DISCLAIMER: Battlestar Galactica and all related characters are the property of Universal Pictures and Syfy Channel and based on the series created by Glen A. Larson. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. The story and all original characters are the sole property of the author and may not be used or archived without permission.


THE CYLONS WERE CREATED BY MAN

THEY REBELLED

THEY EVOLVED

THERE WERE TWELVE MODELS AND MANY COPIES

SOME WANTED TO DESTROY MAN…

OTHERS WANTED TO MAKE PEACE

THE PEACEMAKERS HELPED MAN FIND EARTH

SOME CYLONS SETTLED THERE…

OTHERS WENT TO FIND THEIR OWN PLACE IN THE STARS

NOW, THE CYLONS THAT LEFT ARE ON THEIR WAY BACK TO EARTH…

AND THEY HAVE A PLAN


PREVIOUSLY, ON BATTLESTAR GALACTICA:

"All this has happened before…"

"But the question remains, does all this have to happen again?"

"This time I bet 'No.'"

"You know, I've never known you to play the optimist. Why the change of heart?"

"Mathematics. Law of Averages. Let a complex system repeat itself long enough, eventually something surprising might occur."


EARTH, 150,010 YEARS AFTER THE FALL

POPULATION: 6,697,254,041

There were few things in life Gina Sexton hated more than the shrill sound of her cellphone's alarm tone. That was important. An otherwise pleasant tone would simply have lulled her back to sleep, and she would never have gotten up at Six AM on a Sunday morning. She'd also taken the extra step of sequestering the phone behind the lamp on her nightstand so that she couldn't reach it without getting up or toppling the lamp. With a sigh she chose option A, sitting up on the edge of the bed and stretching before reaching around the lamp to retrieve the phone. A few keystrokes later, there was blissful silence in the bedroom again.

Gina just sat there for a moment, eyes half-shut, blond hair disheveled, her Seahawks nightshirt hanging haphazardly off her tall, slim body, and contemplated the agenda for the day. It would start, as did every Sunday, with church. (Not her idea.)

Movement and a soft groan drew Gina's attention to her bedmate. There she lay, half under the covers and her back turned to Gina. Gina smiled, appreciating the sight of the naked back and remembering the feel of the rest of the naked body that she'd played with so shamelessly last night. Grinning, Gina half-turned and leaned over to brush aside long black hair and plant a long kiss on the side of her partner's lips.

Valerie Ochoa squirmed and tried to turn away. "Ugh! Morning breath! You're kissing me with morning breath!"

Gina backed off and rolled her eyes. "Such a romantic."

"We can be romantic after you brush your teeth."

"We won't have time afterward, darling, because we have an appointment with God's home on Earth...and then I have to go to work."

"Then you'll just have to postpone having your way with me again until later tonight. And anyway, didn't we do it enough last night? Why aren't you as tired as I am?"

"I am as tired as you. I just don't get to sleep in on Sundays anymore."

"Well, whose fault is that?"

"Oh, boy..." Gina muttered. she wasn't going to get into that argument right now. She straightened up and stretched again. "Come on, Val," she said through a yawn. "It's your fault I have to go to mass today so the least you can do is pretend you're enthusiastic about going too."

"All right, already!" Valerie said. "I'm getting up!" She sat up groggily, letting the sheets covering her flop down and expose her nude torso.

Gina looked at her and giggled.

Valerie glared back at her through squinted eyes. "What's so funny?"

"You look so hot and stupid," Gina said. She was taking in every inch of dusky skin that had been revealed to her. "You make me want to do a sex tape with you."

"Fuck you," Valerie said.

Gina was suddenly cheerful. "I believe you managed that a few times last night, dear!"

"Good! Then my work is done! Go find another girlfriend!"

"Can't. All the other Hot Asian Lesbians are taken. I checked."

"Then on behalf of me and all my sistahs..." She pointed imperiously at the bathroom. "...go bathe!"

Gina grinned wickedly. "Want to shower together?"

Valerie leaned toward Gina and pinched her cheek. "Oh, sweetie, I'm sure by now you know how to take a shower all by yourself!"

"Showering by myself is boring! Showering together is fun!"

"Yes, but showering by yourself means you might actually get clean, as opposed to when we shower together and spend most of our time trying to poke each other with the showerhead."

"I'm not going to get you in there with me, am I?"

"Not this morning." She kissed Gina's cheek and pointed again. "Go."

Gina sighed "Yes, Dear" and got up off the bed, then she trudged to the bathroom door. She stripped off the nightshirt just inside the door, then did a little dance for Valerie's benefit.

"It's not working," Valerie said with a grin.

"Oh, you know it's working," Gina said with a wink and a nod before she closed the bathroom door.


She emerged twenty minutes later wearing towels around her torso and hair and accompanied by a cloud of shower steam. "AAAAAAnnnnnd, I'm done!" She said.

"Good!" Valerie said. She was sitting on the edge of the bed with her legs crossed and rocking back and forth. She got up as quickly as she could without opening her legs and darted toward the bathroom.

"Wait!" Gina said, blocking her way. She smiled and asked through her teeth, "Teeth pretty?"

Valerie shifted her feet and nodded. "Gorgeous!"

Gina exhaled. "No more morning breath?"

Valerie started to bob up and down. "Nope! Minty Fresh!"

Gina smiled prettily. "Kiss me now?"

Valerie looked scandalized for a second, then attempted to raise up on her toes to kiss her tall lover...then crouched down with a grimace and crab-walked around Gina and into the bathroom. "Hold that thought!" She squealed as the door closed.

Gina grinned wickedly and tiptoed over to the door. She pressed an ear against it and giggled when she heard her baby sigh in relief. "You know," she teased, "you wouldn't end up in that state if you didn't insist on sending me in before you on Sunday."

"And you know perfectly well," Valerie retorted, "that I take longer to get ready than you do, so you'd just end up in a worse state!"

"Ah, but if we just took turns peeing and then showered together, think of all the time we'd save..."

"Or lose because of that one-track mind of yours!" The toilet flushed and Valerie opened the door enough to stick her head out. "And anyway, we could also solve the problem by you finally putting in a water closet downstairs like you keep promising to do."

"'Have done,' dear, by an actual plumber."

"Don't think you can handle it, Miss Big Shot Engineer?"

Gina checked her fingernails. "I'm just admitting my limitations. If you want a functioning water closet, we hire a plumber. If you want one with a sink and a toilet that transform into robots, I'll take a crack at it."

"Show off," Valerie said. She stuck her tongue out at Gina and ducked back into the bathroom. "I started coffee!" She called through the door.

"'Kay!" Gina called back. She unwrapped the towel from her hair as she moved over to the small, fancy vanity in the room, then she sat down and began to blow dry and brush her hair. By the time Valerie was done in the bathroom Gina was deep into their shared walk-in closet looking for something to wear.

Gina held an outfit in front of her as Valerie stepped in. "What do you think?"

Valerie smirked. It was one of Gina's power suits. It was jet black and consisted of tailored slacks, a vest and cinch-waist jacket. Gina usually wore a white or pink half-open blouse with this one, along with black spike-heeled boots. "It's perfect," Valerie said. "It's mannish and dykey and says proudly 'I use my ring finger to fuck other girls.' The church ladies will hate it...and you, by the way."

Gina grinned and held two thumbs up. "Awesome! That's just what I was going for!"

Valerie just shook her head and left to blow dry her hair. A few moments later Gina emerged from the closet carrying the suit, a white blouse and the boots and laid everything out on her side of the bed. Then she headed for the dresser, tossing her other towel haphazardly into the bathroom on the way.

The dresser was across the room from the vanity, so Valerie turned her head enough to watch out of the corner of her eye as Gina picked out some underwear. When they'd first moved into their modest house, Gina had left it up to Val to work out where their clothes would go in the bedroom. Maliciously, Val always kept their unmentionables in the bottom drawers assuming that, tomboy that she was, Gina would never do something as ladylike as crouch to get something from them. In the two years since they'd moved in, Gina always put on a show when Val had the opportunity to watch her dress.

When she reached the dresser, Gina stood in front of it and bent at the hips to open her drawer and collect panties and a bra. Her legs were slightly spread, and the view the motion displayed to her made Valerie bite her bottom lip. Damn, she thought, those long, exquisite legs converging on glory! It took only a second before Gina straightened up, but the image was burned in Val's brain whenever she got a chance to see it. With the show over, Valerie turned her attention back to her hair.

Gina slipped on the black lace undergarments and then went over to the bed and got fully dressed. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and checked the opening of her shirt to make sure she was showing just enough cleavage, then checked how she looked overall in the full length mirror by the vanity. With the blow dryer still going full blast as she brushed, Valerie called out to Gina, "You look like a trophy wife in mourning!"

Gina leaned close and cupped her ear. "What's that?" She called back. "You say you want to fuck me like a trophy wife this morning? Okay! Let's do that instead of going to church!"

Valerie turned off the blow dryer. "Leave me so that I can get dressed in peace."

Gina laughed as she turned and left the bedroom.


The next order of business was to grab the Sunday paper. Gina trotted downstairs to the living room and poked her head out the front door. The paper had landed halfway up the front walk, so she would have to take a short trip to retrieve it. As she walked down she looked around at her neighbors' houses. No one else was outside in the sleepy neighborhood right now, but she knew for a fact that several of the houses' occupants were getting ready to attend the same mass as Gina and Valerie. Some of them were the evil church ladies. Gina thought about them and grinned as she bent to pick up the paper.

The heavy Sunday edition of the Post-Intelligencer was in its component parts before Gina got back inside. A quick glimpse of the front page of the Sports section reminded her the Seahawks were playing the Arizona Cardinals this afternoon. I miss football, she thought. She hadn't seen a game on gameday since the season started.

Gina kept the Sports section and spread the rest of the paper out on the island in the kitchen. She read the front page column about the division game she was going to miss as she went to one of the kitchen cabinets and got out her "World's Sexiest Engineer" mug, then poured some coffee from the coffeemaker on the counter. She only laid the section down long enough to sit on one of the island's stools, then started scooping sugar into the mug as she resumed.

She was halfway through the coffee and almost through with the column by the time she heard Valerie clack into the kitchen in heels of her own. "I hope you didn't use up half the sugar in the jar like you always do."

"'Course not. I showed amazing restraint," Gina lied confidently.

Valerie didn't buy it, but didn't pursue the matter. She simply went to get her LIVE! with Regis and Kelly mug(it looked just like the ones on tee-vee) and poured her own coffee.

Gina finished the column and looked up as Valerie walked to the other side of the island. Her eyebrow went up. "Canary? Seriously?"

Valerie smiled. "Somebody has to offset your 'Vampire Diaries' look." She was wearing a canary yellow dress and blazer with matching pumps, gold stud earrings and a gold choker with a little crucifix on it. She had taken the trouble to tie her hair into a twist to show off the jewelry. "How do I look?"

"Like your mom," Gina said with a raised eyebrow...then she pretended to be a hillbilly while she said, "...but that's okay, 'cuz yer mom's hot!"

"Shut up and finish your coffee," Valerie muttered, then sat down opposite her as Gina obeyed. She thumbed through the remains of the paper and found the magazine, then added two light spoonfuls of sugar and a dash of creamer to her coffee before settling in to read.

They continued to read and drink coffee in silence for ten minutes, then Gina lowered her section and her mug and leaned forward to talk to Valerie. "Sweetie, do we have to go to church today?"

Val never raised her head. "Yes."

Gina persevered. "It's just that...I really do want to spend as much time with you as I can, because I don't have all that much free time lately...and, yes, that's partly my fault, but I have time to be with you now...and I utterly don't want to spend any of it sitting on a hardwood bench in the midst of a bunch of hypocrites professing their love of God and their fellow man."

"Duly noted, but you just said you wanted to spend time with me, so unless you change your mind about that, mass is how you'll be spending it."

"You can worship God anywhere, any way you want."

"Exactly, and I want to worship God at St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church in the way I've done it since I was baptized."

Gina groaned and pressed her fists to her temples. "Some of those people hate us."

"And some of them have been very sweet...at least to me. They might be sweet to you too if you didn't act like every one of them is a queen bitch all the time."

"I don't act like that at all!"

"Please! Last week Mrs. Passamonte took me aside and asked very quietly if you've ever abused me."

"Hmmph. Does she actually care?"

Now Valerie put down the magazine and coffee and turned to look Gina in the eye. "Yes, she cares! I'm trying to tell you that not everyone in the congregation is an enemy!"

"The Church itself considers us the enemy! They think we're nothing but sinners!"

"All human beings sin! The definition of sin is not doing what God intended!"

"Well that makes it pretty hard to avoid sin, doesn't it, considering no one can know what God's intentions truly are!"

"So the way you find out is to talk to him and listen and hope he answers...and I prefer to do my talking in a church. And anyway, stop bullshitting me. This isn't about the few pinheads who don't want to see us there. You have a problem with God himself."

Gina shrugged. "Herself, itself..."

Valerie plowed on. "You spend so much of your life making little pieces of metal fit together and move around that you've forgotten how to have faith in things you can't see."

"I'm not having a crisis of faith, Val..."

"No, it's only a crisis if you want to hold on to faith. For some reason, you don't want to hold on, and that makes you resist going with me."

"Can't it just be that I've outgrown the ritual and ceremony? I was baptized and confirmed too, you know..."

"It's not the ritual. It's the object of the ritual."

"So now you're analyzing me?"

"I don't have to analyze anything. I already know you better than most people."

"You think so?"

"Absolutely. In fact," - she checked her slim watch - "I'm pretty sure you were trying to start a longer argument with me so that it would be too late for us to go, and maybe we could have make-up sex afterward." She smiled. "Nice try. We'll get there in time for the first reading."


They actually got there a few minutes before - thanks to what Gina liked to call Valerie's maniac driving - and found seats in the nearly empty pews in the back of St. Anne's. Only a few glances shot their way as they entered, and true to her baby's word, only about half were openly hostile. The others were actually friendly, and she could see Mrs. Passamonte offer Valerie a smile and a wave. The smile melted when she glimpsed Gina, and she looked as if she'd jump between the two lovers to protect her friend, but she at least offered a little nod.

There was one thing Val had been wrong about. No matter what her other misgivings were, Gina loathed the drudging repetitiveness of the Catholic Mass. The same damn thing, every Sunday since I was five, she thought. From the readings, to the sermon, to the Sign of Peace, Holy Communion, etc., Gina saw it all coming, and wished fervently - though silently - that some cosmic being with a remote control would save her from this eternal rerun. Her feelings were usually so acute on the subject that whenever the priest finally said "Let us go in peace to love and serve The Lord," she was the most emphatic of the congregation in giving the standard response:

"Thanks be to God!"

Valerie was one of those parishoners that liked to stop and compliment the priest on the service, a practice that Gina had never understood. It's like congratulating an extra for reading a stage direction properly. It's not like he'd had to ad lib anything. Still, she shook hands with him politely and stayed quiet as Valerie discussed the mass with him for few minutes. He didn't seem especially belligerent towards them, but Gina was ready to excuse herself to the car in case anything fire-and-brimstone like started spewing out of his mouth. Fortunately, nothing like that happened.

After the visit with the priest the trek to the parking lot was interrupted a few times by friends of Val's. Valerie introduced Gina to the ones who didn't know her and spent a moment sharing small talk with each. Mrs. Passamonte and her husband were last. The woman was cordial enough when Val introduced Gina, but the diminutive, salt-and-pepper haired grandmother had a look on her face that said "I'm watching you and I have the Domestic Violence Hotline on speed dial!" How boring, Gina thought as Val politely turned down an invitation to the Passamontes for brunch.

They walked to their car holding hands. "There," Valerie said, "that wasn't so bad, was it?"

"Oh, it was torture," Gina over-acted. "Absolute torture! I don't know if I can go on!"

"Drama queen..." Valerie muttered.

Gina smiled. "Okay...it wasn't so bad..."

"Was it tolerable enough for you to try and come with me more often?"

"If I say 'Yes' can I have a kiss?"

"If you say 'yes' I won't leave you for a tennis player. If you say 'yes' and mean it, I'll think about the kiss."

"Then I'll think about saying 'yes'. After all, it's not like you're going to find a tennis player to shack up with on a Sunday morning."

Valerie huffed. "Sometimes I hate you with an all-consuming passion."

Gina smiled and acted coy. "Stay with me and I promise I'll grow on you."

They didn't speak again until after they were belted into the car. Valerie was in the driver's seat again. She paused just before her thumb reached the starter button and turned to Gina. "Are you sure you don't have time to have breakfast with me and the girls?"

Gina got very serious. "I'm sure, sweetie."

"You wouldn't have to stay the whole time. Just a few minutes..."

Gina sighed. "Val, I had time to go to church with you or have breakfast with you. Not both, and you chose church."

Valerie frowned. She started fuming as she started the car, then continued to fume as she guided it out of the church parking lot and out of their little Seattle neighborhood. It wasn't until they were on the highway to Renton that she felt calm enough to speak again. "You know, I'd love to know what you're building that's so goddamn important it keeps you away from home for so much of the week."

Gina pinched the bridge of her nose. I guess we are going to have this argument after all. " I have told you, over and over, that I can't tell you what I'm building, because then we'd both go to jail..."

"Why? What's the big secret? It's not like I can't figure out you're building some kind of robot! I was sleeping with you while you were studying robotics in college, remember?"

"... and I have also told you why we're putting in so many hours working on it..."

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah...big fucking government contract..."

"Exactly! The big fucking government development contract that the company is currently behind schedule in fulfilling, and that the company is trying to negotiate an extension for, and until we get that extension we're obligated to meet the original deadlines, which means we have to put in more hours. You're lucky I could carve out this much time on a weekend and we're not working 24/7..."

"Right, I feel so lucky...Come off it, Gina! You do work 24/7! When you're home I need a nuclear bomb to blast you out of your stupid little office and away from your stupid little computer, and even then your lackeys are always calling with some little problem or another!"

"God, Val...I have an obligation to finish this project! What do you want from me?"

"You have an obligation to me, your partner, and I'm just selfish enough to want you to give that obligation priority. I'm tired of sharing you with some...bomb-sniffing moon rover..."

Gina gasped and stared at Val with wide eyes. "Who told you?"

Flustered, Val alternated between watching the road and looking at Gina. "Wait...what, that's it? That's...?"

Gina grinned. "Just kidding." She pointed out the windscreen. "Watch the road."

It would take a minute. Gina had to be sure she'd defused the situation properly, so she watched Valerie's face. Val's mouth twitched a few times, then she started to laugh, more out of frustration than amusement. "Hate you..." she muttered, "...all-consuming passion."

Gina settled back in her seat. "I'll be happy if there's at least more passion than hate."

"Well, don't get too comfortable, because that depends on how you address my other problem with your job."

Gina's eyebrow went up. "What other problem?"

Valerie hissed the name through her teeth. "Brittany."

"What's Brittany got to do with...wait...you don't think we're having an affair?"

"I know she wants to have an affair with you. It's so obvious."

"She's not even bisexual, Val!"

"She can be totally straight and still have a strong enough girl-crush to want to do it at least once."

"And what bad co-ed porno did you get that bit of wisdom from?"

Val smirked. "I got it from you, that night in our dorm after you were nine beers into our bender and you started telling me your sexual history. As I recall, that 'bit of wisdom' was supposedly the source of a third of your sexual conquests."

"You should know better than to listen to me when I'm drunk."

"You should know better than to talk when you're drunk. And all I'm saying right now is that Brittany the Research Assistant is campaigning hard to join that third of your conquests."

"Well, that's silly. I don't see that at all."

"Of course you don't. Here...maybe it would be clearer if it were someone playing Brittany." She took a deep breath, then put on the most fawning smile she could manage. "Oh, you're sooo brilliant, Dr. Sexton! I'm sooo lucky to be working with you! That's a wonderful idea, Dr. Sexton! You'll get the Nobel prize for sure! This company would be lost without someone like you here, Dr. Sexton! Gee, could you fistfuck me on your desk while I sing a love ballad to you, Dr. Sexton?"

Gina could only stare for a moment. "I think you're exaggerating just a little."

"Yeah, just a little. That's kinda my point." She sighed. "Well, I suppose I should be grateful it's just some girl fresh out of college that's my competition. With all the men you work with I'm surprised none of them has made a move on you."

Gina chuckled. "I'm not. They don't want to fuck me. They want to fuck you."

"Beg your pardon?"

"Yeah...now who's oblivious? You should see the horny stares you get when you visit the facility. Sometimes I want to carry around a bucket of ice water just to pour down the guys' pants."

"Seriously?"

"Y'know, it makes perfect sense when you think about it in context. Obviously, the real reason for all the extra work hours is really to work me to death so that all the guys can come to my funeral and gang-'comfort' the widow."

"Ewww! Don't even joke!"

"About me dying or you getting tag-teamed?"

"Either, you sicko!"

"Fine, fine...all I'm saying is if I have a fan club, yours is bigger."

"You realize all you've done is give me another reason to hate where you work."

Gina sighed. "Always happy to help you find perspective, darling."


The compound that housed the Searing Aerospace Advanced Defense Programs facility dominated the nearby city of Renton with its expanse. Known colloquially as the "Ghost Works," it was where Searing engineers developed top secret projects for government agencies. The facility consisted of a few administration buildings, several hangars and an airfield with a ten-thousand foot runway. The entire complex was surrounded by a carefully grown and maintained forest area and high walls of varying types, all designed to discourage snooping from local roads. There was only one way in by car, a winding access road that led to the massive main gate.

Valerie turned onto the access road and slowed down. Gina smiled but said nothing. Val always turned into a more conscientious driver whenever she turned onto the road, as if she were afraid someone might mistake her for a deranged car bomber. (The security exercise Gina broke several rules to tell her about might have had something to do with it...)

They reached the gate a few minutes later and Valerie slowed to a stop in front of the barricade extending from the guardhouse on the right side. A tall, well-built male security guard came out of the guardhouse and walked around to the driver's side. While he walked, Gina pulled her ID passcard out of a jacket pocket and Val grabbed her dependent's pass from the driver's seat visor.

The guard bent down to look in the driver's side window and smiled. "Morning, Dr. Sexton," he said.

"Morning, Jimmy," Gina said. She handed Val her ID, then Val handed both cards to Jimmy.

Gina watched closely as Jimmy took the cards. She was sure his smile got perceptibly wider as he said, "Good Morning, Ms. Ochoa. How are you today?"

"Just fine, Jimmy," Valerie said with a smile of her own.

"Could you pop the hood and the trunk, please?"

"Sure." It was a routine enough request. Valerie touched the appropriate controls and the hood and trunk popped open.

Jimmy nodded. "This will only take a minute." He straightened up and headed back into the guardhouse as two other guards came out, one leading a German Shepherd on a leash. The dog handler let the shepherd sniff around the perimeter of the vehicle. The third guard followed behind them, pausing to inspect the engine for a few moments before closing the hood. Jimmy had come back out by the time the others had reached the trunk. He went back to join them.

Gina seized the opportunity. She leaned over and whispered in Valerie's ear, "Right now, Jimmy's telling them that they could knock me out and carry you away with them before anyone even noticed..."

Valerie swatted her away as Gina giggled. "Oh my God, Stop it!" Val hissed.

The sound of the trunk being closed settled them down. They were sitting properly in their seats when Jimmy came back to return their ID cards. After that he stuck a small sticker on the front windscreen just above the DMV tags. "There you go," he said, "you're all set."

"Thanks, Jimmy," Gina said as she took her card back. Meanwhile, Valerie was forcing herself not to laugh at the sticker. Big, top secret facility making weapons of doom and the temporary access sticker is colored pink. It struck her as hilarious every time she drove in here.

Jimmy drew her attention again. "Now remember, Ms. Ochoa, that sticker means you can drive in, drop Dr. Sexton off..."

"...and drive right back out," Valerie finished, "no stops. I remember."

Jimmy smiled, then said, "And you want her cleared to pick you up later tonight, right, Doc?"

"That's right, Jimmy," Gina said through her smiling teeth. She hated being called 'Doc.'

Jimmy didn't notice. He never did, which is why he kept on smiling as he said, "I'll take care of that. You ladies have a nice day." He straightened up and signaled the guardhouse. Someone inside raised the barrier, clearing the way for Valerie to drive on through the massive open gates. She proceeded just as cautiously as before, gliding further down the winding road until it lead her to the administration section of the complex. She brought the car to a halt right in front of the entrance to the tallest building.

Gina reached into the back seat to get her briefcase and started to get out of the car, then thought for a moment and turned to Valerie. "Val, look, I just want to say..."

But then she couldn't say anything, because Valerie's soft lips were pressed against hers, and Valerie's soft hand rested against her cheek, and then there was that beautiful kiss she'd been waiting for all morning, and it lasted long enough that it didn't seem crazy to think they could stay that way forever.

Of course they couldn't, and they both knew it, so they parted reluctantly after several seconds and looked each other in the eye, smiling. "I love you," Gina said softly.

Valerie smirked. "I know," she said mischievously.

Gina giggled. "Geek girl."

"Go build stuff. I'll see you tonight."

"Okay." This time Gina got out of the car and watched from the sidewalk in front of Main Admin as Valerie drove off. She waited until the car was out of sight before turning and walking into the building.

The Main Administration Building housed offices for all the Advanced Defense Program division officials, project managers and Lead Engineers. Lead Engineer on her project, Gina had already decided not to visit her own office before going to the lab. Everyone else should be there already.

There was another security checkpoint to go through first. Just inside the door was a set of millimeter wave scanners manned by more security guards. The scanners projected a three-dimensional image of your naked body - and anything else that might not be allowed - to an attached monitor. Gina swiped her ID card in a reader, handed her briefcase to a guard, took a deep breath and stepped in front of the device. Halfway through the scan she wondered how often her image ended up on the internet somewhere, then she consoled herself by thinking that Valerie's few scans were likely more popular.

Fully cleared, she retrieved her briefcase and made her way out of the lobby, down one of the main halls and out the rear exit that led to the Motor Pool, a covered garage that housed a fleet of covered golf carts and small buses. Someone was standing next to a running cart when Gina entered. It was a young, dark-haired, pretty girl who grinned and waved, calling out, "Doctor Sexton!"

Gina smiled back as she approached. "Hey, Brittany!"

Brittany Reed, Senior Research Assistant on Gina's project, stopped waving when she had Gina's attention, but the cheery smile remained plastered on her face. "How was your morning off?"

"Short," Gina said as she handed Brittany her case. "I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do."

The eternal smile faded just long enough for Brittany to express her sympathy. "That's too bad." A shrug, new smile. "Well, maybe it just wasn't meant to be." She put the briefcase in the back of the running cart. "Maybe the powers that be think what you do right here is more important."

"Oh, yes," Gina deadpanned, "those powers that be and their kooky priorities."

Brittany giggled. "You're funny, Doctor Sexton!"

"I'm here all week..." Gina muttered. She got into the passenger seat of the cart while Brittany got into the driver's seat. Gina couldn't help but glance at Brittany, a slim girl with a penchant for tight sweaters and skinny jeans. For a fleeting moment, as Brittany settled in, Gina's mind's eye was filled with an image of the girl's naked legs, open and waiting for the engineer's approaching hand. Gina shut her eyes on impact and squinted.

"Are you okay, Doctor Sexton?" Brittany said.

"My eyes are a little sore," Gina said. "Got up too early. You can go ahead." Thanks for putting the idea in my head, Val!

Gina didn't see Brittany shrug because she didn't open her eyes again until she felt the cart move. She silently thanked the security protocols that required project personnel not to speak while in the open air (someone was afraid of satellite footage being sent to a good lip reader), so she couldn't say anything else stupid until they were inside the lab. The trip only took a few minutes. Brittany parked the cart in a lot behind Hangar 18. Locating the lab here was supposed to add one more bit of security to the package. Anyone who saw engineers entering or leaving was meant to assume that an aircraft was being worked on.

Inside, a two-tier multipurpose lab had been constructed to serve as a final integration and evaluation facility. The upper level of the lab was a catwalk that ringed the hangar just above the upper edge of the main doors and contained a horde of computer workstations for the engineers to use. The lower level was the evaluation floor. Ringed by servers, sensors and video cameras it was mostly empty save for a large, white, metal box that dominated the center. On the floor surrounding the box were various marks that indicated milestones in the evaluation program.

Gina headed straight for the stairs to the upper level as soon as she entered the hangar. Brittany trailed behind her carrying her briefcase. As an afterthought, Gina took off her coat and handed that to Brittany as well, prompting the girl to head back downstairs to the locker room in the crew rest section of the hangar. Gina continued around the catwalk until she saw the people she was looking for and they saw her. Along the way, she noted that all the workstations were up and running.

"There she is!" Dwayne Powers called out. He was sitting at the Main Systems Integration workstation flanked by two others, a man and a woman. "How was your morning off?"

"I wish I was important enough to rate a Sunday morning off," complained the woman, Jenny Booth. "I've worked so many hours the past few weeks that Mrs. Precious Pants hardly recognizes me when I come home. Sometimes she won't even jump on my lap."

"The missus told me that if I didn't start coming home nights she'd leave me for her tennis instructor," the other man, Lenny Bachman, cracked.

Gina stopped short at the workstation and looked at him. "There's a lot of that going around…" she said.

Dwayne seized on the quip. "Am I detecting trouble in paradise, boss lady?"

"It was never paradise, Dwayne…but let's just say I feel all of your pain and I am highly motivated to get this fucking project over with." Just then Brittany came running up to Gina. She was now wearing a lab coat and holding one up for Gina to slip into. The others were in lab coats already. When she was all settled into the garment, Gina said, "Okay, old business."

Dwayne, the Mechanical Systems Specialist, began. "We think we finally figured out what was causing the shimmy in the upper right leg assembly."

Jenny, the Lead Programmer, continued. "We scanned the code for the control software and found several lines that create greater variations of movement than we originally expected. We can fix the problem here in the lab. I've already got my team working on it, but it will take the rest of the morning."

"Do you think you can finish before we have to run the high speed test?" Gina asked. "That's time-critical."

"I'm sure we'll have the code re-written, but running the preliminary diagnostic on the affected systems will eat into the program time."

Gina sighed. "Then just don't do the diagnostic. We'll just find out if the fix took the hard way. Next?"

Lenny, the Sensor Integration Specialist, spoke up next. "The problem with the sensor mount is a hardware one. It looks like we'll have to recalculate the tolerances of some of the parts in the steering mechanism. The ill-fitting ones are slowing the mechanism down and causing it to take longer to do a full sweep."

Gina squinted and pinched the bridge of her nose. Jenny took the opportunity to lodge a complaint. "Why are we even using a mechanically-steered sensor suite in the first place? We made all the sensors small enough to fit on the end of the mount easily. We could just put in a full electronically-steered array."

"The program office wanted us to go with the mechanical steering," Dwayne said, referring to the officers in charge of the Pentagon's side of the development program. "They figure the entire unit is complex enough as it is and are thinking that a less advanced sensor system will be easier to maintain in the field."

"Not to mention cheaper to install…" Lenny interjected.

"Not if the parts don't fit," Jenny told him. "It's not cheaper if it has to be redesigned, and a properly engineered electronic array would be just as easy to maintain as the mechanical one, if not easier."

Gina chuckled mirthlessly. "Oh, really? A 'properly engineered' array? Like a properly engineered Space Shuttle, which is so versatile and utilitarian that we can launch one a month and they'll save us money."

"Or like a properly engineered U-2 spy plane," Dwayne said, "which flies so high that the Russkies will never be able to shoot one down."

"Oh, and let's not forget properly engineered cruise liners like the Titanic," Lenny said, "which is so well-built that she would never sink, never I say, but especially not on her maiden voyage."

Jenny frowned. "Screw you all. I still think we need an electronic array."

"And thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us for this installment of 'Engineering Fairy Tales,'" Gina said. Brittany giggled again, prompting Gina to turn serious. "Look, they asked for a mechanical array, so let's give them one. Let's not complicate their lives or ours any further by redesigning the whole system at this stage of the game. So Lenny, I ask you, can you fix the problem before today's scheduled test?"

"With the amount time necessary for disassembly, machining and reintegration? Hmm, lemme think." He made a big show of thinking, then said, "Gotta say 'Not a chance in hell.'"

Gina threw up her hands. "Fine! We'll just add it to the FUBAR list." It had an official name, but Gina's word for it summed it up nicely, as it contained all the post-integration problems that had no quick-fixes. She sighed again. "Any new business?"

"We got the results back from yesterday's exercise," Dwayne said, "and it looks like the foot-pad material is wearing away faster than we expected. We have to find a way to reinforce it or find a new material…"

"…or just let the thing stand on bare metal," Gina said, "which causes a different set of problems."

"We haven't found the glitch in the targeting software yet," Jenny said apologetically.

Gina closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said, "I require coffee. Pools of it."

Brittany perked up immediately. "On it, boss." She turned and headed for the stairs.

"And food!" Gina called after. "My breakfast was a communion wafer."

Brittany turned her head. "I'll call the commissary. Turkey bacon and egg white on multi-grain bread, right?"

"You know what I like, Brittany."

Brittany smiled. "You know I do, Doctor Sexton!" She turned eyes-front and fairly fashion-model strutted off the catwalk.

Gina winced as she suddenly realized how porny that exchange sounded. I swear, Val, if I get fired for sexual misconduct I'm so blaming you. With that thought she turned back to the other scientists…who were all smiling. She pointed at them. "Don't you start. Dwayne, walk him out. I want to see him."

"You got it," Dwayne said, still smiling. Gina was already headed for the stairs, so he called up the command and control program on his console and activated the unit. One side of the metal box was swinging open as she descended and was fully open by the time she reached the safety circle painted around the box's perimeter.

Deep inside the darkened box and about ten feet off the ground a small red light – the visible side effect caused by the activated sensors – swung from side to side. Gina watched each transit carefully and huffed. Yeah, that's slower than it should be. She put that out of her mind as she heard the whirr/thunk of a heavy metal footstep. Three such footsteps later the ten-foot-tall, fully-articulated, humanoid endoframe the sensors were mounted in was standing across the safety line from Gina. Its head tilted forward to look down at her.

Gina looked up and smiled. "Good morning, Cy," she said.

An electronically masked monotone responded, "Good-Morning-Doctor-Sexton."

She smiled wider. Voice and pattern recognition programs are still working. "I hear you have a few more things wrong with you today, but we'll fix them, and eventually you'll be perfect…and you'll own this dinky little planet."

"You say that every morning!" Dwayne called down from the catwalk.

"I mean it every morning!" Gina called back. "Let's get to work."