. He had kept the plan a secret from even his father. It was risky, and the old man was likely to say no if he had known what they were planning. Worse, Lee had wanted to go, but Dualla had convinced him to send her. Lee sometimes forgot that he was almost instantly recognizable because of his position. The problem was twofold. They didn't know where the military people were, and worse, the military people didn't know where they were. She had been chosen to go because she knew the vast majority of the pilots on sight. She also knew any number of the Galactica's personnel that would be helpful in getting the ships back into shape.
The problem was that she wasn't seeing any of those familiar faces. She spotted a few civilians she had known, people that had worked with Roslin for the most part, but she didn't make eye contact. The civilians were not the mission, not yet. The battlestars were barely functioning with skeleton crews. Rescuing civilians had to wait until they could man the ships for a fight.
Still, the general state of the colony surprised and worried her. It especially worried her to see how casually Cylons stood and moved about in the crowd. There weren't a lot of the human appearing ones, she only spotted one of the Sharon models, but the metallic centurions seemed to be all around. It shocked her to see Centurions lifting boxes of supplies for humans, standing quietly while the humans did their business. She knew she was gaping but it was just so bizarre to see.
"Don't stare," a man's voice muttered. She felt her arm being pulled and followed in that direction, not looking up until they had moved well away. She knew that gravelly voice well enough to trust it, and a quick glance confirmed it. Colonel Saul Tigh looked grim and haggard as he pulled her through the small crowds. Finally, he led her into a quiet alley that seemed to be private. " What in the name of the gods are you doing here, Dee?"
"Looking for as many pilots and crew as I can find," she said easily. Tigh didn't smell of alcohol, which was a change.
He looked at her intently. " To take back to the Galactica?" She nodded, relieved that he understood so quickly. Still, he was hardly looking excited or pleased. In fact, he seemed almost sad. " You're not going to find anyone here. Most of us are either dead or off in the hills playing at war, or in the punishment camp." He took off his hat and handed it to her. " Put this on and keep your head down. You don't have an ID card and they'll put you in the punishment camp for that. We need to get you someplace safe… I'd take you to my quarters but Ellen…" The older man seemed to consider something. " I have an idea."
Felix Gaeta could feel his hands shake as he resealed the orders. The orders were assignments to work patrols and he had surreptitiously changed one of the assignments so that someone needed on the outside, Jammer, one of the chief's old crew, would have the opportunity to run.
He had gotten very good at forging Dr. Baltar's signature. He had also gotten very good at opening sealed orders and resealing them. He supposed that it appealed to his tendency towards detail. Stop shaking, he told himself as he returned the orders to the file on the president's desk, it's over now.
Except, of course, for the next few days of waiting for the alarm to sound and the interrogations to begin. Eventually he was going to be caught, he understood that more than anyone else. Then he would be taken over to the punishment camp as a participant instead of a horrified observer. Sometimes he wished it would happen, just so he could be done with the whole business.
Gaeta made his way out of the president's office. He hated it on the Colonial One, he always had. He had quarters off the ship now, slightly better than a wooden shack but private, and now that the last illicit chore of the day was done, he was going to head home, throw up for an hour, and try to sleep.
Sleep hadn't come easy for a long time, and neither had keeping down food. The rations had improved since the Cylons came, but his stomach was always rolling with acid. Like now. He detoured to one of the public restrooms on the grounded ship, and found an empty stall. The nausea was almost constant and had been so since the occupation began. He gagged and then threw up a small stream of bile. No blood, he thought with both relief and disappointment.
"You know, you really should see a doctor," a voice said above him. Gaeta jumped and then looked up. It was Baltar, and for a change, the man was sober. He seemed faintly disgusted at the sight of his aide and ex-military attaché shivering on the bathroom floor. " It hasn't escaped my attention that you've hardly been well these past few weeks."
"There's no doctor to see," Gaeta said easily. Cottle has fled the first night of the occupation, along with most of the military personnel. They were out in the hills and caves and the Cylon occupation forces were expending a large amount of energy to find them. He knew that because he had almost gone with them that night, until Kara Thrace had suggested that he stay. We'll get you out eventually, but you can do us more good on the inside, next to Baltar, she had said.
Because he was highly placed and having a spy in the center of things was a good idea.
Because he deserved it, was unsaid. He didn't deserve to be free, fighting and perhaps dying on his feet. He deserved the role of spy, stuck behind enemy lines, always watching over his shoulder and never knowing when the ax would fall. He was to blame and staying behind was the only thing he could do to wash the blood off his hands. He only hoped that it would be enough.
Baltar eyed him. " We have doctors. Don't tell me you subscribe to the silly prejudices of the masses." He sniffed derisively. " I thought better of you than that, Felix."
"I'm not sick," Gaeta muttered as he rose to his feet. " I don't… I don't like how harshly some of the rules are enforced. I understand the need for the rules. But…" He shuddered. For the vast majority of the remaining citizens of New Caprica, the arrival of the Cylons had brought a distinct improvement in the quality of their lives. There were doctors, Cylons of course, and medicines brought from the old colonies, and more food and supplies than any of them had seen since the attack. But for the rebellious and outspoken, and for the token few chosen as tribute for medical experiments, there was the punishment camp.
The Cylons were artists at making painful examples.
Much to his surprise, Baltar nodded. " You're a sensitive man, Felix. I knew that the first day we met. What you need to remember is that these people have had the very same opportunities you've had to be happy here. The Cylons don't want to be unpleasant but troublemakers, like for example those rebels that were caught the other night by that downed Raptor, have to be dealt with."
Which meant torture and permanent crippling injuries if they weren't executed in the public square. Gaeta didn't know who the three people that had been caught were, not yet, but they were probably people he knew. As the president's senior aide, he would have to witness some of the interrogations, in order to make reports. Sometimes he wished he really was just a collaborating drone, like he heard down in the market when he ventured out in public. But he wasn't, and while he knew he was throwing up today over worry about being caught collaborating with the rebels, tomorrow it would be over getting sprayed with blood while someone he knew was skinned alive as punishment for wanting to be free.
"Now," Baltar said brightly, "I think you do need to see a doctor, and I want you to do that tomorrow. I'll clear it with Number Three at the punishment camp. I'm sure that you can be spared."
"It's really not necessary," Gaeta said worriedly. He was able to put up a good facade in public, but going into an exam room with one of the Cylons…. He almost preferred watching an execution.
"I'll make the appointment and you'll report to my office tomorrow first thing." Baltar smiled, and Gaeta was suddenly reminded of how he used to like the man. Before he realized what an absolute monster lived behind that smile. " I can't afford to lose you, Felix. You help make this whole little society we're building work." With that he strode out of the bathroom.
Gaeta mentally counted to one hundred before he allowed himself to throw up again. When he was finally done, he made his way to the exit. He rarely contacted the resistance. It was risky as hell for him, but Kara needed to know that the dumb stunt with the Raptor was going to cost her.
It was cold on the narrow wooden porch of the small cottage that Colonel Tigh had left her at. He had given her a quick rundown of the basic situation, not that it was very useful to her. Colonel Tigh had been… anxious to part from her, she could tell. He was afraid, not so much for himself, that she could tell as well, but for his wife who he had left alone. Apparently one of the new rules involved alcohol consumption and Ellen had difficulty following along with the new regime. Which meant that Tigh had a problem as well.
Lt. Gaeta will hide you, he had promised, I know you two were friends and I'll give the kid credit, he doesn't forget his friends. Tigh hadn't said much more than that, except to warn her not to wander around, that she wouldn't be molested if she stayed on the porch. It would be assumed that Gaeta had her there for a reason. It surprised her on a number of levels but she kept that quiet from Tigh.
She was surprised that Tigh was on good terms with Gaeta. They hadn't been. In fact, Tigh had spent the two months that Gaeta had remained on the Galactica making the younger man's life a living hell. Bad assignments, public admonishments, verbal abuse for the slightest thing, Gaeta had been frustrated and depressed. She had considered going to Lee and seeing if he could somehow convince his father to allow Gaeta to transfer to the Pegasus. That would have been awkward, Lee had a tendency to get jealous but she thought she could have swung it if Gaeta had been willing. Clearly Tigh and Gaeta had made up in some fashion.
She was surprised that Gaeta had never mentioned his falling out with her to Tigh. Of course, Colonel Tigh probably wasn't a confidant of Felix's. She regretted it, of course. She even understood it a bit after spending six months as an officer, and ten months living on the Pegasus with Lee Adama. Felix was a friend, and he had gritted his teeth and borne Tigh's abuse, unfair as it was. As much as she didn't want Baltar in charge of things, she couldn't argue that the majority of the people had been happy.
She also couldn't argue that Lt. Felix Gaeta hadn't destroyed what was left of his career in the military. It had been a bitter argument.
"You know the admiral will get over it," she had argued. " You don't have to take this assignment. I can talk to Lee… You know that the admiral would change his mind about the transfer if Lee requests you." That would take some convincing, probably some convincing in bed considering how surprisingly touchy he often was about her male friends.
It had surprised her, just how broken Felix had looked as he continued to pack his gear. He had stopped packing then, and looked at her with hurt eyes. " Dee, I don't want… I don't want you to do that. It's over. Here or the Pegasus… it's going to be the same. I've been blackballed. Besides, both the Pegasus and the Galactica are being required to cut staff. I'm going to end up planet side one way or another. I might as well go where I'm wanted." He had returned to his packing.
"Dr. Baltar only wants you as his military advisor so he can use you and take all the credit," she had warned.
"Yes." He neatly folded a uniform. "But at least he'll use me to do interesting things, which I am no longer considered trustworthy enough to do here." The fierceness in which he shoved the folded clothes into the pack was at odds with his calm voice. "Isn't that a laugh? I told the truth, and now I can't be trusted. Your boyfriend Lee can put a gun to the colonel's head and lead a mutiny, and I think he got promoted for it. And you…." He took a deep breath and then let it out.
"Go ahead and finish that thought," she had said darkly.
"You broke the law. You disobeyed orders, and I'm the one being punished while you get rewarded by the admiral for your loyalty in helping try to turn what's left of our society into a dictatorship." He had snarled the last part. " Look at you. The entire military is being downsized and not only are you getting a transfer to your boyfriend's ship, but the admiral tapped you for officer candidacy? Was that your punishment for election fraud? Or did someone finally remind Lee that he's not supposed to be frakking a petty officer?"
She had stormed out of his quarters at that point. They hadn't really spoken since, not as friends. She had regretted it. Felix had been a mentor, and a friend, a good one, and she had realized as the time and separation had worn on, that he had been right on a few things. Dr. Baltar had trusted him, and respected him, and given him interesting responsibilities and as much as Admiral Adama had her respect on many issues, she knew in her heart that he never would have stepped in and stopped Tigh's petty behavior in assigning Gaeta to things like supervising the latrine workers.
She was good at her work, on the Pegasus she did the same job that Gaeta had done, and he was right. She had been promoted as a favor to Lee and possibly as a consolation prize, not because she was excellent. She did the job well, but she was no fool. Felix had done it better and had brought more academic background to it as well. From hard learned experience when the Cylons returned and since, they had realized that none of the new watch officers could calculate FTL jumps on the fly. Gaeta was on her list of useful people to bring back, if he could be found.
But… Tigh was right. Felix wasn't one to hold grudges or forget his friends. Unless of course, he had been subverted by the Cylons. She hadn't specifically asked Tigh about that possibility, but it crossed her mind that unlike most of the ex-military people, Gaeta had stayed. Which was a concern for the mission. She hated to think that way, but she had to. There was too much risk. Felix was clearly living better than the average citizen of New Caprica. There had to be a reason why.
The sun set quickly and she was surprised to see the residential street empty. She was also surprised to see electric lights in all of the homes. Tigh had explained that it was one of the more affluent areas of the town, loaded with government workers. Felix's house was dark, and smaller than the others, and his tiny porch lacked the homey decorations of the others. It surprised her a bit, he was the sort that could turn even a rack into a pleasant oasis. Home is where you are, he had told her once when she had asked why he took such pains, you should at least be comfortable.
There weren't any streetlights, although she did see the red bobbing of Centurions in the distance. There must be a curfew, she thought as she sat down on the porch steps. She hoped that Tigh was right about it being safe as long as she stayed on the porch but as she watched, she could see a few other people in backyards. Apparently the rule was to be off the street but being outside in a fenced yard was all right. They certainly aren't monstrously cruel overlords, she thought as she listened to some children playing. The fact that the cage was reasonably pleasant was going to make it harder to get people to leave.
Finally she spotted someone trudging down the street. It was Felix Gaeta, she recognized his walk, if not the weather beaten jacket he had pulled around himself, and he seemed lost in thought as he moved. He didn't even notice her until he stepped onto the porch itself. His eyes widened with surprise and shock as she stood. " Dee?" he said hesitantly, "Thank the gods you're alive but… what are you doing here? No, " he held up his hand as she opened her mouth, his surprise turning into fear, " don't say anything. I have neighbors… voices carry." He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. She returned it, realizing in an instant just how much she had missed him. He whispered in her ear, " We have to go inside… If you're caught here, they will kill you."
"I have a mission," she whispered back as he led her to the door. He waved her silent and pushed her inside. She wasn't surprised that he also had electric lights but his quarters surprised her. His little house was dismally bare. She could see a doorway that led to a tiny kitchen, and another that was a bedroom judging by the unmade bed she spotted. The living room was essentially bare, with a table that was clearly being used as desk space and two hard chairs. The only sop to comfort or to Gaeta's personality at all was a bookcase that seemed to have been built out of construction supplies filled with books and photos with a small rug and some pillows in front of it. Otherwise there was nothing. The walls were essentially unfinished framing and over all it had the appearance of being half complete. "Nice place."
He shrugged as he took off his jacket and hung it on a peg. " It's private. I don't have a wife, or children, so I don't need furniture. I have heat, light, and running water." He started to close the curtains, which looked like they were made out of the cheap fabric used for prisoner jump suits. He sighed as he looked at her, and in the bright light, she could see that the invasion had taken its toll on him. He was too thin, and pale, and there were dark circles under his eyes. His neatness remained intact, in fact his hands looked chapped from scrubbing too hard, and there was no mistaking his military bearing even in civilian clothes, but at the same time he looked… beaten down. Weighed down by worries.
"Dee, if you're caught…" He put a hand to his head, as if it hurt to think. When he spoke, it was obviously more to himself than to her. "The Raptor… you came in that Raptor… " His expression hardened. " Damn it."
"The mission is pretty straightforward," she began, but again he held up a hand to stop her from speaking.
"I am going to let you hide here, because we were friends and I don't want to see you die by torture," Gaeta said coldly, " And I assure you, you will die by torture if you're found within the town perimeter, as will I if you're found here without an ID or pass. Do not tell me what the mission is. I can't afford that level of risk. Everyone that rebelled is either dead or locked up and I am not going to join them over a mission that's doomed. This town is as much of a prison as the Astral Queen. You got in because they don't watch for people coming in, but they do watch for people going out. There's no way out. A lot of people have died trying."
She opened her mouth to say something. And then closed it. Felix Gaeta had never been much of a bluffer. His honest nature always seemed to queer the deal, which was why he hadn't even been considered for inclusion in the election fraud scheme. He wasn't lying. Tigh had hinted that the town was locked down, and Gaeta was confirming it. And underneath his cold facade, his trembling body gave away more than he was telling. He was terrified. Terrified and broken. A broken dog, her father had warned her as a child, will lick the hand of the person who broke him.
And while it saddened her, it also made Felix very dangerous to her.