Author's note: I guess you could label this as an AU. It's my idea of how the season-ending cliffhanger should be resolved. Most likely it will not be resolved like this, but it's how I think it should be resolved. I also warn you all now that there will be a character death (of sorts) later on, so please take appropriate action.
2/15/05
EXTREMITIES
The Galactica's sick bay was a beehive of activity. Medical technicians, nurses, and corpsmen darted about with serious, anxious expressions. Lee stood pressed against a wall, trying to stay out of the way. With his hands still cuffed in front of him, he felt even more helpless than he otherwise would have. He was also trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible, hoping that Col. Tigh would continue to ignore his presence and not have him sent to the brig before he could hear some word on his father's condition. He and the colonel, and his obligatory Marine guard, had been waiting for some word for nearly three quarters of an hour and Lee was convinced that at any moment, he would go quietly insane.
Glancing up at the XO, Lee realized that he was holding up better than the older man. Tigh was pacing about the small area, getting in people's way and frequently losing his temper. He was one of those people who dealt with fear and anxiety by getting angry. The angrier they appeared, the more frightened and vulnerable they were. Tigh was in a towering fury and was venting that fury on everyone around him. Frankly, at this moment, Lee doubted the man was even fit for duty. But he also recognized that he was in no position to point this out.
As though reading these thoughts, Tigh abruptly turned to face Lee, his expression murderous. Although they had not been intended as such, Tigh had apparently chosen to interpret Lee's acts of mutiny as very personal attacks on him. As the older man stalked over to him, Lee found his body tensing involuntarily and was therefore not caught off guard when the other man abruptly backhanded him across the face. Lee was able to move his head with the blow and suffered only a split lip instead of losing a few teeth. As the Marine moved quickly to interpose himself between the two officers, Lee brought his cuffed hands up to press them over his mouth. There was blood on the back of one hand when he lowered them again. A shocked silence fell over the still crowded room.
"Get him out of my sight!" Tigh barked at the Marine. "Get him down to the brig with the other traitor."
"No, that man is not going anywhere."
All eyes turned to see the white-haired Dr. Connelly standing in the doorway which led to the surgery. The man looked harassed and ill-tempered, but then that was fairly usual for him.
"Excuse me... Major...?" Tigh asked pointedly.
"No, excuse me... Colonel, but must I remind you that this is the one place on this ship where you do not outrank me?" the doctor asked. "Now, I have managed to stabilize the commander, but he's lost a lot of blood. At this time, he's too weak for me to operate. The surgery itself would kill him. He needs a blood transfusion and the blood least likely to cause any complications would be from a close relative. So, whether you like it or not, I need Capt. Adama's veins... Markham, please get the captain prepped for the transfusion. And for the Lords' sake, get those damn cuffs off him!"
Lee lay on the hospital bed, squeezing the little rubber ball and watching as his own blood passed through the length of surgical tubing, slowly filling the plastic bag attached to the bed. As soon as the small bag was full, it would be immediately hooked up to his father. Lifting his eyes, Lee could see the elder Adama, lying on a similar bed across the aisle from him. A variety of monitors, IV, and other apparatuses were attached to the older man, keeping him alive.
William Adama's normally dusky skin was deathly white and Lee noticed that, at some point, someone had removed his glasses. Lee didn't see them lying on the bedside table and that bothered him. He hoped that no one had lost them. He knew they were his father's only pair. Replacing them would not now be easy and his father needed them to read... He knew that he was obsessing about a very trivial thing, under the circumstances, but he couldn't seem to stop himself. Somehow, suddenly, the location of his father's eyeglasses was of paramount importance to him. When the technician came to check on him, he asked her about them.
She didn't seem to find his question unusual. She smiled at him and touched his shoulder gently, saying, "Don't worry, we've got them tucked away somewhere safe. They'll be ready for him when he needs them."
"Thank you," Lee whispered, irrationally relieved by this statement. He leaned back against the pillows again and allowed himself to relax.
The technician gave his shoulder a reassuring pat, checked the fullness of the blood bag then returned to her other duties. After she had left, Lee turned his attention back to his father.
Don't you dare die on me, he thought, glaring at the sleeping man, now suddenly angry, I still have some things to say to you... You never really liked me, did you? Oh, I know you loved me, but you never liked me. Zac was always the one you could relate to. He shared your appreciation of the irreverent. Of course, so does Kara. Is that why you like her more than me, too?
She reminds you of your youth, doesn't she? I've heard the stories. You were like her in your prime, weren't you? Always flying by the seat of your pants, instead of regulations, always doing things your own way, except that unlike Kara, you never actually crossed the line into blatant insubordination. Of course, you don't see it that way, do you? You always find some reason to excuse her behavior, find someone else to blame. Just like you blamed President Roslin for Kara's latest stunt, but Roslin didn't put a gun to Kara's head and force her to make that jump. But you'd rather dismantle the government, than place the blame where it truly belongs, squarely on Kara Thrace's shoulders. And the truly sad thing is, that you can't even see how your obvious favoritism toward her alienates you from the rest of the crew... from me.
It's funny, I've spent my entire life trying to impress you and along comes Kara and you immediately love her unconditionally. She can do no wrong in your eyes. Apparently not even killing your son was enough to lower her in your eyes for long. And yet, no matter what I do, it's not right. You tell me I should listen to my instincts, but when I do, it's still not right. Evidently my instincts speak a different language than yours, or Kara's. But I'm not sorry for what I did. This time, sir, you were wrong. You had no right to arrest the president for Kara's misconduct, even if Roslin did ask her to do it. Kara chose her own course of action. Nothing changes that...
Lee's disgruntled thoughts were interrupted by the return of the technician. Checking the bag again, she said, "Okay, Captain, you're done. Now, I have to warn you, we took a little more than the usual pint, so you'll want to get up slowly. You may be a little dizzy."
As she spoke, she deftly clipped off the bag and carefully removed the needle from Lee's left arm. After taping a bandage over the puncture wound and giving the pilot the standard lecture about watching the site for bleeding and drinking plenty of fluids, she finally let him up from the bed. As he stood, he did indeed, feel somewhat lightheaded, but it passed quickly enough.
After the technician had disappeared with his bag of blood, Lee moved to stand beside his father's bed. His mind was still dwelling on his previous sullen thoughts as he gazed down at the older man. Am I truly such a disappointment to you? he asked silently.
Sensing movement beside him, he looked up to find Doctor Connelly standing at the foot of the bed. "As soon as we get his blood pressure back up, we'll begin the surgery," the doctor said. "I'll keep you informed about his condition."
"Thank you, sir."
Both men turned as the black-clad Marine guard stepped up to the pilot. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm going to have to escort you to the brig now," the young man said, a bit sheepishly.
"Is that absolutely necessary?" the doctor asked testily. "His father will be going into surgery soon. I really don't think the captain will be going anywhere."
"I'm sorry sir, but those are Col. Tigh's orders."
"It's okay, I understand," Lee said in a tired voice. He held his hands out, with his wrists together, so the Marine could cuff him again.
"Oh, uh, I don't think that will be necessary, sir," the sergeant said quickly. He was quite uncomfortably aware of the hostile looks the various medical personnel were throwing in his direction. "If you'll just give me your word, as an officer, that you'll be cooperative, I won't cuff you."
"You have my word," Lee said. "Let's go."
Kara sat with her back resting against a pillar, staring sullenly at the... creature wearing Sharon Valerii's face that she now knew was a Cylon. Kara had always considered Sharon a friend, not a good one necessarily, but a friend all the same. How could she have been so wrong?
She and Helo had just finished getting each other caught up on what had been happening to the other. She was tired, emotionally numb, and every muscle of her body hurt from the beating she'd taken from that blonde Cylon bitch. All she wanted was take the Arrow and get off this frakking planet, but now she had to decide what to do with Sharon, or ...whatever she was.
The 'whatever' in question, was sitting quietly off to the side. She had wisely not said a word to the blonde pilot. Kara had drawn a gun on her once already. It was obvious that she would do it again in a heartbeat if the Cylon gave her any trouble whatsoever.
"So, what do we do with her, Helo?" Kara asked, at last.
"Well, we can't leave her here."
"We can't?"
"Starbuck, she's pregnant."
"How do you know that? How do you know she's not lying? Did you do a pregnancy test?"
"...Well, no...," it was clear from his tone that this thought hadn't occurred to him.
Typical guy, Kara thought in exasperation. "Well, I'm sure we could find one in some store around here. We could make her do one," she suggested. "At least then we'd be reasonably certain that she was telling the truth."
"Yeah," Helo agreed slowly, "but it would take time for us to find one and we've wasted too much time already. Look, I'm not going to let you kill her and if she's not pregnant, then she knows you've been here. She knows you've got that Arrow. I assume you don't want the Cylons to know this, too... So, we can't leave her. And if she is pregnant... then it's my kid and... Well, don't you think it would be better if we had this... kid than letting the Cylons have it? They obviously want it."
"Do they?" Kara asked, addressing Sharon for the first time.
"Yes," the other woman answered softly.
"Why? What is it? How can you be pregnant anyway? You're a machine. Machines can't get pregnant."
"I've already tried to explain it to Helo. I'm not a machine, at least, not in the sense that you're thinking of... There are twelve different Cylon models. Each of them is designed for a specific function. I'm number twelve. I'm an experimental model. I'm a Human clone with Cylon implants."
"Why?" Kara asked, intrigued in spite of herself. "Why would the Cylons want to clone Humans, let alone put implants in them? I thought you Cylons hated us Humans?"
"Cylons do hate Humans. They hate everything about Humans, but there is one thing Humans can do that Cylons can't and, so far, can't seem to duplicate without Human help..."
"Reproduce..." Kara whispered.
"Exactly. That's the whole purpose of my model. The Cylons have been experimenting with my model, trying to create a Cylon that can breed, although I'm the first one that's actually managed to conceive."
"Well, aren't you the special girl?" Kara sneered angrily.
"See, Starbuck, if the Cylons value her, wouldn't it be better if we kept her with us?" Helo asked quickly.
Kara sighed in exasperation. She didn't know what to do and looking at Helo's earnest face, she found that she didn't want to be the one to make the decision... And why should she? She was just a lieutenant. She was in no position to make this kind of judgment call. Decisions like this should be made by someone higher up the food chain, like the commander, or even the president. With that thought in mind, she made her decision.
"Okay, we bring her with us. I don't know what to do with her, so someone else can make that call... So, now that that's decided. How do all three of us get off this planet? My ride is strictly a single-seater."
"Well, Boomer and I were planning on waiting for dark then trying to sneak into the old Colonial Fleet base."
"Sneak into a military base?" Kara asked incredulously. "Oh, like the Cylons won't have that completely covered. Whose bright idea was this?"
Helo glanced hesitantly at Sharon, who looked sheepish.
"Right," Kara said flatly. "Okay, we don't need a military ship. We just need something with an FTL drive. There's got to be some sort of civilian transport around here."
"None that we've been able to find," Helo said.
Kara closed her eyes and tried to picture this section of the city in her mind. It was amazing, it had only been a couple of months or so, since they had fled from the Colonies and yet she was already having trouble visualizing the city's layout and remembering what was nearby. How quickly we forget what is no longer important.
"Isn't there a municipal spaceport a couple of blocks over?" she asked. "They would have commuter transports with FTLs."
"Been there," Helo said. "The only transports still there are ones in need of repair. We figured it would take too long to try and fix one and we didn't want to be hanging around one place for too long. Not to mention, they're probably watching places like that. They know we're somewhere in the city."
"Good point, but there's three of us now, we might be able to handle it. It's not that far and it's fully dark now. I say we head over there and take a look. Taking the time to make a few quick repairs would be less risky than trying to sneak into a military base, don't you think?"
It took less than 20 minutes for them to reach the spaceport. Like everything else in the city, it was deserted and forgotten. There were no Cylon centurions in sight. The three pilots made their way quickly through the public terminals and back to the huge, largely empty, hangar bay. At the far end of the cavernous room, was a row of about seven, small transports in various stages of assemblage. Only two or three appeared to be fully intact.
Ignoring the disassembled ships, Kara checked out the intact ones. The maintenance logs were still lying on the pilot seats. After a quick perusal of the first ship's log, she dismissed it as too complicated a fix and moved on to the second ship. It proved to be much more appealing.
"Hey, this one just says that the auto-pilot isn't working properly," she announced, to no one in particular, since she was the only one on board the ship. "But we don't need the auto-pilot anyway. It'll only take me 15 minutes or so to disengage it completely and we can get out of here."
Stepping back out of the small transport, she found Helo and Sharon waiting anxiously for her verdict.
"Okay, this one is definitely do-able," she said. "Helo, go back out front and keep a look out for Cylons." Addressing Sharon, she added, "You stay here and help me."
"I don't think I'll be of much help," Sharon said, gesturing to her arm in its sling.
"Well, you can hand me tools and act as another pair of eyes. I can trust you to do that, can't I?"
"Yes."
While Helo ran back to the front public area, Kara crawled under the transport and began opening hull panels. Sharon lowered herself gingerly to the floor beside her. For several minutes, the only conversation between the two was Kara barking out commands for various tools.
"So, what about Tyrol?" Kara asked abruptly.
"What? What about him?"
"I thought you two were in love. The other Sharon was in love with him. Do you even know what your other selves are doing?"
"Yeah, I'm somewhat aware of them, on a sort of sub-conscious level... I am sorry about Chief Tyrol. I never meant to hurt him, but you're right, he probably will be hurt by all of this."
"You think? So, this other Sharon was just using him to try and get pregnant, too, huh?"
"Yes," Sharon said sadly.
"So, that's all you are to the Cylons, a potential baby-making machine?"
"Yeah, I guess so," Sharon whispered, her expression bleak.
True to her word, it took Kara less than a half hour to remove the faulty auto-pilot and have the ship once again fully operational. Sitting in the pilot's seat, feeling the engines roar to life and seeing all the lights on the instrument panel indicating that all the systems were responding, Kara felt her spirits lift for the first time in several very dark hours. Yes! I swear, sometimes I amaze even myself, she thought happily.
Once Helo had rejoined them, she programmed the Galactica's coordinates into the transport's FTL drive and they made their plan for escape. The two Raptor pilots would wait inside the transport, giving Kara 20 minutes to make it back to her Raider. Then both ships would take off. They would rendezvous just above the city's coordinates, just outside the planet's exosphere. Kara would give them a tail wag as a signal that it was her and not a real Raider. At that point they would begin their jumps to the Galactica. Since the transport could not make the trip in one jump, they would have to take it in stages.
Before she left the two junior officers to head back to the museum, Kara took Helo aside for a moment. "Last chance, you're sure about this?" she asked him quietly. "You're sure about taking her back with us?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding.
"You do realize that she was just using you the whole time?"
"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't really change anything. I mean, if she really is pregnant then... whatever she's carrying is half mine and... I can't just ignore that."
Kara sighed and gave his arm a squeeze. "You're a good guy, Helo."
"Yeah, let's hear it for me," he said, sourly.
"Oh, uh, one more thing," Kara said, pausing as she was about to leave. "You're gonna want to be on your guard. I don't know what kind of a reception we're going to get back at the Galactica. I didn't tell you before, but I didn't exactly have permission for this little jaunt."
"What? You mean you're AWOL?" Helo gaped.
"Uh, yeah, kind of...," she said with a grimace.
"How can you be 'kind of' AWOL? Damn, Starbuck... Oh well, it doesn't really matter. You won't get in any trouble. You never get in trouble for the crap you pull. The Old Man always covers your ass. Everyone knows that."
Stung by the bitterness in his words, Kara said, "That's not true."
"Yeah, it is," he said firmly.
"Yeah, well, I'll see you guys in 20 minutes," she said and quickly left the hangar bay.
A half hour later, standing on the roof of the building nearest the municipal spaceport, a statuesque blonde in a white raincoat watched the fading glow of the transport's engines disappearing into the black sky, a slight smile playing on her lips. Everything was going quite smoothly. The transponder in the stolen Raider would allow them to track the ship. All they had to do was keep another Raider within transmission range and they would be led right to the Galactica.
"Draedis contact sir!" Lt. Gaeta called out from his station. "Confirmed, one Cylon Raider and one... unidentified ship... it looks Colonial."
Tigh looked up from his paperwork. "Launch the alert fi-."
"Wait sir!" Dee interrupted. "I'm receiving coded signals from the Raider... It's Starbuck, sir... She says the ship with her is a friendly."
"Sir, I have another contact!" Gaeta broke in again. "Another Raider, it's headed to-... wait, it's gone, sir. It jumped."
"Did it have time to get a fix on our location?"
"I would assume so, sir."
Tigh heaved a heavy sigh that sounded more like a growl and when he spoke, his voice was tight with suppressed anger. "Give Starbuck and her friend clearance to land on the port side pod. Have a security team meet me there. Mr. Gaeta, you have the bridge."
15 minutes later, Col. Tigh and his small detachment of Marines had the pleasure of being the first ones to see Starbuck climb out of her stolen Raider.
"Oh, you really did it this time, didn't you?" he asked, almost happily, walking up to stand inches away from her. "You led the Cylons right to us! You were followed by another Raider. You compromised the safety of his fleet and for what!" Glancing down, he saw the Arrow in her hand. He snatched it away from her and brandished it in her face. "For this! For a ridiculous little piece of metal!"
The colonel's rant was interrupted by a sudden flurry of activity among the Marines. Sharon and Helo had just disembarked from the transport and on sight of the female pilot, the Marines immediately trained every weapon on her. Turning his attention to the newcomers, Tigh recognized the young man.
"Helo?" he said softly. "What the hell?"
"Sir, I can explain everything," Starbuck said, moving to stand in front of Sharon.
"She's a Cylon," Tigh said. "There's nothing to explain."
"Yes, obviously, but sh-."
"She's here to finish the job her counterpart started."
"Job? What are you talking about?"
"Her counterpart here on the ship, shot the commander."
"What?" Kara whispered, feeling like the bottom of her entire world had just dropped out from under her feet. "Is he...?"
"I didn't know anything about that, sir, I swear!" Sharon spoke up.
"Get her out of here!" Tigh barked to the Marines.
"Wait, sir, she's wounded!" Helo pleaded.
"So? That's going to be the least of her worries soon enough."
"But sir, she's also pregnant."
"What? That's crap!"
"Sir, it would be easy enough to determine if she's telling the truth," Kara pointed out, forcing her mind back to the crisis at hand.
Just then the situation was diffused by a call over the PA system for Tigh. "Pass the word for Col. Tigh. Will Col. Tigh please report to the infirmary. Col. Tigh, please report to the infirmary."
With another growling sigh, Tigh turned to the Marine sergeant, "Bring all three of them, but keep her under heavy guard," he said, gesturing to Sharon.
Doctor Connelly watched the bizarre parade of people troop into his infirmary with the unflappable calm of a man who has seen just about everything through the course of his long career.
"Doc, I've an interesting case for you," Tigh said, walking up to the doctor and pointing at Sharon, "a pregnant Cylon."
"Well, that should be a first," the doctor said calmly. Turning to one of the corpsmen standing nearby, he said, "Find a bed for her and see to her injury. We'll deal with her later."
As two Marines followed Sharon and the corpsman, the doctor got a look at Helo. "You appear to be favoring your right leg, Young Man. I'll need to have a look at that as well."
"Oh, it's okay. It's healing nicely," Helo said quickly.
"Mmhmm, I'll be the judge of that," the doctor said dismissively, gesturing for another corpsman to take charge of the pilot.
Tigh turned back to the Marines. "I want a guard on him as well," he said.
"But sir, it's Helo," Kara protested as two Marines moved to obey this order.
"Is it?"
Realizing the validity of his point, she fell silent.
"So, what is it you wanted?" Tigh asked, turning his attention back to the doctor.
"I wanted to inform you personally that we're about to take the commander into surgery."
"So, he's still alive?" Kara asked.
"For now."
"For now?" Tigh repeated.
"I'll be honest," Connelly said, with brutal calm, "it doesn't look good. One of the bullets came dangerously close to the heart and he's not a young man, but he is in good health... We'll do everything we can for him."
"Of course," Tigh said softly. "Let me know when you're done."
Connelly nodded. "Oh, Colonel, I promised Capt. Adama that I would keep him informed..."
"Yeah, don't worry, I'll tell him."
The doctor nodded and left them. Kara glanced around the infirmary, realizing for the first time that Lee wasn't present. Why wasn't he here, too, waiting for word on his father?
"Where is Lee?" she asked.
"Oh, don't worry, Lieutenant, you're going to be joining him right now," Tigh said, with a slight malicious smile.
"And where's that?"
"The brig."
TO BE CONTINUED...