Hello ya'll! This one was on repeat in my head so I thought I would see where it went.
AU from 'Sometimes a Great Notion'. Cross over with the Alpha Centauri game and we are going to pretend that there were humans on Earth (along with the Cylons) – pairings abound but will focus on Kara and her interaction with the people of Planet.
To clear up confusion before hand – I am writing as if all human factions are in existence (i.e. – 12 factions, no aliens).
A tear slipped down her cheek. Kara swiped it absently. It was crushing; standing on Earth…Earth the wasteland. It was worse after the euphoria, the joy of staring down at the beautifully blue planet, with dreams of bright shiny futures. Kara pressed a hand to her chest to ease the ache there. She felt her breath begin to grow labored and recognized the first signs of a panic attack. She closed her eyes, breathed deeply and remembered the sweaty encounter with Lee on the observation deck. At that moment, she had felt complete. Her purpose fulfilled.
The sense of completion was gone and she couldn't stand it. She needed something to keep her occupied and focused, something to give her purpose. She stumbled to the Raptor with the transponder in it and dug through the bag. It was still on and she seized the distraction, moving out of the Raptor quickly.
She set off in search of the transponder that led the human race here, unaware that Leoben had decided to follow her.
The heat on her face wasn't soothing in the way that fires on the beach are supposed to be. But then again, a lot of things weren't as they were supposed to be right now. She rested her head on her knees and pushed the urge to curl up and cry there on the sand down. She could feel Lee's gaze…well Lee and Sam's gaze and really could not deal with either of them right then. Two men that loved her, beyond reason and all good sense. She couldn't stand it, she couldn't take it right now and she wasn't sure she would ever be able to.
Everyone had their breaking point and she was good at finding them – pushing them and forcing the people who cared away. Look at Leoben…as soon as he saw the body - he was gone. She shook her head, stood and made her way past the two men, neither glancing at them nor acknowledging them.
Lee called her name but she just quickened her pace and made sure she was on a different Raptor than both he and Sam.
She lay, staring at the roof of her bunk. She had been still for hours. She could feel the stares of her fellow pilots and she had a feeling that they were giving her a lot of space. Lee had told her once that he could always tell how far from the edge she was by the look in her eyes, almost like a weather broadcast. Maybe the other pilots were catching on.
The ache in her chest was back, twice as bad now. She felt as if she had more to do and it was slowly driving her to the edge of sanity. It was like those first few confusing days back on Galactica again. Nothing made sense and her sense of time and space was distorted. Something was calling her, something so close, so near that her skin was vibrating with the need to be there and not here.
She could still smell Lee on her skin as she zipped up her flight suit. He had come to her during her sleep shift, interrupted her staring contest with the bunk roof. She'd heard about Dee in the whispers of the other pilots and wasn't really surprised that he sought some comfort with her. That was how it always was with them – one was hurting, the other would soothe. She guessed had just been her turn.
Those three hours were ingrained in her head now. She felt it – like a touchstone of strength through the obstacles to come. Lee had been her key – he'd helped her unlock what her next step was and she felt steadier for it.
45 minutes ago
She and Lee laid together, still connected. They both were slick with sweat and she could feel his silent sobs against her chest. She felt his tears on her throat and hers mixed with his hair. She ran her fingers through it, needing the tactile memory, the anchor. Always there, even when she didn't realize it – Lee was the thing that kept her sane and in this world.
She had a feeling he was the reason she came back in the first place. She kissed his temple, running her hands down his back. Between one instant and the next, she felt it, the shift of realization. She had to go and he couldn't come with her…again. It wasn't fair – he never got to come along.
Kara hated that she was going to do this to him, abandon him again. But she had to, for all of them. She breathed against his ear, "I have more to do."
He nodded and spoke softly, "You're leaving again."
She noticed that there was no objection, no recrimination in his voice. He accepted and believed that she needed to do whatever it turned out to be. She gripped his hair and used it to turn his head, staring into his eyes, "Kara Thrace loves Lee Adama."
He kissed her hard, as if in reward, "Lee Adama loves Kara Thrace." He eyed her face closely, "I can't come with you, can I?"
She shook her head, "You need to be here, I need to be there. We will see each other again, eventually."
He quirked his lip, "It never is the right time for us, is it?"
He watched as a shadow of the 'Starbuck grin' ghosted across her face, "One way or another, we will have our time."
Somehow, she was stuck with Raptor duty. Instead of being pissed, it seemed to suit whatever her direction was. She needed that Raptor and its jump drive. It probably scared the frak out of the Laird that she wasn't tearing his head off, but that was immaterial right now.
Her senses almost seemed to place her above the strange feeling on the deck. Everyone walked around in a daze, like the worlds had been obliterated again. Maybe, for them, they had been. Her eyes flicked around the utterly familiar deck, no longer feeling so lost. Every step she took toward her mysterious destination cleared the fog from mind and the apathy from her movements.
She needed to get into open space or at least into the damn thing without an ECO in the fat bird with her.
The Gods must love her. Confusion, apathy, and incompetence of the Deck staff combined to get her into a Raptor without an ECO. Numbers were streaming through her head and she was inputting them as quickly as she could comprehend them. Ignoring the hails of the Viper pilots around her she put in the last few calculations and glanced up through the window. The whole fleet was suspended in the void of space. Her gaze shifted to gaze at the planet that was supposed to be their promised land. From here, it was perfect and pristine. It looked like home.
A shudder racked her body – and she felt the knowledge that home was close, very close. All she needed to do was get there. She was tempted to say something – let the Old Man or Roslin know, but they wouldn't believe her.
She could feel it through previous conversations - the absolute trust was gone. Not that Roslin ever really trusted her, but the Admiral had. Her eyes stung and she took a shuddering breath – he had until this.
They were not ready to go where she was going, but she would see them all again - even Roslin. The tough old broad would live long enough to see…whatever she was going to see.
She leaned back and closed her eyes, pushing the jump button blind. The pull in her belly told her when it happened and when she opened her eyes she was looking at another planet, this one also blue and green and brown. She felt herself frown, she noticed a scattering of pink too. That was…different.
Madif Caldi hated the night shift in the observatory. It was busy work more than anything, but everyone had to pull one a month so he dealt with it. It could be worse, he could be stuck working closer to the war zone. Then again, the war wasn't going so well for the Spartans.
News of the recent Gaian victory over the combined Spartan/Hive force had bolstered his Lady's alliance with Svensgaard and Aki-Zeta significantly. He yawned widely, jaw popping. He shook his head; politics weren't his thing…let Lady Deidre deal with it. She was damn good at it.
A warning beep jerked him awake only moments after closing his eyes. He blinked blurrily to clear his vision and stared at the screen, perplexed. It looked like an orbital transmitter, about the same size…but that was right. This appeared out of nowhere and was not on any manifests (public or covert) that the computer recognized.
He yanked a wall transmitter to his mouth, "Get me someone with level six classified clearance. I need a look at intelligence on the newest enemy satellites. We have an unidentified bogie on radar." He hung up after receiving an affirmative.
"Retrieve it, now. I want not one of the other faction leaders to know of this before I am ready for them to." Deidre held a high-resolution scan of the object, a ship of an unknown configuration, taken only 54 minutes ago.
A well-manicured finger tapped the glass of her desk thoughtfully. "It has made no aggressive moves? No signal, nothing?"
"No Lady, nothing. It's just sitting there." Madif rubbed the back of his neck absently, "Prelim scans show a material we've never seen and none of our scanning technology can penetrate it. We've tried targeting the window with marginal success, there might be someone in there - we aren't sure."
She quirked an eyebrow at him and glanced at her assistant, Lindly, "Get it down. Raise Aki-Zeta and Svensgaard on the holo communicator. And make sure this doesn't get beyond we five on this base."
Lindly nods, "As the Lady wishes."
Deidre watched, fascinated as this odd ship was taxied into the secure landing bay. "I want every part of that ship analyzed." She paused and tilted her head, "Make sure that everything stays working though – it probably contains technology that is new to us."
The affirmative answer was murmured quietly, followed by retreating footsteps.
Her gaze sharpened as the hatch of the ship opened. A figure stepped out, hands in the air. She felt her lip quirk, smart move on their part.
"Lindly, I want them examined, thoroughly."
"Yes Lady."
Kara couldn't stopped her awed gaze from traveling over everything it caught. From the rifles and armor the marines had, to the structures she managed to see on her way here. She was pretty sure the scanner they put her in would make Cottle drool. They didn't even make her take off her flight suit during the scan.
She wasn't sure what she was expecting from the rest of their tests, maybe some needles and other assorted poking but all they did was the scan, then stuck her in a room with a view of the sky. She lay on the floor, staring at the blue tinted with a vague pink. The sun was clearly visible and she could feel the warmth through the glass.
Not bad digs.
"Lady, a full scan has been completed. Mild mineral and vitamin deficiencies, a few old broken bones, some chemical imbalances – probably caused by prolonged lack of vitamin D. She's also about a week pregnant." The tech paused, looking indecisive.
"What else Dr. McPhie?"
"I would have to do more detailed scans, a full work up on her genome…but I am nearly certain she is a transcend. Naturally occurring."
Deidre blinked with surprise, "No evidence of genetic engineering?"
"No lady and no evidence of selective breeding either."
Deidre couldn't help the shock that was traveling through her body. This was…it was supposed to be impossible. Transcends, those with the DNA that opens the gate for super human intelligence and strength, did not occur naturally. Only after hundreds of years of genetic manipulation and carefully monitored selective breeding programs had the allied factions been able to begin producing transcends.
"What about the child?"
"It's too early to safely scan the child. However…a naturally occurring Transcend for a mother? There is a good chance that it will develop along those lines as well."
She eyed the doctor critically, "Doctor, if you speak a word of this to anyone – including your wife, you will face severe consequences. Understood?"
He swallowed nervously, "Yes Lady." He cleared his throat, "I have prescribed her a vitamin regiment that should bring her levels back to normal and support optimal fetal growth."
"And…?"
"Well, what are we supposed to do if she doesn't want to take them? Should we slip them to her or force…"
Deidre shook her head, "Try to get her to take them willingly – but no subterfuge. I want her absolute trust. She is too valuable to piss off."
"As far as I can tell, she is speaking a variant of ancient Greek. I'm not linguist and I barely remember my classics from grammar school so I can't be positive, but it sounds about right." Annalee shrugged, "I can recommend a few people that would be more capable of figuring out how to communicate with her. Most of them are researchers up at Uni Base."
"Hm, I have a feeling that Zakharov is going to make my life interesting over this little favor."
Annalee shrugged, "The woman I am thinking of calling up is half Gaian, one of the security officers stationed at Uni Base after you and the Academician signed your pact. She probably would be happy to come."
Deidre quirked an eyebrow at her, "Who is it?"
"Dr. Irene Fedotov – she's young but she knows her ancient languages. She also has a couple of degrees in psychology and sociology. Might be useful for learning about the woman's culture. Since we are hoping that there are more of them…we are hoping for that right?"
Deidre mentally rubbed her head and sighed in exasperation (It -would- be Fedotov), but outwardly just nodded, "Unquestionably. New blood in our faction is badly needed."
Being babbled at by several different people didn't make her the happiest camper in the world, but she got the general impression they weren't going to execute her anytime soon. And they had real food. Fresh fruits and vegetables, and MEAT. Kara was almost positive that this was Elysium. They fed her until she groaned and then they brought in ice cream.
Kara wasn't sure how, but as soon as she caught sight of it – her stomach made room. She gobbled down two bowls of it before she finally was so full she couldn't move. She breathed lustily, patted her full stomach and went back to gazing up at the sky. Dusk was falling and it cast interesting colors across the sky – everything tinged pink and orange. She liked it though – it was awkward and unique and wonderful.
"Damn Lee would love this."
She heard the automatic door slide open again and a man, dressed like the one that had stuck her in the strange scanner walked in. He held up what looked like a prescription bottle and shook it for her. Then, in slow motions, she presumed to make sure she saw everything, shook a pill out and swallowed it himself. He then offered it to her.
She quirked an eyebrow at him and shook her head, no way was she taking anything – not until someone could tell her what it was.
I love the game – you all should go out and buy it. Any questions about it – ask me, I can clear up confusion.
I hope you enjoyed – please let me know what you think!
