CH 1
"Director Kakuzawa, we can't get anyone near Lucy!" The med tech said nervously as he stood in front of the man's desk beside Kurama. "Somehow, the injectables are blocked from going in, me medical team and two guards are dead! The cage around her is destroyed as is the containment door! The only reason she's still on the cable is we think she can't find it to cut herself down. Anyone who goes in there gets killed!"
"Gas the chamber," Kakuzawa ordered.
"That is not possible due to the door being open. The gas would fill all the lower levels," Kurama stated. "I do have a suggestion you may want to consider."
"Which is?" Kakuzawa asked in a his rough voice.
"Get rid of her," Kurama said. "Freeze her by spraying her quickly with liquid nitrogen. Men in protective suits can do that, then go in and get her down. Then she can be disposed of."
Kakuzawa was about to call Kurama a baka, then thought about it. Even Lucy's body was very hazardous. Burning her corpse, her DNA from the frozen body may escape up into the atmosphere and infect someone. If her body was scattered in tiny pieces, then she could infect many, many more people. He liked that idea. Put Lucy's frozen remains on a rocket, send her into low orbit and blow it up. "Prepare to do so, I will let you know when to execute your plan," Kakuzawa told him.
The men left, and Kakuzawa began planning.
Since Kakuzawa could not admit to launching a body into space to blow it up, he arraigned for a rocket to lift a communications satellite into orbit. Instead of the Aerospace scientific people to set this rocket up, since he didn't want anyone to know what the true payload was, he had his own people bring the rocket to a remote island and set it up there.
The rocket made to lift a two metric ton payload was only loaded with enough explosives to shatter Lucy's frozen body and timed so it would go off in the upper atmosphere.
Kurama supervised the loading. After she was frozen, Lucy in her pod was wrapped in insulation and a silver thermal blanket. On the outside of the blanket was wrapped with a few layers of detonating cord. Since the nose cone wasn't to be ejected at the proper time, but much, much earlier, the wire to the rockets on the cone were clipped and rewired to the detonator in the thermal blanket with the det cord.
Checks were done to make sure everything was set, then Kurama went back to the launching station.
"Launch," he ordered.
Tail fire blasted out of the rocket and the rocket shot into the sky. Kurama watched the rocket fly out of sight. At least she was gone now.
.
On it's way up the rocket shuddered with vibrations and the strong G-forces that pulled on everything. The detonator was pulled downward and shaken vigorously. Ripping free, the detonator hit the floor of the top stage, severing the det cord that was to eject that stage. As the rocket got to the proper height, the detonator to blow the explosives let out it's bits of fire, but didn't ignite anything.
The rocket sped up and out of the atmosphere and instead of ejecting the last stage, the end of that det cord only blew out a little flame. The rocket kept picking up speed until after it was out of orbit, and burned out.
Traveling twice the speed needed for escaping Earth orbit, the rocket was headed onward in the solar system. Coming close to the moon gave it enough of a gravity slingshot to throw it at Mars. After a few months of travel, it got a gravity boost from Mars and closed on Jupiter and in a close slingshot around Jupiter, the rocket picked up another 138,000 miles an hour. Now the fastest moving object ever launched from Earth, it shot farther out in the system to Uranus which gave it another boost in speed. The rocket containing Lucy left the solar system at 5130 miles per second, and entered interstellar space.
* 2300 years later*
On New Caprica, Cavil went onto Colonial One to see President Baltar. He smiled at the ragged looking President and asked, "Mr. President, you have seen every variety of human there is, correct?"
Baltar frowned slightly and said, "Yes, why do you ask?"
"Come with me, I need your expert opinion," Cavil said. "Don't worry, I have plenty of security so no one will shoot you."
The Caprica Six decided to come along with him. "What have you found?" she asked as they walked out.
"Oh, you're going to love this!" Cavil said with a grin. "I'd tell you, but I don't want to ruin the surprise."
"Surprise?' Baltar asked.
"You see," Cavil said, "One of out patrols picked up a large piece of a very odd and old looking craft. We're sure most of it is missing. It's not cylon, and we don't have anything like it in the Colonial registry either. To make it more mysterious, the writing and symbols we found on it, doesn't match any known writing."
"That's not possible," Baltar said in disbelief.
"Not only is it possible, we have the craft. Well, pieces of it. We also have the body that was inside."
Walking towards a hanger ringed with centurions, Cavil said, "We are pretty sure the human within didn't come from the Colonies. We have no idea where it did come from. Mr. President, I want to see if you can give me any clues."
Baltar shrugged and said, "I don't know how I can tell you where a dead body came from, unless there is some legible writing or navigation data I can decipher."
Coming to the door, Cavil grinned and said, "I never said it was a dead body."
Baltar followed Cavil in, the Six close behind him. They walked over to a Medical bed with a glass cover over it. Within was a covered sheet with a human female form under it. The sheet was strapped down. Cavil motioned to it.
"Whoever this is was frozen. So far we've warmed the body up and we have a very shallow heartbeat, and there is light breathing," Cavil explained. "We're trying to wake whoever this is up. I suspect this is another species of human, but I wanted to get your opinion fist."
"Gaius, get out of here as fast as you can!"
At first, Baltar thought it was Caprica Six talking to him. She was on his other side. A very worried phantom Six hissed out her warning and disappeared. He swallowed nervously. Was the person under there diseased? Maybe dangerous somehow?
Walking over to the Medical Bed, Cavil asked the four at a control panel on the end of the bed, "Is she thawed out all the way?"
"Yes, in fact, the injuries we detected are gone. The woman is self-healing. Slow, but her body is correcting itself. She should wake up soon."
Cavil raised an eyebrow. "She not a Colonial then," he said. He had the glass cover removed and waved to the body. "Mr. President, would you like the first look?"
"Gauis, don't!" the Phantom Six hissed across the bed from him, then disappeared again.
"Be my guest, please," Baltar said to Cavil.
Cavil raised the sheet and pulled it back to show the head and shoulders of a woman with long pink hair, pink eyebrows and sporting a triangular set of horns on the curve of her head above her ears.
Baltar frowned and softly said, "I've never seen anyone like that."
"No one has," Cavil agreed. "You know what I think? We've found a completely different race of humans. All tests show she is human, except for those horns. Sure you've never seen her kind before?"
"No," Baltar said firmly.
"Well, I had to be sure. Don't worry, we'll take care of her. You can go back to being President," Cavil said and flicked a wrist to dismiss him.
Baltar walked for the exit. To the Six beside him, he asked, "That's not another form of cylon?"
"No, I have no idea where she came from.," The Six told him.
A pair of soft explosions, like someone popping a paper bags sounded.
Hearing the strange meaty/hollow sound, Baltar turned in time to see the Cavil and the Four falling to the floor as their brain matter and skull fragments were flying through the air away from the Medical bed. The straps around the pink haired woman parted and flew away. The pink haired woman sat up and turned her red eyes on them.
Behind her a centurion marched up to grab her arms.
Metal crashing sounded, and the top half of the centurion jumped up and flew at them as it if had been shot out of something. Caprica Six tackled Baltar. The chunk of centurion missed them and smashed into the door to break it down.
The woman got up off the table, naked. Baltar stared at her. The Six grabbed him to pull him up. "Run!" she cried. The phantom Six also cried for him to run with fear in her eyes.
A soft wind like noise sounded. His Phantom Six was split across the middle and her head flew away before she disappeared. The woman walked towards them, eyeing they malevolently.
Heart in his throat, Baltar scrambled up and ran for his life. Racing out the door, Caprica beside him, they didn't even turn around or slow down when the heard the centurions firing their guns. With the gun fire, more crashing was heard. A bullet hitting the ground nearby made them push faster to get away.
Caprica snapped her head back then yelled, "She's still standing! Run faster!"
Baltar did, terrified of that horned woman.
.
Once the metal things around her were scrap and the human ran away, she jumped over the roof and bound over to another building on lung jumps. Landing on the roof of this building, she saw she was alone. Looking back, she wondered if those metal androids were the latest human attempt to kill her. She let out a snort. Try again, humans.
The air was cool. Hugging herself from the chill, she realized she was very hungry. She'd gotten free of them, but now, she had to find clothing and something to eat. Smirking to herself, she knew Kurama would never get his 'Lucy' back. She was free and intended to stay that way. "My name is Kaede, not Lucy," she said to herself to confirm it.
"Who's there?" a woman asked and came around the corner of a small building on the roof. The woman's clothes looked warm. Kaede shot her vectors out.
.
Back in his office, President Baltar had a two guards outside Colonial One, and police out looking for a naked, pink haired woman.
"I don't believe it," Caprica said weakly. "She destroyed five centurions and disappeared. She could be anywhere!"
A policeman came in. "Mr. President, we did find a naked woman on the roof of a building." he said with a wince. "She was murdered. It looks like her head was ripped off. Her blood is in a big pool on the roof, almost like she'd been held upside down as her body bled out. We're canvassing for witnesses, but so far, no one has seen anything."
"Did she have pink hair?" Caprica asked.
"No, dark brown." the policeman said.
"Keep looking," Baltar told him. "Find her and follow, don't try to arrest her until you have her surrounded."
"Yes, Mr. President."
Baltar then asked, "What in the name of the Lords of Kobol did Cavil find? It's like that woman is some kind of … monster! There is no way she's human. How did she even do those things?"
In a shaky voice, Caprica said, "Gaius, whatever she is, is something of immense power. We have to find a way to communicate with her. We need to get her to understand we do not want to be her enemy."
"And how do we do that?" he asked in a rant. "Walk up and say hello, I want to be your friend, please don't obliterate me or rip my fracking head off!"
Caprica looked at him and firmly said, "We need to find a way."
.
Chief Tyrol was down in the resistance meting room, an underground space they held supplies and a few weapons they didn't want the cylons to find. Sitting down beside Saul Tigh he said, "I just saw something that blew my mind. If I hadn't seen it, there is no way I'd believe it!"
"Cylons gathering up and leaving?" Saul suggested.
"A naked woman just trashed five centurions," he stated.
"You wanna explain that, Cheif?" Saul asked, eyeing him.
"The Cavil went to see Baltar," he said with a glassy look in his eye. "Baltar comes out with him, and a bunch of guards. I figured something was up, so I followed and watched from behind some cover. They go into a hanger with centurion guards. A Six, Cavil and Baltar go in. A couple minutes later, half a centurion flies out of there, busting the door down. Then Baltar and the Six come running out like the devil is on their tail …"
"Something went wrong with an experiment?" Saul asked.
"Gods, I hope not!" Galen said in a near whisper. "The centurions moved to go in, and this naked woman walks out the door. Reddish pink hair down to her ass. She stops and stares at nothing. The two closest centurions pull up to shoot. Before they shoot their heads are smashed right off their bodies by nothing. Before the heads hit the ground, they both turn like marionettes, you know like something is moving them, they kneel down on each side of the woman. The other centurions open up, and walked closer. The headless centurions take the bullets, then both the headless ones fly at the shooters. The shooters are knocked down then they …. explode is the only thing I can call it. All the centurion bodies just blast out to the sides in a shower of sparks. A pair of human guards run at the woman. Both are split down the middle." With an insane giggle, he said, "Then she shoots straight up onto the roof, and flies away."
"What you're saying isn't possible," Saul said firmly.
"I know! That's why I'm having a hard time believing it …. And I watched the whole thing!" Galen cried. "I don't know what the frack happened, but one naked woman took out five centurions, and scared the Hades out of Baltar and that Six. Oh yeah, split two guys right down the middle too, and with no visible weapon at all."
"If you saw that woman again, would you recognize her?" Saul asked.
"Easy, just look for a slim woman with pink hair down to her ass, and red eyes. Oh yeah, she's got horns on her head too," Galen said in a snort.
Saul grumbled, "Whatever the frack happened, that woman had found something to wipe those centurions out with. Pass the word, we need to find her and find out how the frack she is doing that."
.
Dressed in the pants, boots and light coat with the shawl over her head, Kaede went down inside a factory type building. Ignoring everyone that was working there, and being ignored, she slipped out a side door and into woodland.
She had no idea where she was, except much of this place was a tent city. The streets were patrolled by those android things and police. Seeing a long tent that backed against the woods, Kaede made sure no one was looking and slipped in under the back. She found herself in a space between the canvas and a large pile of boxes. The boxes had labels and markings, but she couldn't read them.
Quietly, she lifted herself up to find one man in the middle watching out the front. He was sitting behind a desk, tipped back in his chair. There was only one way she was going to find out anything about where she was. She shot a vector out, as Kurama called them, and into the back of the man's head to feel around in his brain. He jerked in his chair and shuddered as she explored his knowledge and memories.
In flashes of memory, she saw bombing, people screaming and frantically trying to get on board ships as the cylons attacked. In quick flashes, she saw his experiences as they fled the Cylons. She new the languages he knew. She found out this was the reserve food supply, most of it vacuum packaged and ready to eat.
That was all she really needed to know. She released him, he slumped dead. She grabbed two boxes and slipped out the back and sneaked off into the woods. Walking far enough away so she wouldn't be seen, Kaede found some heavy brush and lifted herself up into the middle of it. She cleared herself a place, piling the ripped up brush around her clearing, then settled down in to get some food.
After stuffing herself, Kaede smoothed the ground for a place to lay down and got some real sleep.
.
Baltar was assaulted by bio-cylons demanding to know where that 'murderer' was. One of his guards also came in to say several humans were outside, wanting to know why a woman at the power plant was 'brutally' killed and stripped, as well as the stock manager in the supply tent. The stock manager was found dead with no apparent cause. A Two came in threatening to 'nuke' the planet unless these killings were stopped. Caprica insisted they had seen the suspect, and all available police and centurions were out looking for this person.
Sam Anders was one of the people who's come to Colonial One to find out what Baltar was doing about the deaths of two innocent people. The police who'd gotten killed, he saw as cylon sympathizers and didn't care if they died. In this screwed up occupation by the cylons, he was hoping for just a shred of justice.
As usual, it wasn't Baltar who showed his face, but that blonde cylon bimbo Baltar was fracking. Holding up her hands she said, "Please, listen. The one we are looking for is an alien woman, she can be identified by her pink hair, red eyes and the horns on her head. It is not just humans she is killing. She has been killing anyone she's come across. This woman is very deadly, so if you see her, run away and report to the nearest policeman or centurion immediately. Do. Not. Try to confront her, she WILL kill you!"
"So you're making up a pink haired alien to cover up your crimes?" Sam shouted.
"No! This woman is real and as I said, deadly. She has also destroyed five centurions we know of, and several bio-cylons. Please take my warning seriously." The Six then went back inside.
"What a bunch of bullshit!" Sam spat. He stomped off, he had more important things to do than listen to their lies. They had strategic outposts to set up. Walking back to the place Saul Tigh was directing him from, Sam made sure no one was watching when he slipped into the tent.
Saul was sitting on his bunk. Sam sat beside him, keeping his voice low.
"I sent three guys up on the hill outside of town away from the spaceport, in the woods, three others as close as they can get to the spaceport without being seen. They build blinds and shooting positions, then they'll come back and let us know where they are. Like you said, no guns. If they're caught, they were looking for edibles."
"Find out anything at Colonial One?" Saul asked.
"No, the same stupid shit. It did have a twist, now murders are being done not by cylons, but by some pink haired phantom woman," Sam said with a snort.
Saul quickly looked at Sam. "Pink air? Galen said he saw that too. That woman trashed the centurions who were shooting at her."
"How bad was she hit?" Sam asked.
"Not a scratch from what Galen said, she can fly too."
"You're fracking with me," Sam accused.
"Go talk to Galen. By the look of him, he saw something strange," Saul insisted.
"I think I will," Sam said. "I'll let you know when those positions are done." He left Saul's tent and headed for the school tent where he was to meet the 'hill' group to see what they had found. He arrived as Deek, who was spattered in blood, came around the back and stared at him.
"We got ambushed!" he said flatly.
"Cylons?"
"No. It was really fracking strange. We saw this large clump of brush, it was perfect. I mean it was thick enough to hide some protection, looks right down on that cylon office building, and thick enough cover that we wouldn't be seen. We start making our way though the brush, then this woman pops up out of the middle! Charlie lost his head, I mean, if just frackin flew off! Jer's heart burst out his back and hit me in the face! I didn't hear a report or see anything. Whatever she had was silent. I fracking ran! She was staring at me with those red eyes, I knew I was next! Sam, I was luck to get away alive! Whatever the frack she is, she's terrifying!"
"What color was her hair?"
"Pink, and you'll think I'm fracked in the head, but she's got horns."
"Frack!" Sam spat. OK, he was going to stop this thing right now! "We'll get guns and go back up there. Don't pause, don't give her a chance to shoot … whatever she has. You see this woman, shoot to kill. Let's go."
.
Kaede watched the lone man run away, tripping a couple times as he fled. She wasn't going to bother chasing him, she knew more humans would be coming. They always did. She needed someplace better than out here on the ground where they were able to just walk up to her. Briefly, she looked up in the trees. The branches were open every one visible. Not a good place to be unless she constantly wanted to guard against being shot at.
Looking at the tent city below, she wondered if any of those tents were unoccupied. Human hunting for her would come out here searching.
Before Kaede left, she took her coat off and put it back on so her hair was under it. She packed up as much food as possible into the coat pockets, they put the shawl on so it made a hood over her head to help hide her face. She lifted herself up and out of the brush toward the town, not the way that man went, and kept her head down as she walked to the tent city.
Coming down to the pathway that served as a road, she did note a pair of men in long coats walking the other way. Under one, she noted the barrel of a gun. They walked on past, so she didn't kill them.
Surprisingly, she melted very well into the crowd. The ones going places minded their own business, the others who were talking in their groups did the same. Looking up just enough to see where she was going, Kaede made it to the middle of the tent city.
"Hey lady, do you have any food?" a dirty, ragged girl asked.
Kaede stopped. The child had appeared directly in front of her. It was slap the child away and draw attention to herself, or give the child food. To keep from being discovered and having to fight her way out of here, she pulled out a pack of food and handed it over.
"Thank you." the girl said meekly and ran to the side. Kaede continued on.
This was frustrating. Every tent she saw was occupied by someone. Some had whole families in one tent. Finally she looked in one that had a bare bed frame and not much else in it. She went in and noted the curtains hanging over a small area that had bedding hidden behind it. It was large enough to mostly lay down in, and no one would look for her here. She could get some rest without being disturbed.
.
Laura Roslyn had spent her lunch break with Tory Foster in the classroom. They made sure the kids were fed the salad mix and piece of fish that was their rations. She noted Christy had a food pack. Those were not suppose to be used unless they were needed.
"Christy, where did you get that food pack? Did your mother give it to you?" she asked as the girl munched happily.
Christy shook her head. "No. This lady walking by gave it to me."
"Who was this lady?"
Christy shrugged and said, "I dunno, I think she was sick or something. She looked OK, but she had weird eyes."
"Weird? How?" Laura asked.
"They were red, but not bloodshot-red. Just the middles were red," Christy explained. "Her eyebrows were kinda washed-out looking too."
"What do you mean?" Laura asked.
"Pale red, kinda like pink. So was her hair."
Laura felt her heart skip a beat. This maniac killer Sam had told her about had walked right by the school tent! "Did you see which way she went?" Laura asked.
"That way," Christy said and pointed.
"When was this?"
"When you were passing out food. I was at the back of the line, outside and saw her coming. I asked if she had some food, she gave me this. I thanked her like you're suppose to do and came back in."
Laura ran outside. She didn't see any pink haired women around. The killer had gone on her way. She breathed a sigh of relief. After class she'd go tell Saul about it. That killer was in the city.
.
Directly after school was over, Laura want to the resistance meeting. The big topic was this pink haired woman lurking about. She'd been seen in several places, far apart. She had also killed every time someone had seen her, and was suspected to have caused a couple more mysterious deaths, including another centurion that had been found as a pile of scrap.
"I don't get it," Galen said, Why is she killing … everyone? Wipe out some cylons, yeah, I watched her do it. But why us? I mean doesn't she have a side?"
Laura offered, "If she is an alien, then maybe she thinks we're all cylons. I mean look at it from her point of view. The Cylons find her. They did who knows what to her, and she gets loose. Bio-cylons look like us. She can't tell the difference, so when she's found, she kills to keep from being discovered and flees. She walked right past the school. A child in my class asked her for some food, and she gave it to her. That tells me she is not out to kill everyone."
"Yeah, only anyone who can identify her," Galen said with a snort.
"We will find her eventually, what happens when we do?" Sam asked.
"Convince her we're not cylons," Laura stated. "Explain we are different than those who captured her."
"That woman would be one hell of a weapon to have on our side," Saul stated. "So far, she's wiped out everything she's come across."
"Even multiple centurions shooting at her," Galen added.
"And the supply manager, plus two of my men!" Sam said firmly.
"Sam, you found food packages up where she was hiding," Laura replied. "What would you do to someone you thought was a cylon and was between you and the only food you knew about?"
Galen said, "If she is alien, she could mistake us as being the same race as cylons. We do look like bio-cylons, or rather, they look like us. Look what she's done. She escapes whatever they were doing with her, fights her way out, kills an isolated woman for her clothes, obtains food and hides in the woods. She's found, so she's on the move again. Probably to someplace she thinks we won't expected her to be."
"Where the frack is that?" Saul asked.
"I have no clue," Galen said with fling if his arm. "She could crawl up into a ship, or move farther away from the city."
"If she needs food, she won't travel too far away." Sam said. "She might try hiding in plain sight. Cylons did that in the fleet, didn't they?"
"Cylons don't have odd colored hair or horns on their heads," Saul reminded him.
"She is pretty easy to pick out of a crowd," Galen agreed.
Saul grumbled and said, "Looks like we send out a search party. Whoever sees her turns around and comes straight back. Forget any guns, If she sees you have a gun, she'll most likely frackin kill you. We start first thing tomorrow. No sneaking around, officially we're going on a mushroom hunt."
Note : when I was writing this up, Elton John was singing in my head
"Whao the bitch, o the bitch, o the bitch is back! Stone cold sober as a matter of fact...