They practically ran to CIC, with Gaeta running ahead a few paces. With a lack of explanation and the worried look they received it seemed the logical thing to do.
Damn, Bill thought as he ran through the corridors toward CIC, they'd been so close to kissing again, and that would have been rather nice, it wouldn't have taken much to… he cut himself off as he reached CIC. There was a gaggle of reporters standing around.
"Sir, the press had been broadcasting a rather..." Gaeta stopped, as many faces in CIC strained to keep from laughing, the exception was Dee, who was kicking over anything she could and throwing the small models of vipers, raptors and Galactica at the amused reporters.
"You sick twisted morons!" Dee hissed at the reporters as she hurled yet another small raptor at their heads.
"We getting all this?" One reporter asked her silent cameraman, who nodded happily, "Terrific sequel material…" the reporter trailed of dreamily, an expression of press-ecstasy on her face.
"You frakking perverts!" Dee hurled a large box at them as well; she moved forward, "You have the nerve to ask me what I thought about the ritual when you knew
my husband frakked another woman in it! Well I'll tell you what I think! No frakking comment!"
And with that Dee stomped off out of the room with the sound of sobs following her out the door.
Bill looked around confused, "Mr. Gaeta, what the hell is going on?"
"Sir, the press took a video recording of the ritual, their airing it now, broadcasting through the entire fleet…Dee found out and the press have been all over her since." The camera was pointed at Bill's face awaiting his reply.
"What? But I…"
"You never listen do you?" Laura Roslin asked the reporters.
"You better see this," Mr. Gaeta adjusted a screen to show a shot of a reporter talking, "It gets worse…"
Bill watched as the reporter blabbed on about the ritual, and the screen changed, Bill realized that someone had managed to get footage of the ritual. He looked away immediately. Laura on the other hand gazed a moment longer.
"Good grief I look possessed!" Laura practically cried.
"Turn it off!" Bill said clearly, "Now, which one of you idiots took this footage?'
The press waited for him to say something else, and when he didn't they all filed out of the room quickly, heading for the hangar bay.
"Wait, the press conference will take place on Colonial One, where we will discuss this issue with religious delegates, and the celebrants, we must resolve this." She yelled after them.
"Laura?"
"It's too late Bill, no one is going to admit to recording it…and it will take too long to track them down, we need to make statements now."
And with that any hope of a quiet night for two vanished, and Bill grinded his teeth all the way to Colonial One.
The reporters were seated with a bunch of menacing and seemingly growling priests and oracles. The two groups seemed completely segregated. They were even leering at each other.
Laura emerged first. Kara and Lee sat nervously in the president's office, holding hands. Bill noticed that the amulets were still tightly fastened on their wrists, how do you get those things off? Bill wondered. As the buzzing noises escalated from the other room, Kara moved herself onto Lee's lap. Bill concentrated on his breathing, damn. He'd never been good at this. Bill allowed himself to glance over; they were now sucking the lips off each other, not tender kisses either; it looked like they were revving up to repeat the damn ritual. Didn't they realize that he was here? What was he invisible?
"There has been quite enough of that tonight." Bill hissed in their direction, "Cut it out!"
"We have to sweat to get the amulets off." Lee explained sheepishly.
"And you didn't do enough of that before?"
"Apparently not." Kara smiled wickedly and resumed kissing Lee.
"Honored members of religious orders and the press, I am here to make a statement regarding the ritual and the following fiasco. The ritual was not supposed to be recorded and that is a grave error on the part of some unfortunate person who once discovered, will likely be spending a fair bit of time getting to know Galactica's brig."
"Madam President," one of the priests interjected, "We wish to meet the life-giver, without the presence of the press."
"It will be arranged," Laura, continued calmly, "Again, I say the recording has no official sanction. On a brighter note, the ceremony went well, and I can say that we are again re-aligning our star charts and are a lot closer to earth than we last thought. Algae processing is going as well as can be expected and there seem to be no problems for the short term of the fleet. I ask for a publicly broadcasted apology from the press, I have a suggested itinerary being prepared by Tory as we speak."
"Is conception of children encouraged at this time?" one of the priests queried.
"Yes, I suppose it is, next question." Laura gave an impatient response.
"Should we have the ritual made into a documentary?" One foolish reporter shouted.
"No, it's a religious ritual, not appropriate."
"When do we find Earth?"
"We wished to have our people blessed by the life-giver!" The Geminese delegate said clearly, "She and the consort must come to the Geminon Traveler to bless us, the scrolls clearly tell us that those who take part are blessed by the Gods!"
Kara and Lee were now multitasking, making out while listening to the chatter through the curtains. At this moment, Kara slipped out of Lee's grasp and through the doorway, stumbling into the room. The pressed jumped up asking questions that couldn't be heard over their own shouting. The priests bowed down in front of her.
Kara smiled nervously as Laura gently nudged her toward the priests who reached out to touch her reverently.
Bill looked out, and grabbing Lee by the arm, hauled him out to stand beside Kara. As Kara sheepishly shook hands with the religious orders, they shook Lee's hand as well.
The press was intelligently filming this spectacle and formulating questions, judging by the calculating expressions they were all wearing.
Suddenly the most haggard looking oracle grabbed a startled Kara around the middle screeching, "The children of the ritual life-giver will be twice blessed by the Gods!" Proceeding to kiss the dumbfounded Kara's stomach and throw herself down on the floor in front of her. Kara began to laugh hysterically, actually slipping on the floor and caught by a number of happily frantic Geminese and other religious fanatics.
"Someone had a little too much kamala today." Roslin whispered to Bill.
"Uh, help, please." Kara said, not sounding at all like her brass self, "Oww, don't touch my back it's still scraped…you'll wipe the salve off…oh don't do that…"
Lee managed to pry Kara away from their clutches, whispered in her ear, and they both ran off to the small landing bay were the raptor they arrived in was waiting.
Lee called out behind him, "Sorry, got to get these amulets off…"
Bill rolled his eyes, as the press continued to push for information and right to whatever… It was going to be a long night
Note: Not over yet…more chapters coming!