Day Four

They formed a mutual agreement in the morning. Sam admitted he was sorry and unreasonable, but River still refused to go back to Galactica. There was a tense moment where Sam nearly put in the last known coordinates to their parent ship and jumped back to them, but he decided against it. What could they do? Warn them, if it wasn't already too late? Besides, they were nearly at Caprica, Sam could see its suns through the window in the distance.

He blinked.

"Oh god."

River was untangling her hair from her ponytail when he stood from his station and moved to the windshield, staring out into space with his mouth open. She glanced over her shoulder, her eyebrows quirking downward briefly.

"Sam?"

"Caprica's on fire," he breathed. "The entire planet… it's on fire."

"What?" River's ponytail was halfway out of her hair when she abandoned it and rushed to his side, placing her hand against the center of his back. Her other hand flew to her mouth. "Gods."

"The Cylons are nuking the planet."

She didn't stay next to him for long though, some part of her training must have kicked in because she spun around, heading toward his console, leaving behind the distinct feeling that she was forgetting something.

"Sam, what are our exact coordinates?" He didn't answer; he was still staring out at Caprica, watching it burn. River looked at him sharply and slammed her hand against the console. "Sam!"

"We should go down there and help," he said instead. River shook her head.

"We'll rendezvous back with the fleet, and don't think this means you won, you haven't-"

"River, those people—"

"We can't help them if we're dead!" interrupted River. "Those Cylon baseships were headed to the other colonies. We have to jump back to Galactica, now."

Sam shook his head in affirmation numbly, but made no other movement. River gave him a long look.

"Genocide is a different experience when you can only watch it happen, isn't it?" She locked in a jump to take them back in the direction of Galactica and counted down in her head, moving back to stand beside Sam, placing one hand on his back to keep him steady.

One Infinity. Two Infinity. Three Mississippi. Jump.

Sam stayed silent and River let him. She knew him (somehow), knew how he felt about leaving all those people behind, people he could have saved, maybe even people he had saved once. He would need time to come back to himself. She left him standing by the window, muttering that if he was going to be comatose there he might as well take first watch.

She eased herself into the cot and immediately closed her eyes; she concentrated on the still rocking feeling in her insides from the jump to fall asleep.

"It's only the beginning, isn't it?" River kept her eyes closed when he spoke, even though he was looking straight at her. She sighed into the mattress.

"Yes. And no power in the 'verse will stop them."