Battlestar Galactica: New Earth
Survivor Count: 38,631
Date: 1116 days after the fall of the Colonies
46 days after arriving on New Earth
Ithaca Colony, Southern Continent, New Earth:
Ithaca. The colony that never sleeps though Lee sometimes wishes that it would. Having never experienced life on New Caprica, he was unhappily confronted with the reality that three thousand people all living in tents can be heard for miles around.
It wasn't just the distant chattering, snoring and general noise that people made that was keeping Lee awake. He missed the hum of Galactica, its old creaking and groaning that he hadn't really paid attention to until it was gone. He knew his father felt the same way but their discussion never really went beyond monosyllabic agreement. The loss of the Galactica was apparently too raw to talk about.
Lee wasn't complaining; far from it. Out of the thousands of planets in the galaxy, in the universe, they had been guided to this one. Whether it was by the Gods, God or just Kara's random entrance of a lucky group of numbers into the computer, Lee didn't really care. What mattered was they had found home.
It wasn't a utopia and it was never going to be a utopia. In fact, Lee was certain that there was no such thing as a utopia. They still faced the same crises that they had experienced in the fleet. The need for a steady supply of food that wasn't algae, clean drinking water and somewhere dry to live were their immediate concerns and had been solved quite quickly; thanks to strict degree of military organisation and Gaius Baltar's unexpected knowledge of agriculture. However, these rudimentary issues of human comfort were soon overshadowed by more complex problems.
To begin with they were never going to be able to all live together. Building a home for thirty eight thousand people from scratch was a bad idea and besides not everybody wanted to live together. So the Sagitterons had gone north, the Gemenons had decided to go east and numerous other groups had splintered and gone their separate ways. Most of the former Galactica crewmembers had stayed together to form the Ithaca Colony and had elected Lee their…President? Mayor? Well, he didn't have a title but he knew he was in charge.
So, once their population had been whittled down to three thousand, more problems arose and most of those problems involved the Cylons. Ithaca had around two hundred Cylons living among them, mostly sixes and eights but only a few twos. They gathered together, gaining and giving suspicious looks. Lee didn't blame them for sticking together; they were living with the enemy after all. Every human on New Earth had a reason to hate them. But they behaved themselves, making themselves incredibly useful in the construction of the new colony and throwing themselves into building the individuality that most of them seemed to envy of their human counterparts. Lee was no longer surprised to see a brunette six or an eight with aggressively short hair. He could even begin to pick out various Cylons from a crowd. One that he couldn't fail to notice was Sonja. Not because she stood out from the other sixes in terms of physical appearance but because she always seemed to be following him with some kind of grievance.
Apparently she had even built enough one-sided familiarity to burst into his tent at six thirty in the morning.
"Adama, wake up," she always called him Adama, never Lee, it made him feel old. Lee was, of course, only pretending to be asleep but he wasn't going to tell Sonja that, "It's important,"
"How important?" Lee gauged, not opening his eyes.
"Murdered Cylon in the river important," she told him darkly.
This got Lee's attention. He sat up quickly, ignoring the sudden head rush, "Are you sure?"
"Oh, I'm sure," Sonja assured him, "Now, hurry up before it gets light and people see the body,"
Ithaca was nestled in a green valley, at the base of a small mountain and by the banks of a fast running river that separated them from a large forest. It was picturesque, beautiful but completely spoiled by the collection of grim looking people standing around awkwardly.
Lee was greeted by Doc Cottle, who was kneeling by the side of the victim, an eight dressed in an ill fitting Galactica uniform which was common amongst most of the Ithaca colonists. She was lying on her back in the wet mud, soaked through with blue tinted skin and a bloodied stain that blossomed from her chest.
"Stabbed," Cottle explained grimly, "Could've been anything, scalpel, butter knife…but I'm guessing she was still alive when she was thrown in the river,"
Lee looked sadly down at the eight, who looked strangely small and broken. He turned away quickly, "Do you know her name?" he asked Sonja who was standing nearby with a distracted, wide eyed look.
"Um…yes," she coughed, "Christina…she was working on the new schoolhouse and living was a group of Cylons. She…she was very popular,"
"Who found her?" Lee asked. He was suddenly filled with an overwhelming desire to find whoever had done this and make sure they paid.
"The bridge crew," Cottle said, getting to his feet and lighting a cigarette unconsciously, "They arrived for work and came for me,"
A small group of grave looking people that Lee recognised as the former deck gang on the Galactica were standing a short distance away. They had been working by the river for the past couple of weeks, building a sturdy wooden bridge over the grey waters.
"Lee, what should I do with the body?" Cottle continued.
"Erm…take her to the infirmary but don't spread the news around until we get a chance to find out what happened," Lee instructed.
"I think it's quite clear what's happened," Sonja told him. Lee prepared himself for a long lecture, "This is clearly a hate crime,"
"A hate crime?" Lee said sceptically. He knew that there was a lot of anti-Cylon feelings out there but so far they had no problems apart from a few shouting matches and a couple of brawls outside Joe's Bar, "Let's not jump to conclusions before there's been a full investigation,"
"An investigation? Lee, we don't have a police force," Sonja reminded him, "Who's going to be investigating? A human? A Cylon?"
Lee pondered for a moment. He knew that Sonja would never be happy with a human leading the investigation, she'd feel put upon. But Lee didn't want to risk an overly emotional Cylon out for revenge being put in charge either, "I know," Lee grinned, coming to a conclusion, "Someone with a perspective into both sides,"
"Oh really, who's that then?"
Saul Tigh had taken a large gulp from the mug that Ellen had handed him and was expecting coffee. It should have been coffee; the liquid was brown and hot but it tasted like mud. Saul spat him mouthful back into the mug with all his usual grace.
"What the frak is this?" he demanded.
"Don't you like it?" Ellen asked, sounding surprised, "This last expedition found it growing in the foothills. Tastes kind of like coffee, don't you think?"
"No!" Saul exclaimed, scraping his tongue with his teeth.
"It supposed to be good for you," Ellen scolded, "Apparently lowers your blood pressure,"
"I'll take high blood pressure, thank you very much," Saul grumbled getting to his feet.
Saul and Ellen were living in a tent again, just like on New Caprica. Except it wasn't as cold, they weren't under the subjugation of the Cylons and Saul was pretty sure it wasn't all going to end with him poisoning Ellen again. They actually settled into quite a steady routine; they woke early, had breakfast then Ellen would act as a sort of go to person for every Cylon who had something to get off their chests while Saul would spend his day making maps of the surrounding area with Bill. They would meet up again in the evenings, talk about their day, go to Joe's or just stay in. It was pretty nice, actually. But a little dull.
Saul was having trouble coming down from being XO of a Battlestar to what was basically retirement. It was alright for Ellen, she had the other Cylons treating her like a mixture of mother, president and religious leader but Saul didn't feel like joining in and being looking at in awe by about two hundred Cylons who only a few months ago he supposed to hate.
Before Saul could complain about his drink anymore, or Ellen could make some crack about his blood pressure that would make him feel old, they were interrupted by the appearance of Lee Adama. Lee had always been a puzzle to Saul, whether it was having never had children of his own, or never seeing eye to eye with the younger Adama, he didn't know but Saul always expected him to be a bit more like Bill.
"Morning," Lee greeted them gravely.
"Good morning Lee," Ellen replied cheerily, "Do you want to sit down?"
"Erm…I've actually got some bad news," Lee said awkwardly, "The bridge crew found the body of an eight by the river this morning, her name was Christina. She had been…stabbed,"
Ellen's face fell dramatically, unlike Saul she remembered her maternal instincts toward her creations, "Who?" she asked breathlessly.
"We don't know, that's actually why I'm here," he said, turning to Saul, "Someone needs to lead an investigation,"
"Me?" Saul said bemusedly, "I'm no cop,"
"I know but you're no idiot…"
"Oh…thank you very much,"
"…and you're a Cylon who lived as a human," Lee concluded.
"No bias," Ellen concluded, "You need to do this," she told him grabbing hold of his hand.
"Alright," Saul agreed, "But didn't even know this eight…"
"You wouldn't have to do it alone," Lee added, "I've already thought of someone to help,"
"Do you mean like a sidekick?" Saul shrugged, looking around the tent for his boots, "This is beginning to sound like a bad detective story,"
"I'm nobodies frakking sidekick, Lee," Kara yelled, grabbing one end of a wooden plank with Brendan Costanza at the other, "Especially not, Saul frakking Tigh,"
"Come on," Lee urged following the pair through the building site towards the outer shell of a house that they were building, "I thought you and Saul got along,"
"We don't not get alone, is all Lee," Kara said, walking too fast for Brendan to keep up.
"Oh, so would you rather stay here and carry timber with Hotdog," Lee cut back at her.
"Hey," Brendan piped up.
"No offence," Lee apologised, "But you're always complaining about working here…"
"Lee…I'll be honest with you unless the next job you're going to give me is lying in bed with a bottle of ambrosia and cigar, I gonna complain," Kara retorted dropping the timber suddenly.
"Well, why not complain while solving a crime," Lee said pulling Kara away from the building site and leaving Brendan to carry the timber by himself, "Come on, didn't you ever read those old detective stories,"
"No, Lee, I didn't," Kara groaned, "Fine, but you owe me,"
"How do you work that one out?" Lee frowned.
"I don't know but you do," she grumbled, stalking off to find Tigh.
Tigh and Kara stood in silence looking at the mess of footprints that covered the river bank. The over excitement of the bridge crew who had discovered the body made it impossible to tell if any of them belonged to the killer.
"No good, huh?" Kara sighed.
"Let's go talk to Cottle," Tigh said, they were keeping their conversation to a minimum both wary of starting an argument that neither one of them would win or want to lose.
They walked in silence towards the only fully constructed building, the hospital.
"What I don't get is why she was all the way out by the river," Kara posited, "I mean the Cylons live all the way out on the other side of town,"
"Maybe she knew the killer," Tigh replied, "Maybe they were meeting,"
"Do you think it was a crime of passion?" Kara laughed, "Do we have any suspects, detective?"
"I don't know what the frak you're doing here, Starbuck," Tigh replied curtly, "You couldn't find your own tent, let alone a murderer,"
"That was one time and I was drunk besides I found this rock, didn't I?" Kara snapped back angrily.
Their bickering lasted until they arrived in the chilly morgue that Cottle was sneaking a quick smoke in, "Fighting already?" he noted.
"No," they both said in unison before giving each other disparaging looks.
"What's the story, Doc?" Tigh continued, trying not to look at Christina's body, which was covered by a sheet but still inexplicably distressing him. He mentally shook himself, he had probably seen hundreds of bodies in his time and there was nothing different about this one. Except he could shake the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach; it was same feeling he got when the eight dying in Galactica's infirmary had called him father.
Cottle sighed, picking up a clipboard and stubbing out his cigarette in a metal dish, "Not good, the stab wound wasn't enough to kill her,"
"So she drowned?" Kara said achingly looking down on the familiar face that Christina shared with so many others.
"As far as I can tell she dragged herself onto the banks and…died of exposure," Cottle said scratching the corner of his eye, "And that's not all, this young lady was pregnant…" he coughed unhappily.
"Frak," Kara sighed, clutching her temple, "So, whoever did this killed a baby, frakker,"
"I think its time to talk to Christina's bunkmates," Tigh grimaced, "We need to find out who the father is,"
Christina had lived with three other Cylons, a fellow eight named Jocasta and two sixes named Mia and Rachel. The tent they lived in was cramped, there was barely enough room for the two sets of bunk beds they slept in but there were homey, feminine touches; a vase of flowers at the foot of one bed, dirty boots arranged neatly by the entrance and a colourful rug that decorated the little floor space they had.
When Tigh and Kara entered the tent it was quite except for the sniffling tears from a red eyed Jocasta who being comforted by Mia. As soon as she saw Tigh, Jocasta was sent into floods of tears again and barrelled straight into his chest, stealing a long hug. The sixes looked surprised, Kara looked surprised but it was nothing on the confused, terrified look that Tigh wore. Tigh settled for giving the crying woman an uncertain pat on the head before guiding her back into the arms of Mia and ignoring wet patch of tears on his shirt.
"I'm sorry…" Jocasta gasped, calming down, "I just can't believe she's dead…I mean dead dead,"
"I know," Tigh said trying to sound comforting and wishing sincerely that Lee had sent someone more emotionally adjusted than Starbuck and himself to question the bereaved, "We just need you to tell us about what Christina was doing last night,"
Rachel, the apparent leader of the group, took charge, "We don't know, she wasn't hear,"
"Did she often spend the night away," Tigh inquired.
"Not every night," Rachel answered vaguely.
"Did she have any other…friends," Tigh continued.
"Ok…stop dancing around the question," Kara interrupted, "Was she frakking anybody?" she asked bluntly.
The three of them exchanged furtive looks before Rachel spoke again, "Yes," she said anxiously.
It's like pulling teeth, Kara groaned inwardly, "Who?" she demanded.
"Leoben Conoy," Rachel said darkly.
Frak me, now that was a surprise, Kara thought.
Ok, so what do you think? You've probably guessed that I've completely disregarded the actual BSG ending. It's not that I didn't like it, I just didn't want to write about it.
Anyway, I'm probably completely overestimating my ability to stick with a story, I always get carried away and plan them too long. But this one has been rattling around in my head for months, in some form or another. So I thought it was probably best to just write it and see what happens.