Prologue

"A motion has been put forth to banish the Colonial Ascendant, Starbuck as the result of his disorderly conduct."

"Nineteen words to propose a death sentence for the crime of free expression." Challenged Starbuck. "All around is a vast whiteness, and I see you've all dressed yourselves in white. I suppose you feel that makes yourselves the instrument of righteous judgment." Three hooded figures sat on a dais before Starbuck shrouded in white, Sheba stood at his side.

"Starbuck don't badger them." Warned Sheba, "it won't help."

"Of course it will." Starbuck assured her, "This pack of would be philosophers has lost touch with the real world Sheba, I know I seem a little foolhardy but I am just doing what has to be done. Someone has to make these people remember how to ask questions."

"We will not condone the extermination of any life form." Stated one of the hooded figures, "Your sentence will be a the rational result to balance an unstable equation."

"We wish you to see the error of your ways, to help you find enlightenment." Added another, a female voice, Starbuck noted, "perhaps some day you can rejoin us Starbuck."

"Rejoin you?" scoffed Starbuck, "You mean you hope a harsh life will break down my will? Wear me down until I beg to be forgiven?"

"You require rehabilitation." Spoke a stern male voice, "You are impudent, willful, disrespectful, sacrilegious chaotic and dangerous. You would destabilize a peace that has kept terrible forces at bay for countless millennia."

"Sacrilegious?" demanded Starbuck, "nice of you to bury that in there, am I to believe that disagreement is now sacrilege? Are you so certain of your righteousness? Funny you sound like an Ori."

"We are not the Ori." Spoke the hooded woman once more, "It was a poor choice of words, the result off this unbalanced equation my colleague describes. You are a disruption in harmony Starbuck, do you deny this? "

"Is harmony a chorus of voices saying the same thing over and over?" Demanded Starbuck, "or is it voices raised in song, individuals working together in their own way. The real problem here is you don't like my tone."

"Your dissidence is harmful in the grand scheme of things." Stated the woman, "Unity of purpose is what has protected us from the great enemy. You disrupt that unity, you give their machinations purpose."

"Your enemies are legend!" shouted Starbuck, "Iblis is real, his evil is an immediate and immanent threat, you do nothing to restrain his actions while whole civilizations are at risk!"

"Iblis was properly chastened for his actions.' Retorted the second man.

"Chastened?" demanded Starbuck, "For exterminating whole galaxies? You made a deal with the devil so you wouldn't have to soil your hands."

"Were we to 'soil our hands' as you put it, we would be setting down a path of violence and chaos, that our people have strived long and hard to rise above." Replied the woman.

"Your enemies haven't risen above anything!" stated Starbuck, "How can you expect to defeat them if you don't fight?'

"the only way to win is to deny a battle." Explained the first man, "our enemy feeds on our efforts, the harder we struggle the stronger they become. It is only through rational deliberation that we may remain free of their influence."

"But you aren't free of anyone's influence!" protested Starbuck, "Their using your own methods against you, they know you won't act against them unless there is no reasonable doubt, so they move through others, so there will always be doubt."

"You seek to rationalize behavior that is irrational." Stated the first man accusingly, "You twist the truth to your liking, no single act you have presented can be considered proof off what you claim. There are constants in the universe Starbuck, and what you have presented to us simply does not add up."

"You seek to manipulate us in the manner you attribute to your enemy." Declared the woman, "perhaps you visit your own intentions on a reformed being?"

"At last!" exclaimed Starbuck, "You have regained your capacity to recognize when you are being manipulated. If I accomplish nothing else, I have accomplished that, you claim to embrace free will, all of you, yet none of you will brook any disagreement. In defending myself before you, I am accused of manipulation. Consider this your honors." Starbuck spat the title mockingly, "The only way to win is to avoid a battle, to avoid a conflict of ideologies. How do you avoid that conflict if an opposing idealogy is built upon that very idea?"

There was silence and finally the second hooded man spoke.

"Discussion is ended. I move that we banish Starbuck to the mortal realm/"

"I second that motion with the amendment that Starbuck be permitted to retain his memories, that even in his banishment, he may have an opportunity to reform his ways."

"What if I don't choose to be banished?" demanded Starbuck hotly, "You can't take action without a group consensus, this vote is an illusion."

"I could elect to fight you." Commented the second man in a dark voice, "And we would battle for all eternity, thus would you be removed from our presence."

"I was wondering why they would let someone like you sit in judgment of another Baltar." Spat Starbuck "You can lower that hood your not fooling anyone, Oma, Janus, I know who you are lets put all the cards on the table here."

In response his three accusers lowered their hoods.

"Since you seem committed to an eternity of conflict one way or another, what will you choose Starbuck." Asked Oma resignedly.

"Well firstly, your little ploy with Baltar won't work on me." Replied Starbuck, "If he attacks, I won't fight back." Starbuck fixed an eye on Baltar, "And then you will be a murderer Baltar. You will stand judgement, I wonder who they would find to battle you." Baltar swallowed. "I think I hear a line forming." Said Starbuck scornfully, "And when will that end Oma, battle after battle after battle, until your harmony is disrupted beyond hope of recovery. If I really wanted this discord you have accused me of, you would have just offered it to me on a silver platter. Your kind have no talent for this kind of thing really."

"How do you propose we resolve this?" Demanded Oma irritably, "If you believe yourself so much more able."

"I will VOLUNTARILY descend." Began Starbuck, raising a hand to silence Sheba's objection, "provided as you say I am permitted to retain my memory, and my body at my moment of ascension. My condition however is I may choose the location to which I descend."

"What does that gain you?" Demanded Baltar irritably, "She has offered you that already you argumentative fool!"

"Contain yourself Baltar." Snapped Oma, "Your position here is conditional, if this situation cannot be resolved you will be returned to where we found you."

Baltar rolled his eyes and kept silent. Satisfied Oma turned back to Starbuck, and Janus sat back regarding him with a calculating gaze.

"At the precise moment off your ascension, you were a being of energy." Observed Janus, "Lacking the stability to complete your transformation, without our help you would have dissipated. As we would grant no such help, this condition would gain you nothing, you would still descend to a mortal body."

"A mortal body significantly enhanced over the body I was born with." Replied Starbuck carefully, "Longer lifespan, healing ability, your people greatly advanced ours before we began our transformation."

"You would prolong your life, that is understandable." Stated Janus, "but your choice of words was deliberate, why the moment off your ascension and not simply to an advanced human form?"

"Well that is because of the location I am going to choose." Replied Starbuck with a gleam in his eye, "You see I still intend to prove to you that iblis is up to something, and if you fear what I could do as an ascended being well, I'll just have to figure it out the old fashioned way."

Janus blinked suddenly. "Do you intend…."

"That's right." Said Starbuck, "Put me in the buffer on Earth's Stargate. Iblis buried it for a reason, and he intends to come back for it. Even if matter can't travel both ways energy can, and I intend to see exactly what Iblis wants coming to Earth."

"I vote we agree to his terms." Said Baltar suddenly. He grinned evilly, "This should provide solution satisfactory to all parties. Discord among ascendeds will be over, Starbuck is free to continue his quest on a mortal plain…."

"…and you remain ascended." Finished Sheba sourly.

"The lesser of two evils?" Baltar asked the unspoken question, steepling his hands. "Perhaps. He answered meeting her gaze.

"I second the motion on the floor." Said Sheba reluctantly, and as Oma, Janus, and Baltar all voiced their agreement, Starbuck turned to Sheba was trying to suppress her tears.

"Don't cruel Sheba, this is what I want." He said, "I can't shake the feeling that whatever went down on new Kobol, Adama and Cain can take care of themselves but Athena…"

Understanding dawned in Sheba's mind. She knew first hand the danger iblis posed, she had succumbed to it, and she had thought Starbuck's passion for opposing Iblis was derived from the same source, but looking at him now, she saw him ffired by a different cause.

"You'll find her Starbuck." Sheba assured her, "We'll find her." Sheba amended, "I won't rest Starbuck, I'll be watching, vigilant, and if a way to help presents itself…"

"The time is at hand." Interrupted Janus, "Further permutation must not be allowed. This equation must reach its conclusion."

"I will do it." Said Baltar suddenly, "Sheba is affected by his discord and well, I was prepared to be his executioner, I suppose this is the logical discharge of my obligations."

With no further objections Starbuck found himself standing in the desert atop a round stone platform. As he looked down he realized it the coverstones the natives had placed upon the Stargate.

"You stand upon the grave of the future." Baltar observed casually as he ccircled Starbuck,

"I suppose your going to start gloating.' Said Starbuck resigned, "You msut be loving this."

"On the contrary/" snapped Baltar, "Do you think I look forward to spending eternity with those pedantic fools?"

"The price of power.' Said Starbuck wryly, "You want to live forever but you can't choose your neighbors."

"indeed." Said Baltar sourly

"Listen Baltar, lets not start having a moment here. You destroyed the colonies. Your still a traitor in my mind, and you always will be." Stated Starbuck, then he looked at the stars shining brightly above them. "Still I suppose if it's a choice between you and Iblis…"

"Do you imagine I intend to misuse my ascension?" demanded Baltar coldly, "Do you propose this is all part of some elaborate plot to control, to dominate?" Starbuck blinked at the resentment in the man's voice.

"Isn't it?" asked Starbuck staring him the eye, "Are you saying I should trust you to be something other than a traitor?"

"Millennia have passed Starbuck." Said Baltar tiredly, "Ovver the long centuries I have learned much of evil, I have thought much about what I did and why. Do you know what I believe?"

"I thought the condemned were to be the confessors." Commented Starbuck uncomfortably, but Baltar would not be silenced.

"I believe I did what I did… because I felt I could do things better." Said baltar looking up thoughtfully, "The cylons were a means to an end, I was to control mankind build a brave new world." His tone soured, "Then they betrayed me, treated me like a puppet, used me against the rest of you, and you," he stabbed a finger at Starbuck, "had the audacity to survive, they demanded I kill you in payment for my life, and you refused to permit victory." He dropped his hand and paused as if struck by a sudden thought, "What utter lunacy it must have appeared, no wonder Lucifer thought us deranged." Then his countenance hardened once again. "It was never the Cylons Starbuck, it was iblis, that cursed whispering ambition, that simpering temptor, I was his unwilling servant and he cast me off like some common…"

"Look Baltar…" interrupted Starbuck, "I really don't care. I'm trying to face the music here, you know? Live as a mortal once more? Begin my slow march to death and old age? If we could just pull the spotlight over here long enough for me to go? I mean I don't mean to be rude but this IS my moment."

"Very well." replied Baltar irritably, "You heroes have no patience. I merely meant to say, that we will never be friends Starbuck, but we may have an understanding, an alliance. We have a common foe, you and I, in Iblis. Because of that I respect what you are doing." He laughed harshly, "Perhaps I may even help some time."

"Well I'm as eager as the next guy to give a man a second chance Baltar." Starbuck tossed back, "You do what you have to, don't do me any favors, now lets get this over with."

Baltar gave a dismissive flick of his fingers, and Starbuck faded before him. Squatting in the sand, baltar thrus an arm into the ground and for the briefest moment the sand lit up.

"Godspeed Starbuck." whispered baltar, "You carry the hopes of us all."

Running his tongue over his teeth at the peculiar sensation those words gave him, Baltar stood. looked once more at the stars, and vanished into the night. beneath the sand, the future awaited.